Emacs core TLS support

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:37:42 +0200 Simon Josefsson <simon at josefsson.org> wrote: 

SJ> Ted Zlatanov <tzz at lifelogs.com> writes:
>> +(defconst gnutls-version "0.3.1")
>> +                               "/tmp/ca.pem"

SJ> This should be removed.

Done.

>> +         (priority-string (or priority-string
>> +                              (cond
>> +                               ((eq credentials 'gnutls-anon)
>> +                                "PERFORMANCE:+ANON-DH:!ARCFOUR-128")
>> +                               ((eq credentials 'gnutls-x509pki)
>> +                                "PERFORMANCE"))))

SJ> I think NORMAL should be used instead of PERFORMANCE here.

Done.

>> +(defun open-ssl-stream (name buffer host service)
>> +  "Open a SSL connection for a service to a host.

SJ> I suggest using 'TLS' or possibly 'SSL/TLS' consistently in
SJ> documentation.  

OK, but let's get the code working first.

SJ> Is 'open-ssl-stream' for backwards compatibility?  Otherwise I
SJ> suggest 'open-tls-stream'.

Yes, it's trying to be compatible.  I'd rather get rid of the
compatibility but we'll see.

>> +;; (open-ssl-stream "tls" "tls-buffer" "yourserver.com" "https")

SJ> Looks like debug code that should be removed?

Please let it be for now.  It's useful for quick testing.

>> +PRIORITY-STRING is as per the GnuTLS docs.

SJ> Maybe there could be an info hyperlink here?

Sorry, you mean to the GnuTLS webserver?  I don't know if that's
necessary.

>> +    (gnutls-message-maybe
>> +     (setq ret (gnutls-boot proc priority-string credentials credentials-file))
>> +     "boot: %s")

SJ> How much debug code do we want to retain?  I'm not sure.

For now, as much as possible.  We can always turn it down later.

>> +DEFUN ("gnutls-global-init", Fgnutls_global_init,
>> +       Sgnutls_global_init, 0, 0, 0,
>> +       doc: /* Initializes global GNU TLS state to defaults.
>> +Call `gnutls-global-deinit' when GNU TLS usage is no longer needed.
>> +Returns zero on success.  */)
SJ> ...
>> +DEFUN ("gnutls-global-deinit", Fgnutls_global_deinit,
>> +       Sgnutls_global_deinit, 0, 0, 0,
>> +       doc: /* Deinitializes global GNU TLS state.
>> +See also `gnutls-global-init'.  */)

SJ> I think this shouldn't be exposed to Elisp, Emacs startup code could
SJ> initialize GnuTLS directly.

OK, done.

>> +DEFUN ("gnutls-boot", Fgnutls_boot, Sgnutls_boot, 3, 6, 0,
>> +       doc: /* Initializes client-mode GnuTLS for process PROC.
>> +Currently only client mode is supported.  Returns a success/failure
>> +value you can check with `gnutls-errorp'.
>> +
>> +PRIORITY_STRING is a string describing the priority.
>> +TYPE is either `gnutls-anon' or `gnutls-x509pki'.
>> +TRUSTFILE is a PEM encoded trust file for `gnutls-x509pki'.
>> +KEYFILE is ... for `gnutls-x509pki' (TODO).
>> +CALLBACK is ... for `gnutls-x509pki' (TODO).

SJ> Two comments here: 1) The name is a bit generic..?

Well, "init" is taken and I have a small vocabulary :)

SJ> 2) The design makes it a bit difficult to support multiple
SJ> credentials.  The GnuTLS API allows clients to have several
SJ> credentials (X.509, OpenPGP, etc).  Perhaps copying the GnuTLS API
SJ> further is more flexible.

I thought of making it more flexible but I really want to get the basic
case working.  As I mentioned earlier I think GnuTLS should consider
further extending the idea of priority strings to a full configuration
(credentials especially) in a single string or file.  That would make
using it so much easier from Emacs Lisp.

I tried to figure out the TLS handshake problem but it has stumped me.
It's taken me many hours and I still don't know what I'm missing so, as
I mentioned in my other message, I've checked in my current state to let
others take a look.  If you or other GnuTLS developers can help, it
would be greatly appreciated.  Once the handshake works I will work on
the other improvements you mentioned and on getting the GnuTLS support
into Gnus and other parts of Emacs.

Thanks
Ted