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: To link with the library, the following: should be specified to the linker. Three system calls are provided:

add_key()

Supply a new key to the kernel.

request_key()

Find an existing key for use, or, optionally, create one if one does not exist.

keyctl()

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.: 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 possibly can. The upcalling mechanism is usually routed via the: program. What this does with any particular key is configurable in: See the request-key.conf(5) and the request-key(8) manual pages for more information.

SEE ALSO¶

keyrings(7), pam_keyinit(8), process-keyring(7), session-keyring(7), thread-keyring(7), user-keyring(7), user-session-keyring(7), persistent-keyring(7)