Add description of digests to API specification

Signed-off-by: Stephen J Day <stephen.day@docker.com>
pull/599/head
Stephen J Day 2015-06-04 19:57:40 -07:00
parent c54adb667f
commit 7e6b4e8c52
2 changed files with 168 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -116,6 +116,12 @@ indicating what is different. Optionally, we may start marking parts of the
specification to correspond with the versions enumerated here.
<dl>
<dt>2.0.2</dt>
<dd>
<li>Added section covering digest format.</li>
<li>Added more clarification that manifest cannot be deleted by tag.</li>
</dd>
<dt>2.0.1</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
@ -238,6 +244,84 @@ When a `200 OK` or `401 Unauthorized` response is returned, the
Clients may require this header value to determine if the endpoint serves this
API. When this header is omitted, clients may fallback to an older API version.
### Content Digests
This API design is driven heavily by [content addressability](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_storage).
The core of this design is the concept of a content addressable identifier. It
uniquely identifies content by taking a collision-resistent hash of the bytes.
Such an identifier can be independently calculated and verified by selection
of a common _algorithm_. If such an identifier can be communicated in a secure
manner, one can retrieve the content from an insecure source, calculate it
independently and be certain that the correct content was obtained. Put simply,
the identifier is a property of the content.
To disambiguate from other concepts, we call this identifier a _digest_. A
_digest_ is a serialized hash result, consisting of a _algorithm_ and _hex_
portion. The _algorithm_ identifies the methodology used to calculate the
digest. The _hex_ portion is the hex-encoded result of the hash.
We define a _digest_ string to match the following grammar:
digest := algorithm ":" hex
algorithm := /[A-Fa-f0-9_+.-]+/
hex := /[A-Fa-f0-9]+/
Some examples of _digests_ include the following:
digest | description |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------
sha256:6c3c624b58dbbcd3c0dd82b4c53f04194d1247c6eebdaab7c610cf7d66709b3b | Common sha256 based digest |
tarsum.v1+sha256:6c3c624b58dbbcd3c0dd82b4c53f04194d1247c6eebdaab7c610cf7d66709b3b | Tarsum digest, used for legacy layer digests. |
> __NOTE:__ While we show an example of using a `tarsum` digest, the security
> of tarsum has not been verified. It is recommended that most implementations
> use sha256 for interoperability.
While the _algorithm_ does allow one to implement a wide variety of
algorithms, compliant implementations should use sha256. Heavy processing of
input before calculating a hash is discouraged to avoid degrading the
uniqueness of the _digest_ but some canonicalization may be performed to
ensure consistent identifiers.
Let's use a simple example in pseudo-code to demonstrate a digest calculation:
```
let C = 'a small string'
let B = sha256(C)
let D = 'sha256:' + EncodeHex(B)
let ID(C) = D
```
Above, we have bytestring _C_ passed into a function, _SHA256_, that returns a
bytestring B, which is the hash of _C_. _D_ gets the algorithm concatenated
with the hex encoding of _B_. We then define the identifier of _C_ to _ID(C)_
as equal to _D_. A digest can be verified by independently calculating _D_ and
comparing it with identifier _ID(C)_
#### Digest Header
To provide verification of http content, any response may include a `Docker-
Content-Digest` header. This will include the digest of the target entity
returned in the response. For blobs, this is the entire blob content. For
manifests, this is the manifest body without the signature content, also known
as the JWS payload. Note that the commonly used canonicalization for digest
calculation may be dependent on the mediatype of the content, such as with
manifests.
The client may choose to ignore the header or may verify it to ensure content
integrity and transport security. This is most important when fetching by a
digest. To ensure security, the content should be verified against the digest
used to fetch the content. At times, the returned digest may differ from that
used to initiate a request. Such digests are considered to be from different
_domains_, meaning they have different values for _algorithm_. In such a case,
the client may choose to verify the digests in both domains or ignore the
server's digest. To maintain security, the client _must_ always verify the
content against the _digest_ used to fetch the content.
> __IMPORTANT:__ If a _digest_ is used to fetch content, the client should use
> the same digest used to fetch the content to verify it. The header `Docker-
> Content-Digest` should not be trusted over the "local" digest.
### Pulling An Image
An "image" is a combination of a JSON manifest and individual layer files. The

