The Key Chain

[richardschneider]

The key store is used to manage asymmetrical keys. In particular, it holds the key used to encrypt/decrypt of the dag's DataKey.

It has a specification , API and an implementation in GO.

Key store commands are implemented GO.

[richardschneider]

A special key self is always available. It is the key used to identity the local peer node. It's multihash is the same as peer's ID.

ipfs key list -l

Qmei6fBYij8gjbetgHLXmoR54iRc9hioPR7dtmBTNG3oWa self
QmeLrUkPdmyXGUzP8AnBaR626mFyggWSSakSVsRVaaLLZA tmp

ipfs id

{
        "ID": "Qmei6fBYij8gjbetgHLXmoR54iRc9hioPR7dtmBTNG3oWa",
        "PublicKey": "CAASpgIwggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQCvxmCwAStFBFbsjkbokFRc3RN/OtzGdOEmMBlXewoFNu1RPtnzdUq/l5aNd2DD4pocDdSMV4GNNR1YxgqNyzNMxVC2nt+ziV4G/STMHx7XFWfVlRHiGMx/jm3m146x2PCtAnf+93EdihCEehdvz1zyNTwjGesO7XWAIC9tc7Qq9mYBe4tlY2a7a6SdBWwseAolNFMZkP9J0gdosjfFjcBEWmxwRxvTMTpCOuBv34KwiXQxzLEnby4GWtdvEgXrCMM9JLRlSSBlvqu+ro0MIejXk5lnRMr7hQRrjyqqMorntEXkoEYYXo663t5HxaIie3bjAC6nXouzfzntA/AEp7gzAgMBAAE=",
        "Addresses": [ ... ]
        "AgentVersion": "go-ipfs/0.4.11/",
        "ProtocolVersion": "ipfs/0.1.0"
}

[richardschneider]

A key store must

• Manage a key (create, delete, list), See NFRs Publishing sensitive data #3 (comment)
• Sign/Verify a stream of data with a key
• Encrypt/Decrypt a stream of data with a key Encrypting data #7

[richardschneider]

An import/export mechanism for the key is required.

Export is to a single recipient (peer) and should only be readable by the recipient. Implies encrypting the exported key with recipient's public key.

[richardschneider]

On second thought Sign/Verify/Encrypt/Decrypt is a messy interface to the key store consumer. I prefer something like

• CreateAnonymousEncryptedData (encryptingKeyname, plain)
• CreateSignedEncryptedData (encryptingKeyname, [signingKeyname], plain)
• ReadECmsData (cipher)

where

• encryptingKeyname cannot be self
• signingKeyname defaults to self
• self is the peer's private key

[richardschneider]

The key chain code is now at https://github.com/libp2p/js-libp2p-keychain