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| -rw-r--r-- | www/text.causal.agency/011-libretls.7 | 220 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | www/text.causal.agency/Makefile | 1 |
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diff --git a/www/text.causal.agency/011-libretls.7 b/www/text.causal.agency/011-libretls.7 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c29c325e --- /dev/null +++ b/www/text.causal.agency/011-libretls.7 @@ -0,0 +1,220 @@ +.Dd August 9, 2020 +.Dt LIBRETLS 7 +.Os "Causal Agency" +. +.Sh NAME +.Nm LibreTLS +.Nd libtls for OpenSSL +. +.Sh DESCRIPTION +This is a sort of announcement post about LibreTLS, +my port of libtls from LibreSSL to OpenSSL. +If you've wanted to try any of my software +but have been unable to because of LibreSSL, +LibreTLS is an option that will likely work for you. +I'm including instructions +for building it and my IRC software +on Debian as an example, +since manually installing libraries +is less straightforward than it could be. +. +.Pp +libtls is +.Do +a new TLS library, +designed to make it easier to write foolproof applications +.Dc . +It was developed as part of LibreSSL, +.Ox Ap s +fork of OpenSSL, +and is implemented against their version of libssl. +It provides a nice high-level API +for TLS sockets, +with functions like +.Xr tls_connect 3 , +.Xr tls_read 3 +and +.Xr tls_write 3 . +This is a vast improvement over libssl's +confusing mess of an API! +Its relative obscurity is a real shame +for C programmers. +. +.Pp +An obvious cause of its obscurity +is that it is tied to LibreSSL. +Although LibreSSL is available +for platforms other than +.Ox , +it conflicts with OpenSSL +so is difficult to install alongside it +and is often not packaged at all. +Additionally, +even if a user manually installs LibreSSL, +libtls is likely not to work on some distros +due to its hardcoded CA bundle file path. +. +.Pp +Since libtls is implemented against libssl, +which originates in OpenSSL, +it should be possible to use libtls with it. +This is what I set out to do in LibreTLS. +I started by importing the sources +from a LibreSSL-portable release, +then worked on porting the portions +that were incompatible with OpenSSL. +. +.Pp +The simpler changes just involved +replacing internal struct field accesses +with public APIs. +libtls accesses libssl internals +using a hack to get the header files +to declare private struct fields, +and for basically no reason. +The bigger changes involved +reimplementing some functions +which only exist in LibreSSL, +but these were still quite small. +I also imported the necessary compatibility functions +from LibreSSL's libcrypto +and adapated the autotools build files +to produce only a libtls +which depends on OpenSSL. +. +.Pp +Along the way +I decided to make one small behavioural change +in order for LibreTLS to be more likely +to work for everyone. +I removed the hardcoded CA file path +and changed the default configuration +to use OpenSSL's default CA paths, +which include a CA directory. +This seems to be the preferred CA source +on systems such as Debian, +where the default CA file path doesn't exist. +. +.Pp +I think the reason LibreSSL +wants to avoid using a CA directory +is so that it can fully load the CA file +once before being sandboxed. +However, +using OpenSSL's default configuration, +the CA file will still be loaded immediately +if it exists. +If it doesn't exist, +sandboxed applications +will fail when trying to +load certificates from the directory, +but unsandboxed applications +will work just fine. +Since LibreSSL's libtls +would fail either way, +I think the new behaviour +is an improvement. +. +.Pp +Another advantage of separating libtls from LibreSSL +is that it is unencumbered by OpenSSL's +awkward double-license, +both of which are incompatible with the GPL. +libtls is all new ISC-licensed code, +and future versions of OpenSSL (3.0) +will be released under the Apache 2.0 license, +which is compatible with GPLv3. +In the future, +GPL software will be able to link with +libtls and OpenSSL without additional permissions. +. +.Pp +It's also worth noting that LibreSSL +likely will not be able to import any code +from future versions of OpenSSL, +since Apache 2.0 is on +.Ox Ap s +license shitlist. +LLVM is also slowly changing their license +to Apache 2.0, +so it'll be interesting to see what +.Ox +does. +. +.Ss Installing Manually +To install LibreTLS on Debian, +for example, +fetch a release tarball from +.Lk https://causal.agency/libretls/ +and install the build dependencies: +.Bd -literal -offset indent +sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev pkgconf +.Ed +. +.Pp +.Xr pkgconf 1 +isn't a dependency of LibreTLS itself, +but it's how my software +configures its build +for a dependency on libtls. +The usual build steps +will install the library: +.Bd -literal -offset indent +\&./configure +make all +sudo make install +.Ed +. +.Pp +The library will be installed in +.Pa /usr/local/lib +by default, +and you need to make sure +the dynamic linker +will be able to find it there. +On Debian, +.Pa /usr/local/lib +already appears in +.Pa /etc/ld.so.conf.d/libc.conf , +but on other systems +you'll probably need to add it to either +.Pa /etc/ld.so.conf +or a new file such as +.Pa /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf . +Once the library is installed +and the path is configured, +the linker cache needs to be refreshed: +.Bd -literal -offset indent +sudo ldconfig +.Ed +. +.Pp +You'll probably also need to set +.Ev PKG_CONFIG_PATH +for the configure scripts +of my software: +.Bd -literal -offset indent +PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig ./configure +.Ed +. +.Pp +On +.Fx , +LibreTLS and some of my IRC software +can be installed from my own +.Lk https://git.causal.agency/ports/ "ports tree" +. +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Bl -item -compact +.It +.Lk https://git.causal.agency/libretls/about LibreTLS +.It +.Lk https://man.openbsd.org/tls_init.3 "libtls API documentation" +.El +. +.Pp +Another alternative libtls implementation, +.Lk https://sr.ht/~mcf/libtls-bearssl/ "libtls-bearssl" +. +.Sh AUTHORS +.An June Bug Aq Mt june@causal.agency diff --git a/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile b/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile index c1b79645..b86dee95 100644 --- a/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile +++ b/www/text.causal.agency/Makefile @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ TXTS += 007-cgit-setup.txt TXTS += 008-how-irc.txt TXTS += 009-casual-update.txt TXTS += 010-irc-suite.txt +TXTS += 011-libretls.txt all: ${TXTS} |