• M
    block: Deprecate QCOW/QCOW2 encryption · a1f688f4
    Markus Armbruster 提交于
    We've steered users away from QCOW/QCOW2 encryption for a while,
    because it's a flawed design (commit 136cd19d Describe flaws in
    qcow/qcow2 encryption in the docs).
    
    In addition to flawed crypto, we have comically bad usability, and
    plain old bugs.  Let me show you.
    
    = Example images =
    
    I'm going to use a raw image as backing file, and two QCOW2 images,
    one encrypted, and one not:
    
        $ qemu-img create -f raw backing.img 4m
        Formatting 'backing.img', fmt=raw size=4194304
        $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o encryption,backing_file=backing.img,backing_fmt=raw geheim.qcow2 4m
        Formatting 'geheim.qcow2', fmt=qcow2 size=4194304 backing_file='backing.img' backing_fmt='raw' encryption=on cluster_size=65536 lazy_refcounts=off
        $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o backing_file=backing.img,backing_fmt=raw normal.qcow2 4m
        Formatting 'normal.qcow2', fmt=qcow2 size=4194304 backing_file='backing.img' backing_fmt='raw' encryption=off cluster_size=65536 lazy_refcounts=off
    
    = Usability issues =
    
    == Confusing startup ==
    
    When no image is encrypted, and you don't give -S, QEMU starts the
    guest immediately:
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -monitor stdio normal.qcow2
        QEMU 2.2.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
        (qemu) info status
        VM status: running
    
    But as soon as there's an encrypted image in play, the guest is *not*
    started, with no notification whatsoever:
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -monitor stdio geheim.qcow2
        QEMU 2.2.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
        (qemu) info status
        VM status: paused (prelaunch)
    
    If the user figured out that he needs to type "cont" to enter his
    keys, the confusion enters the next level: "cont" asks for at most
    *one* key.  If more are needed, it then silently does nothing.  The
    user has to type "cont" once per encrypted image:
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -monitor stdio -drive if=none,file=geheim.qcow2 -drive if=none,file=geheim.qcow2
        QEMU 2.2.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
        (qemu) info status
        VM status: paused (prelaunch)
        (qemu) c
        none0 (geheim.qcow2) is encrypted.
        Password: ******
        (qemu) info status
        VM status: paused (prelaunch)
        (qemu) c
        none1 (geheim.qcow2) is encrypted.
        Password: ******
        (qemu) info status
        VM status: running
    
    == Incorrect passwords not caught ==
    
    All existing encryption schemes give you the GIGO treatment: garbage
    password in, garbage data out.  Guests usually refuse to mount
    garbage, but other usage is prone to data loss.
    
    == Need to stop the guest to add an encrypted image ==
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -monitor stdio
        QEMU 2.2.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
        (qemu) info status
        VM status: running
        (qemu) drive_add "" if=none,file=geheim.qcow2
        Guest must be stopped for opening of encrypted image
        (qemu) stop
        (qemu) drive_add "" if=none,file=geheim.qcow2
        OK
    
    Commit c3adb58f added this restriction.  Before, we could expose images
    lacking an encryption key to guests, with potentially catastrophic
    results.  See also "Use without key is not always caught".
    
    = Bugs =
    
    == Use without key is not always caught ==
    
    Encrypted images can be in an intermediate state "opened, but no key".
    The weird startup behavior and the need to stop the guest are there to
    ensure the guest isn't exposed to that state.  But other things still
    are!
    
    * drive_backup
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -monitor stdio geheim.qcow2
        QEMU 2.2.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
        (qemu) drive_backup -f ide0-hd0 out.img raw
        Formatting 'out.img', fmt=raw size=4194304
    
      I guess this writes encrypted data to raw image out.img.  Good luck
      with figuring out how to decrypt that again.
    
    * commit
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -monitor stdio geheim.qcow2
        QEMU 2.2.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
        (qemu) commit ide0-hd0
    
      I guess this writes encrypted data into the unencrypted raw backing
      image, effectively destroying it.
    
    == QMP device_add of usb-storage fails when it shouldn't ==
    
    When the image is encrypted, device_add creates the device, defers
    actually attaching it to when the key becomes available, then fails.
    This is wrong.  device_add must either create the device and succeed,
    or do nothing and fail.
    
        $ qemu-system-x86_64 -nodefaults -display none -usb -qmp stdio -drive if=none,id=foo,file=geheim.qcow2
        {"QMP": {"version": {"qemu": {"micro": 50, "minor": 2, "major": 2}, "package": ""}, "capabilities": []}}
        { "execute": "qmp_capabilities" }
        {"return": {}}
        { "execute": "device_add", "arguments": { "driver": "usb-storage", "id": "bar", "drive": "foo" } }
        {"error": {"class": "DeviceEncrypted", "desc": "'foo' (geheim.qcow2) is encrypted"}}
        {"execute":"device_del","arguments": { "id": "bar" } }
        {"timestamp": {"seconds": 1426003440, "microseconds": 237181}, "event": "DEVICE_DELETED", "data": {"path": "/machine/peripheral/bar/bar.0/legacy[0]"}}
        {"timestamp": {"seconds": 1426003440, "microseconds": 238231}, "event": "DEVICE_DELETED", "data": {"device": "bar", "path": "/machine/peripheral/bar"}}
        {"return": {}}
    
    This stuff is worse than useless, it's a trap for users.
    
    If people become sufficiently interested in encrypted images to
    contribute a cryptographically sane implementation for QCOW2 (or
    whatever other format), then rewriting the necessary support around it
    from scratch will likely be easier and yield better results than
    fixing up the existing mess.
    
    Let's deprecate the mess now, drop it after a grace period, and move
    on.
    Signed-off-by: NMarkus Armbruster <armbru@redhat.com>
    Reviewed-by: NEric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
    Signed-off-by: NKevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>
    a1f688f4
qemu-doc.texi 92.9 KB