Using the tinc command, an administrator of an existing VPN can generate
invitations for new nodes. The invitation is a small URL that can easily
be copy&pasted into email or live chat. Another person can have tinc
automatically setup the necessary configuration files and exchange keys
with the server, by only using the invitation URL.
The invitation protocol uses temporary ECDSA keys. The invitation URL
consists of the hostname and port of the server, a hash of the server's
temporary ECDSA key and a cookie. When the client wants to accept an
invitation, it also creates a temporary ECDSA key, connects to the server
and says it wants to accept an invitation. Both sides exchange their
temporary keys. The client verifies that the server's key matches the hash
in the invitation URL. After setting up an SPTPS connection using the
temporary keys, the client gives the cookie to the server. If the cookie
is valid, the server sends the client an invitation file containing the
client's new name and a copy of the server's host config file. If everything
is ok, the client will generate a long-term ECDSA key and send it to the
server, which will add it to a new host config file for the client.
The invitation protocol currently allows multiple host config files to be
send from the server to the client. However, the client filters out
most configuration variables for its own host configuration file. In
particular, it only accepts Name, Mode, Broadcast, ConnectTo, Subnet and
AutoConnect. Also, at the moment no tinc-up script is generated.
When an invitation has succesfully been accepted, the client needs to start
the tinc daemon manually.
Only the very first packet of an SPTPS session should be send with REQ_KEY,
this signals the peer to abort any previous session and start a new one as
well.
When two nodes which support SPTPS want to send packets to each other, they now
always use SPTPS. The node initiating the SPTPS session send the first SPTPS
packet via an extended REQ_KEY messages. All other handshake messages are sent
using ANS_KEY messages. This ensures that intermediate nodes using an older
version of tinc can still help with NAT traversal. After the authentication
phase is over, SPTPS packets are sent via UDP, or are encapsulated in extended
REQ_KEY messages instead of PACKET messages.
When this option is enabled, tinc will not accept dynamic updates of Subnets
from other nodes, but will only use Subnets read from local host config files
to build its routing table.
The control socket code was completely different from how meta connections are
handled, resulting in lots of extra code to handle requests. Also, not every
operating system has UNIX sockets, so we have to resort to another type of
sockets or pipes for those anyway. To reduce code duplication and make control
sockets work the same on all platforms, we now just connect to the TCP port
where tincd is already listening on.
To authenticate, the program that wants to control a running tinc daemon must
send the contents of a cookie file. The cookie is a random 256 bits number that
is regenerated every time tincd starts. The cookie file should only be readable
by the same user that can start a tincd.
Instead of the binary-ish protocol previously used, we now use an ASCII
protocol similar to that of the meta connections, but this can still change.
- Update year numbers in copyright headers.
- Add copyright information for Michael Tokarev and Florian Forster to the
copyright headers of files to which they have contributed significantly.
- Mention Michael and Florian in AUTHORS.
- Mention that tinc is GPLv3 or later if compiled with the --enable-tunemu
flag.
Previously, tinc used a fixed address and port for each node for UDP packet
exchange. The port was the one advertised by that node as its listening port.
However, due to NAT the port might be different. Now, tinc sends a different
session key to each node. This way, the sending node can be determined from
incoming packets by checking the MAC against all session keys. If a match is
found, the address and port for that node are updated.
