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NAME

       bsign - embed and verify secure hashes and digital signatures

SYNOPSIS

       bsign [ options | FILENAMES ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  goal  purpose  of  bsign is to verify and authenticate data files,
       especially executables and other binaries.

       The program reads all of the options and  FILENAMES  from  the  command
       line  and then begins to operate on the input files.  In one invocation
       in can only one of either hash files,  sign  files,  check  hashes,  or
       check signatures.

       At  present,  it  only  works  with the ELF (Execution and Link Format)
       files used by several flavors of UN*X including GNU/Linux, and it  only
       supports gpg for creating and verifying signatures.  It embeds a secure
       hash of the file contents in the file and optionally  signs  this  hash
       value.   Any  change  in  the  file contents will be easily discovered.
       Either the hash value does not match the file  contents,  the  hash  is
       absent,  the  signature (optional) of the hash value is invalid, ir the
       signature (optional) is absent.

COMMANDS

       One of these commands must be  present.   Only  the  last  one  on  the
       command line will be recognized.

       -c, --checkhash
              Verify the embedded hash value.

       -H, --hash
              Rewrite the input files with a hash.

       -s, --sign
              Rewrite  the  input  files with signed hash data.  Note that the
              while rewriting process will fail if generation of  the  digital
              signature   fails.    If  no  supported  facility  for  creating
              signatures is available, only the --hash method will work.

       -V, --verify
              Verify the embedded hash value and digital signature.

       --version
              Display program version.

       -h, --help
              Display program options and usage information.

OPTIONS

       -d, --debug
              Enable the display of debug messages.

       -e, --exclude PATH
              Add PATH to the list of directories to exclude for input  files,
              it  may be used more than once.  A trailing path separator (’/’)
              will be ignored.

       -f, --files FILE
              Process filenames in FILE, one per line.   Use  filename  -  for
              standard  input.   This  options  has the same effect as putting
              each line in FILE on the command line as a distinct word.

       --force-resign
              By default, bsign will not resign a file if there is  already  a
              signature section present.  Note that this means it won’t resign
              a file that has been hashed  without  a  signature,  too.   This
              option  will  override  that  behavior,  replacing  the existing
              signature block.

       -G, --ignore-good-sigs
              Inhibit information  messages  about  finding  good  signatures.
              This  option  is helpful when verifying from a cron script where
              all files are expected to have good signatures.  Messages  about
              missing  or  broken  signatures are unaffected by --ignore-good-
              sigs.

       -i, --include PATH
              Add PATH to the list of directories to search for  input  files,
              it  may  be  used  more  than once.  This method will tend to be
              faster and simpler than using the find  program  to  generate  a
              list of filenames.

       -I, --ignore-unsupported
              Ignore  directories  and  non-ELF files in error messages.  This
              option reduces bsign output.

       --nosymlinks
              Treat symlinks as an unsupported file type.  This prevents  some
              files from being signed redundantly.

       -o, --output FILE
              Write  signed,  rewritten  version  of  the  input file to FILE.
              Without this option, the input file is replaced by the rewritten
              version.   The --output option only works when there is a single
              input filename on the command line.

       -P, --pgoptions OPTS
              Pass OPTS to gpg as command lines options.  This is helpful  for
              telling gpg where to find keys.

       -q, --quiet
              Inhibit informational messages.  With this option, the result of
              executing bsign is known only by checking the return status.

       -S, --summary
              Print a summary after processing the last input  file.   At  the
              moment, it only tracks the total number of input files reviewed.

       -v, --verbose
              Report details about program progress.

RETURN VALUE

       The program return  value  reflects  the  result  from  the  last  file
       processed.  Therefore, it is most useful when processing a single file.
       It returns zero when successfully signing or hashing a  file,  or  when
       the  signature  or hash is found to be present and valid.  Return codes
       less than 64 are errno values.

               0   no error
               1   permission denied
               2   file not found
              12   no memory
              21   is directory
              22   invalid argument
              24   too many open files
              26   file busy
              28   no space on device
              36   name too long
              64   no hash found
              65   no signature found
              66   bad hash found
              67   bad signature found
              68   unsupported file type
              69   bad pass phrase
              70   rewrite failed

USAGE

        you intend to use bsign only to protect the contents of the filesystem
       against  corruption,  there  is  little  that  must  be done aside from
       hashing the files and  performing  periodic  checks  for  correct  hash
       values.  Refer to the EXAMPLES section for some possible invocations.

       If  you intend to use bsign to detect intrusion, the way is less clear.
       First, the usual reminder: the security of a system is only  as  strong
       as the weakest link.  More detailed instructions on how to use bsign in
       this mode may be found in the /usr/share/doc/bsign/README file.

EXAMPLES

       bsign --hash file
              rewrite file with a hash

       bsign --check-hash file
              verify the hash in file

       bsign --sign file -P "--homedir keydir"
              rewrite file with a hash and sign it with the default secret key
              in keydir

       bsign --verify file -P "--homedir keydir"
              verify the hash and signature in file using the key in keydir

       bsign --sign -i / -e /proc -I -s --P "--homedir keydir"
              sign the unsigned files in the whole filesystem

       bsign --verify -i / -e /proc -I -G --P "--homedir keydir"
              verify  signatures  for  all  files  in  the filesystem and only
              report those that have been tampered or are unsigned.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       bsign should  use  environment  variables  to  select  the  method  for
       generating digital signatures.  It doesn’t.

BUGS

       It  supports  only  one  hash algorithm, an insignificant bug if one at
       all.  It supports only GNU Privacy Guard  for  creating  and  verifying
       digital  signatures.   It  can  embed  only in ELF format files, others
       would be helpful.

AUTHOR

       Marc Singer <elf@debian.org>