Validator Configuration File Format¶

You can set up a Validator via a configuration file.
Next, we will show you how to write a configuration file.

The configuration file consists of rules that will be used in validation.
Here is an example of configuration file containing two rules.

rule
{
  id "Simple Rule"
  for data
  type customized
  filter
  {
    type name
    name "/localhost/example"
    relation isPrefixOf
  }
  signer
  {
    type name
    name "/ndn/edu/ucla/KEY/yingdi/ksk-1234/ID-CERT"
    relation equal
  }
}
rule
{
  id "Testbed Validation Rule"
  for data
  type hierarchical
  trust-anchor
  {
    type file
    file-name "testbed-trust-anchor.cert"
  }
}

ATTENTION: The order of rules MATTERS!

A rule can be broken into two parts:

• The first part is to qualify packets to which the rule can be applied;
• The second part is to decide whether further validation process is necessary.

When receiving a packet, the validator will check it against rules in the configuration file one-by-one,
until reaching a rule that the packet qualifies for.
And the second part of the matching rule will be used to check the validity of the packet.
If the packet cannot qualify any rules, it is treated as an invalid packet.

In the example configuration,
the first rule indicates that all the data packets under the name prefix "/localhost/example" must be signed by a key whose certificate name is "/ndn/edu/ucla/KEY/yingdi/ksk-1234/ID-CERT".
If a packet does not have a name under prefix "/localhost/example", validator will skip the first rule and check the second rule.
The second rule indicates that any data packets must be validated recursively back along a hierarchy with a trust anchor stored in a file called "testbed-trust-anchor.cert".

Rules in general¶

Before we go into the details of specific rules, we need to introduce several general properties of a rule.

A rule must have a id property which uniquely identify the rule in the configuration file, e.g., "Simple Rule", "Testbed Validation Rule".

A rule is either used to validate an interest packet or a data packet.
This information is specified in the property for.
Only two value can be specified: data and interest.

The property type indicates the type of rules.
There are some pre-defined rule types, such as hierarchical.
People can also customize their own rules by setting the type property to be customized.

A rule may have some other properties depending on the rule type.
Next, we will introduce the other properties for the each rule type.

Customized Rule¶

Two properties are required by customized rule: filter and signer.
And some optional properties may be configured if necessary.

Filter Property¶

The filter property specifies which packets to which the rule can be applied.
A rule may contain more than one filter properties, a packet can be caught by a rule only if the packet satisfy all the filter properties.

A packet will be checked against the filter properties of rules in the configuration file,
one-by-one until the first rule whose target property can be satisfied by the packet.
Once the packet is caught by a rule, no other rules will be applied to the packet.
Therefore, the order of rules in configuration file MATTERS!
If the packet cannot satisfy any rules, it will be treated as invalid packet.

The target has its own property type which indicates the type of condition.
Although a rule may contain more than one target properties, there is at most one target property for each type.
So far, only one target type is supported: name.
In other word, only one target property can be specified for now.

There are two ways to express the restriction on name.
The first way is to specify a relationship between the packet name and a particular name.
In this case, two more properties are required: name and relation.
A packet can satisfy the condition if the name and the packet name can establish the relation.
The value of relation could be either isPrefixOf or equal.
For example, a target:

target
{
  type name
  name "/localhost/example"
  relation isPrefixOf
}

can catch a packet with name "/localhost/example/data" but cannot catch a packet with name "/localhost/another_example".

And a target

target
{
  type name
  name "/localhost/example"
  relation equal
}

can only catch a packet with the exact name "/localhost/example".

The second way is to specify an NDN regular expression that the packet name must match.
In this case, only one property regex is required.
The value of regex is an NDN regular expression.
A packet can satisfy the target only if the regex can match the packet name.
If regex is used, an optional property expand may be specified if back reference is need to extract certain pattern out of the packet name.
For example, a target

target
{
  type name
  regex "^([^<KEY>]*)<KEY>(<>*)<ksk-.*><ID-CERT>$"
  expand "\\1\\2"
}

can catch all the identity certificates and extract the corresponding namespace of the certificate.

Signer Property¶

The signer property defines the conditions that the signer (or KeyLocator) must fulfill.
The structure of the signer property is the same as the target property.
And same as target property, a rule may contain more than one signer properties.
However, as long as one of the signer properties is satisfied, the packet validation can proceed without treating the packet as invalid.

Relation Property¶

The relation property is optional.
If the relation property is set, then

Hierarchical Rule¶

As implied by its name, hierarchical rule requires the name of the target packet to be under the namespace of the packet signer.
Assume that the usage of the rule is for data, then it is equivalent to a customized rule:

rule
{
  for data
  name "Expanded Hierarchical Rule"
  type customized
  target
  {
    type regex
    expr "^(<>*)$"
    expand "\\1"
  }
  signer
  {
    type regex
    expr "^([^<KEY>]*)<KEY>(<>*)<ksk-.*><ID-CERT>$"
    expand "\\1\\2"
  }
  relation isPrefixOf
  anchor
  {
    type file
    file-name "trust-anchor.cert"
  }
}

The Order Of Rules¶