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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+:orphan:
+
+.. BTRFS Authentication
+.. Western Digital or it's affiliates
+.. 2020
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+This document describes an approach get file contents _and_ full meta-data
+authentication for BTRFS.
+
+This is possible because BTRFS uses checksums embedded in its on-disk
+meta-data structures as well as checksums for each individual extent of data.
+The primary intent of these checksums was to detect bit-flips of data at rest.
+But this mechanism can be extended to provide authentication of all on-disk
+data when the checksum algorithm is replaced by a cryptographically secure
+keyed hash.
+
+BTRFS Data Structures
+---------------------
+
+BTRFS utilizes a special copy-on-write b-tree to store all contents of the
+file-system on disk.
+
+Meta-Data
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+On-disk meta-data in BTRFS is stored in copy-on-write b-trees. These b-trees
+are build using two data structures, ``struct btrfs_node`` and ``struct
+btrfs_leaf``. Both of these structures start with a ``struct btrfs_header``.
+This structure has amongst other fields a checksum field, protecting it's
+contents. As the checksum is the first entry in the structure, the whole
+structure is protected by this checksum. The superblock (``struct
+btrfs_super_block``) is the first on-disk structure which is read on mount and
+it as well starts with a checksum field protecting the rest of the structure.
+The super block is also needed to read the addresses of the other file system
+b-trees, so their location on disk is protected by the checksum.
+
+::
+
+          BTRFS Header
+          +------+------+--------+-------+-----------------+----+-------+---------+
+          | csum | fsid | bytenr | flags | chunk_tree_uuid | gen| owner | nritems |
+          +------+------+--------+-------+-----------------+----+-------+---------+
+          BTRFS Node
+          +--------+-------------+-------------+-----+
+          | Header | key pointer | key pointer | ... |
+          +--------+-------------+-------------+-----+
+          BTRFS Leaf
+          +--------+------+------+-----+
+          | Header | item | item | ... |
+          +--------+------+------+-----+
+
+            Figure 1: BTRFS Header, Node and Leaf data structures
+
+User-Data
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+User data in BRTFS is also protected by checksums, but this checksum is not
+stored alongside the data, as it is with meta-data, but stored in a separate
+b-tree, the checksum tree. The leafs of this tree store the checksums of the
+user-data.  The tree nodes and leafs are of ``struct btrfs_node`` or ``struct
+btrfs_leaf``, so integrity of this tree is protected as well.
+
+BTRFS Authentication
+====================
+
+This chapter introduces BTRFS authentication which enables BTRFS to verify
+the authenticity and integrity of metadata and file contents stored on disk.
+
+Threat Model
+------------
+
+BTRFS authentication enables detection of offline data modification. While it
+does not prevent it, it enables (trusted) code to check the integrity and
+authenticity of on-disk file contents and filesystem metadata. This covers
+attacks where file contents are swapped.
+
+BTRFS authentication will not protect against a rollback of full disk
+contents. Ie. an attacker can still dump the disk and restore it at a later
+time without detection. It will also not protect against a rollback of one
+transaction. That means an attacker is able to partially undo changes. This is
+possible, because BTRFS does not immediately overwrite obsolete versions of
+its meta-data but keeps older generations until they get garbage collected.
+
+BTRFS authentication does not cover attacks where an attacker is able to
+execute code on the device after the authentication key was provided.
+Additional measures like secure boot and trusted boot have to be taken to
+ensure that only trusted code is executed on a device.
+
+As the file-system authentication key is also needed to update data structures
+on disk, the key has to be in the kernel's keyring for the whole time the
+file-system is mounted. An attacker that is able to compromise the kernel can
+be able to extract the key from the kernel's keyring and thus can gain the
+ability to modify the file-system later on.
+
+Authentication
+--------------
+
+To be able to fully trust data read from disk, all BTRFS data structures
+stored on disk are authenticated. That is:
+
+- The super blocks
+- The file-system b-trees
+- The user-data
+
+
+Super-block
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In order to be able to authenticate the file-system's super-block, the
+checksum stored in the checksum field at the beginning of ``struct
+btrfs_super_block`` protecting its contents is replaced by a
+cryptographically secure keyed hash. In order to generate a valid super-block
+or to validate the super-block, one has to provide a key as an additional
+input for the hash function. The super-block is the starting point to read all
+on disk tree structures, so if we cannot trust the authenticity of the
+super-block anymore, we cannot trust the whole file-system.
+
+B-Trees
+~~~~~~~
+
+Starting from the super-block's root-tree root, the root tree holds the b-tree
+roots of all other on disk b-trees. All other file-system meta-data can be
+derived from the trees stored in this tree. As all b-trees in BTRFS are built
+using ``struct btrfs_node`` and ``struct btrfs_leaf`` each building block of
+each tree is checksummed. These checksums are replaced with the cryptographically
+secure keyed hash algorithm and the authentication key used to verify the
+super-block in the mount phase. Without this key it is impossible to alter any
+of the file-system structure without generating invalid hashes.
+
+User-data
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+The checksums for the user or file-data are stored in a separate b-tree, the
+checksum tree. As this tree in itself is authenticated, only the data stored
+in it needs to be authenticated. This is done by replacing the checksums
+stored on disk by the cryptographically secure keyed hash algorithm used for
+the super-block and other meta-data. So each written file block will get
+checksummed with the authentication key and without supplying the correct key
+it is impossible to write data on disk, which can be read back without
+failing the authentication test. If this test is failed, an I/O error is
+reported back to the user.
+
+Key Management
+--------------
+
+For simplicity, BTRFS authentication uses a single key to compute the keyed
+hashes of the super-block, b-tree nodes and leafs as well as file-blocks. This
+key has to be available on creation of the file-system (`mkfs.btrfs`) to
+authenticate all b-tree elements and the super-blocks. Further, it has to be
+available on mount of the file-system to verify the meta-data and user-data
+stored in the file-system.
+
+Limitations
+-----------
+
+As some optional features of BTRFS disable the generation of checksums, these
+features are incompatible with an authenticated BTRFS.
+These features are:
+- nodatacow
+- nodatasum
+
+As well as any offline modifications to the file-system, like setting an FS
+label while the FS is unmounted.
