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  • Committer: Teddy Hogeborn
  • Date: 2019-07-18 00:02:43 UTC
  • Revision ID: teddy@recompile.se-20190718000243-okz4s9xao1r1tfnx
Document bug in mandos-keygen which strips white space from passwords

Passwords, as read by mandos-keygen when given the --password or -p
options, are stripped of white space from the start and from the end
of the password.  This is because mandos-keygen is a shell script, and
the Bourne Shell "read" builtin does not seem to have a way to avoid
this.  Document this bug.

* manods-keygen.xml (OPTIONS): Document the white space-stripping
                               nature of the --password/-p option, and
                               also note in the description of
                               --passfile and -F that they avoid this
                               behavior.
  (BUGS): Again mention the problem with the --password and -p
          options, and suggest --passfile as a possible workaround.

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intro.xml
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY TIMESTAMP "2019-08-04">
 
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<!ENTITY TIMESTAMP "2019-04-10">
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<!ENTITY % common SYSTEM "common.ent">
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%common;
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]>
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      plugin requirements.
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    </para>
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  </refsect1>
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  <refsect1 id="systemd">
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    <title>SYSTEMD</title>
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    <para>
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      More advanced startup systems like <citerefentry><refentrytitle
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      >systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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      already have their own plugin-like mechanisms for allowing
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      multiple agents to independently retrieve a password and deliver
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      it to the subsystem requesting a password to unlock the root
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      file system.  On these systems, it would make no sense to run
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      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>plugin-runner</refentrytitle
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      ><manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>, the plugins of
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      which would largely duplicate the work of (and conflict with)
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      the existing systems prompting for passwords.
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    </para>
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    <para>
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      As for <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle
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      ><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> in particular, it has
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      its own <ulink
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      url="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PasswordAgents/"
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      >Password Agents</ulink> system.  Mandos uses this via its
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      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>password-agent</refentrytitle
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      ><manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry> program, which
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      is run instead of <citerefentry><refentrytitle
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      >plugin-runner</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum
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      ></citerefentry> when <citerefentry><refentrytitle
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      >systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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      is used during system startup.
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    </para>
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  </refsect1>
 
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  <refsect1 id="bugs">
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    <title>BUGS</title>
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    <xi:include href="bugs.xml"/>
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      <manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>plugin-runner</refentrytitle>
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      <manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>password-agent</refentrytitle>
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      <manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>mandos-client</refentrytitle>
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      <manvolnum>8mandos</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>password-prompt</refentrytitle>