bug#49508: Implement --allow-insecure-transport for `guix pull`

bug#49508: Implement --allow-insecure-transport for `guix pull`

[Leo Famulari]

As discussed in #46829, `guix pull` needs an option like
--allow-insecure-transport so that users can continue to pull from the
same channel even when their local certificate store has expired or is
otherwise invalid.

[0] <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=46829#114>

bug#49508: Implement --allow-insecure-transport for `guix pull`

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

> As discussed in #46829, `guix pull` needs an option like
> --allow-insecure-transport so that users can continue to pull from the
> same channel even when their local certificate store has expired or is
> otherwise invalid.

Agreed.

Unfortunately it seems that libgit2 doesn’t let us turn off certificate
verification:

  https://libgit2.org/libgit2/#HEAD/group/libgit2

‘verify_server_cert’ in src/streams/openssl.c is called
unconditionally.  So it seems that the first thing to do would be to
submit a patch upstream that would allow users to disable certificate
checks via ‘git_libgit2_opts’.

Now, by default, ‘guix pull’ honors /etc/ssl/certs.  Assuming those are
up-to-date, it should be fine, right?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#49508: Implement --allow-insecure-transport for `guix pull`

[Leo Famulari]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2022 at 11:18:08AM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Unfortunately it seems that libgit2 doesn’t let us turn off certificate
> verification:
> 
>   https://libgit2.org/libgit2/#HEAD/group/libgit2
> 
> ‘verify_server_cert’ in src/streams/openssl.c is called
> unconditionally.

Ah, that's not surprising.

> So it seems that the first thing to do would be to
> submit a patch upstream that would allow users to disable certificate
> checks via ‘git_libgit2_opts’.

Right, but it might not be accepted.

> Now, by default, ‘guix pull’ honors /etc/ssl/certs.  Assuming those are
> up-to-date, it should be fine, right?

Yeah, I think so.

bug#49508: Implement --allow-insecure-transport for `guix pull`

[Mathieu Othacehe]

Hello,

> ‘verify_server_cert’ in src/streams/openssl.c is called
> unconditionally.  So it seems that the first thing to do would be to
> submit a patch upstream that would allow users to disable certificate
> checks via ‘git_libgit2_opts’.

While this seems like something that we definitely want, I think we
shouldn't block the release with a contribution that can take time to be
upstreamed in libgit2.

Unblocking #53214.

Mathieu