SIGNER(8)                                               SIGNER(8)

     NAME
          signer, verify, countersigner - set-top box authentication

     SYNOPSIS
          auth/signer

          auth/verify set-top-box-id

          auth/countersigner

     DESCRIPTION
          Signer and countersigner listen for requests on the service
          ports infsigner and infcsigner, respectively.  They are typ-
          ically run via svc(8) on a machine acting as authentication
          server for a network.  Verify is invoked on the same server,
          after signer but before countersigner, following an indepen-
          dent check of a caller's credentials.

          Signer constructs an authentication certificate from the
          signer's key (in /keydb/signerkey) and information from the
          requesting client, including the set top box ID.  The
          signer's key can be created using createsignerkey(8), but if
          the key does not yet exist, signer creates and initialises
          /keydb/signerkey itself, with an owner name of `*'.

          Signer `blinds' the certificate by XOR-ing it with a random
          bit mask, then sends the result to the requesting client.
          The client machine's user uses that information to establish
          identity with a human agent on the signing machine.  Signer
          also saves the both the `blinded' and `unblinded' result
          from the input in /keydb/signed/set-top-box-id for verify
          (see below).

          Verify is run on the signing server by the agency running
          the authentication server, in response to a call from a
          remote user who has invoked register(8) or an equivalent.
          Verify checks a caller's identity using information from the
          file /keydb/signed/set-top-box-id created by signer. The
          file contains the previously crafted authentication certifi-
          cate and the `blinded' version of the certificate that was
          sent to the requesting client.

          Verify displays the `blinded' version textually or graphi-
          cally, as appropriate, so that it can be compared to that
          reported by the set-top-box owner over a secure independent
          mechanism (for example, telephone). If the operator of
          verify is convinced of the identity of the caller, the oper-
          ator should accept when prompted by verify. Verify then
          writes the authentication certificate to
          /keydb/countersigned/set-top-box-id, as input for

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     SIGNER(8)                                               SIGNER(8)

          countersigner (see signer(8)).

          Note: if the operator of verify accepts the identity, the
          set-top-box owner should be requested to answer `yes' to the
          prompt displayed by register(8). The order of
          acceptance-first on the signer, then on the client-is essen-
          tial, to produce the countersigned certificate before invok-
          ing countersigner to read it.

          Countersigner sends the blinding data in
          /keydb/countersigned/set-top-box-id to the requesting
          client.

     FILES
          /keydb/signerkey                     Secret key of the
                                               `signer' host.
          /keydb/signed/set-top-box-id         Repository of `blinded'
                                               and clear certificates.
          /keydb/countersigned/set-top-box-id  Repository of
                                               `unblinded' certifi-
                                               cates.

     SOURCE
          /appl/cmd/auth/signer.b
          /appl/cmd/auth/verify.b
          /appl/cmd/auth/countersigner.b

     SEE ALSO
          createsignerkey(8), register(8), svc(8)

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