View File

@ -116,6 +116,12 @@ indicating what is different. Optionally, we may start marking parts of the
specification to correspond with the versions enumerated here.
<dl>
<dt>2.0.2</dt>
<dd>
<li>Added section covering digest format.</li>
<li>Added more clarification that manifest cannot be deleted by tag.</li>
</dd>
<dt>2.0.1</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
@ -238,6 +244,84 @@ When a `200 OK` or `401 Unauthorized` response is returned, the
Clients may require this header value to determine if the endpoint serves this
API. When this header is omitted, clients may fallback to an older API version.
### Content Digests
This API design is driven heavily by [content addressability](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_storage).
The core of this design is the concept of a content addressable identifier. It
uniquely identifies content by taking a collision-resistent hash of the bytes.
Such an identifier can be independently calculated and verified by selection
of a common _algorithm_. If such an identifier can be communicated in a secure
manner, one can retrieve the content from an insecure source, calculate it
independently and be certain that the correct content was obtained. Put simply,
the identifier is a property of the content.
To disambiguate from other concepts, we call this identifier a _digest_. A
_digest_ is a serialized hash result, consisting of a _algorithm_ and _hex_
portion. The _algorithm_ identifies the methodology used to calculate the
digest. The _hex_ portion is the hex-encoded result of the hash.
We define a _digest_ string to match the following grammar:
digest := algorithm ":" hex
algorithm := /[A-Fa-f0-9_+.-]+/
hex := /[A-Fa-f0-9]+/
Some examples of _digests_ include the following:
digest | description |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------
sha256:6c3c624b58dbbcd3c0dd82b4c53f04194d1247c6eebdaab7c610cf7d66709b3b | Common sha256 based digest |
tarsum.v1+sha256:6c3c624b58dbbcd3c0dd82b4c53f04194d1247c6eebdaab7c610cf7d66709b3b | Tarsum digest, used for legacy layer digests. |
> __NOTE:__ While we show an example of using a `tarsum` digest, the security
> of tarsum has not been verified. It is recommended that most implementations
> use sha256 for interoperability.
While the _algorithm_ does allow one to implement a wide variety of
algorithms, compliant implementations should use sha256. Heavy processing of
input before calculating a hash is discouraged to avoid degrading the
uniqueness of the _digest_ but some canonicalization may be performed to
ensure consistent identifiers.
Let's use a simple example in pseudo-code to demonstrate a digest calculation:
```
let C = 'a small string'
let B = sha256(C)
let D = 'sha256:' + EncodeHex(B)
let ID(C) = D
```
Above, we have bytestring _C_ passed into a function, _SHA256_, that returns a
bytestring B, which is the hash of _C_. _D_ gets the algorithm concatenated
with the hex encoding of _B_. We then define the identifier of _C_ to _ID(C)_
as equal to _D_. A digest can be verified by independently calculating _D_ and
comparing it with identifier _ID(C)_
#### Digest Header
To provide verification of http content, any response may include a `Docker-
Content-Digest` header. This will include the digest of the target entity
returned in the response. For blobs, this is the entire blob content. For
manifests, this is the manifest body without the signature content, also known
as the JWS payload. Note that the commonly used canonicalization for digest
calculation may be dependent on the mediatype of the content, such as with
manifests.
The client may choose to ignore the header or may verify it to ensure content
integrity and transport security. This is most important when fetching by a
digest. To ensure security, the content should be verified against the digest
used to fetch the content. At times, the returned digest may differ from that
used to initiate a request. Such digests are considered to be from different
_domains_, meaning they have different values for _algorithm_. In such a case,
the client may choose to verify the digests in both domains or ignore the
server's digest. To maintain security, the client _must_ always verify the
content against the _digest_ used to fetch the content.
> __IMPORTANT:__ If a _digest_ is used to fetch content, the client should use
> the same digest used to fetch the content to verify it. The header `Docker-
> Content-Digest` should not be trusted over the "local" digest.
### Pulling An Image
An "image" is a combination of a JSON manifest and individual layer files. The