6.9 KiB
sys-cacher
Caching proxy server for software repositories in Qubes OS.
Table of Contents
Description
The caching proxy is "sys-cacher" based on apt-cacher-ng, it stores downloaded packages, so that you need only download a package once for it to be used when updating many The proxy is preconfigured to work out of the box for Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and Fedora
When you install this package, qubes will be tagged with "updatevm-sys-cacher" and they will be altered to use the proxy by default. When there is "https://" in your repository definitions, the entries will be changed in the templates from to "http://HTTPS///". This is so that the request to the proxy is plain text, and the proxy will then make the request via https.
This change will be done automatically for every template that exists and is not Whonix based. No changes are made to Whonix templates, and updates to those templates will not be cached.
Installation
Installation may take a long time as it will target all templates unless you specify otherwise.
- Top
sudo qubesctl top.enable sys-cacher browser
sudo qubesctl --targets=tpl-browser,sys-cacher-browser,tpl-sys-cacher,sys-cacher state.apply
sudo qubesctl top.disable sys-cacher browser
sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-cacher.appmenus,sys-cacher.tag
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets="$(qvm-ls --no-spinner --raw-list --tags updatevm-sys-cacher | tr "\n" ",")" state.apply sys-cacher.install-client
- State
sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-cacher.create
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=tpl-browser state.apply browser.install
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=tpl-sys-cacher state.apply sys-cacher.install
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=sys-cacher state.apply sys-cacher.configure
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=sys-cacher-browser state.apply sys-cacher.configure-browser
sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-cacher.appmenus,sys-cacher.tag
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets="$(qvm-ls --no-spinner --raw-list --tags updatevm-sys-cacher | tr "\n" ",")" state.apply sys-cacher.install-client
Access control
The distributed policy will take precedence over the ones set during first
installation or the GUI Global Config. If you want to use sys-cacher
and edit configuration for certain qubes to update over different proxys, you
can do so.
Allow qubes with tag whonix-updatevm to use the proxy in sys-alt-whonix
and qube dev to use the proxy in disp-sys-net.
qubes.UpdatesProxy * @tag:whonix-updatevm @default allow target=sys-alt-whonix
qubes.UpdatesProxy * @tag:whonix-updatevm @anyvm deny
qubes.UpdatesProxy * dev @default allow target=disp-sys-net
qubes.UpdatesProxy * dev @anyvm deny
Usage
Report Page and Maintenance Tasks
The report page is available from sys-cacher and sys-cacher-browser at
http://127.0.0.1:8082/acng-report.html and any other client qube that has
sys-cacher as it's update qube. This is apt-cacher-ng limitation and is bad
security wise, every client has administrative access to the cacher qube. You
should add the following to the end of sys-cacher rc.local:
echo "AdminAuth: username:password" | tee /etc/qubes-apt-cacher-ng/zzz_security.conf
Where username and password are HTTP Auth strings.
If you want to view statistics or manage the server through a GUI, open
sys-cacher or sys-cacher-browser desktop file cacher-browser.desktop
from Dom0. Addresses starting with http or https will be redirected
to sys-cacher-browser.
The browser separation from the server is to avoid browsing malicious sites and exposing the browser to direct network on the same machine the server is running. The browser qube is offline and only has access to the admin interface. In other words, it has control over the server functions, if the browser is compromised, it can compromise the server.
Connect to the cacher via IP instead of Qrexec
Because the sys-cacher qube is listening on port 8082, you can use it from
non-template qubes and qubes that do not have a working Qrexec. Use the native
configuration to set the update proxy using the IP address of sys-cacher by
setting sys-cacher as the netvm of the client qube.
Set sys-cacher as the netvm of your qube:
qvm-prefs QUBE netvm sys-cacher
Enable the service netvm-cacher:
qvm-features QUBE service.netvm-cacher 1
Copy apt-cacher-ng-repo to your qube
and set the script to run on boot. Make sure that the file
/var/run/qubes-service/netvm-cacher exists on every startup for the proxy
address change take effect.
The qube has to be restarted for changes to take effect.
Non-TemplateVMs integration
Attention: this method will allow a client qube to bypass the qubes firewall and connect to a remote host via the updates proxy.
By default, only templates will use the proxy to update, if you want to cache
non-TemplateVMs updates or simply make them functional again, the qube will
need the service.updates-proxy-setup feature set:
qvm-tags add QUBE updatevm-sys-cacher
qvm-features QUBE service.updates-proxy-setup 1
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=QUBE state.apply sys-cacher.install-client
Don't forget to restart the qube.
If you don't want or can't restart the qube, such as DispVMs, where you would lose the current session:
qvm-tags add QUBE updatevm-sys-cacher
qvm-features QUBE service.updates-proxy-setup 1
qvm-run --user=root QUBE -- "
touch /var/run/qubes-service/updates-proxy-setup
/usr/bin/apt-cacher-ng-repo
systemctl restart qubes-updates-proxy-forwarder.socket"
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=QUBE state.apply sys-cacher.install-client
Uninstallation
- Top:
sudo qubesctl top.enable sys-cacher.deinit
sudo qubesctl --targets="$(qvm-ls --no-spinner --raw-list --tags updatevm-sys-cacher | tr "\n" ",")" state.apply
sudo qubesctl top.disable sys-cacher.deinit
sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-cacher.untag
- State:
sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-cacher.remove-policy
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets="$(qvm-ls --no-spinner --raw-list --tags updatevm-sys-cacher | tr "\n" ",")" state.apply sys-cacher.uninstall-client
sudo qubesctl state.apply sys-cacher.untag
If you want to use the standard proxy for a few qubes, only uninstall it from the templates that you don't want to cache packages:
sudo qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=QUBE state.apply sys-cacher.uninstall-client
qvm-tags del QUBE updatevm-sys-cacher