[Distutils] [tuf] Testing pip security without and with TUF

[Trishank Karthik Kuppusamy]

Hello Donald,

On 09/21/2013 05:54 PM, Donald Stufft wrote:
>
> Is it possible to do this in a pure python library? I know there are pure
> python libraries for ed25119 that are written by the author so they
> should be good to use.
>

It should be possible to do in pure Python all the cryptography that TUF 
needs. The performance may not be so good with sufficiently large RSA 
keys, but I think that is a bottleneck only when creating those keys and 
signing metadata with those keys. Verifying signatures created by those 
keys should be cheap enough, and that is how most people would use TUF 
(for reading, not writing). Vlad, what do you think?

>>
>> Before we go any further, though, we would like your thoughts on the
>> matter. Should we modify the PyPI server ourselves? Or should we
>> wait for Warehouse instead? We want to work together with the DistUtils
>> SIG community on all of this, and would appreciate any feedback and
>> thoughts you have for us. What would you like to see from us?
>
> What does an integration look like? What time frame are you looking at
> completing this? Warehouse is where the future of PyPI is and I'm loathe
> to add much else to the old code base, but Warehouse is very incomplete
> at the moment.
>

By an integration, we mean this scenario: developers will be able to 
register their package-signing keys with PyPI (by uploading their public 
keys), and sign for package metadata themselves with their private keys. 
Among other things, the PyPI server will also have to change a bit to 
generate some TUF metadata itself.

I think it would make the most sense for us to figure out how to 
integrate TUF with Warehouse since that is the future of PyPI. Is now a 
good time for us to discuss how to do that? What is your timeframe for 
Warehouse?

Thanks,
Trishank