KEYUTILS(7) Kernel key management KEYUTILS(7)
NAME
keyutils - in-kernel key management utilities
DESCRIPTION
The keyutils package is a library and a set of utilities for accessing the kernel keyrings
facility.
A header file is supplied to provide the definitions and declarations required to access
the library:
#include <keyutils.h>
To link with the library, the following:
-lkeyutils
should be specified to the linker.
Three system calls are provided:
add_key(2)
Supply a new key to the kernel.
request_key(2)
Find an existing key for use, or, optionally, create one if one does not exist.
keyctl(2)
Control a key in various ways. The library provides a variety of wrappers around
this system call and those should be used rather than calling it directly.
See the add_key(2), request_key(2), and keyctl(2) manual pages for more information.
The keyctl() wrappers are listed on the keyctl(3) manual page.
UTILITIES
A program is provided to interact with the kernel facility by a number of subcommands,
e.g.:
keyctl add user foo bar @s
See the keyctl(1) manual page for information on that.
The kernel has the ability to upcall to userspace to fabricate new keys. This can be
triggered by request_key(), but userspace is better off using add_key() instead if it pos-
sibly can.
The upcalling mechanism is usually routed via the request-key(8) program. What this does
with any particular key is configurable in:
/etc/request-key.conf
/etc/request-key.d/
See the request-key.conf(5) and the request-key(8) manual pages for more information.
SEE ALSO
keyctl(1), keyctl(3), keyrings(7), persistent-keyring(7), process-keyring(7),
session-keyring(7), thread-keyring(7), user-keyring(7), user-session-keyring(7),
pam_keyinit(8)
Linux 21 Feb 2014 KEYUTILS(7)
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