1 files changed, 40 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/src/libstore/daemon.cc b/src/libstore/daemon.cc
index d462100cb..ad3fe1847 100644
--- a/src/libstore/daemon.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/daemon.cc
@@ -454,8 +454,46 @@ static void performOp(TunnelLogger * logger, ref<Store> store,
         readDerivation(from, *store, drv, Derivation::nameFromPath(drvPath));
         BuildMode buildMode = (BuildMode) readInt(from);
         logger->startWork();
-        if (!trusted)
-            throw Error("you are not privileged to build derivations");
+
+        /* Content-addressed derivations are trustless because their output paths
+           are verified by their content alone, so any derivation is free to
+           try to produce such a path.
+
+           Input-addressed derivation output paths, however, are calculated
+           from the derivation closure that produced them---even knowing the
+           root derivation is not enough. That the output data actually came
+           from those derivations is fundamentally unverifiable, but the daemon
+           trusts itself on that matter. The question instead is whether the
+           submitted plan has rights to the output paths it wants to fill, and
+           at least the derivation closure proves that.
+
+           It would have been nice if input-address algorithm merely depended
+           on the build time closure, rather than depending on the derivation
+           closure. That would mean input-addressed paths used at build time
+           would just be trusted and not need their own evidence. This is in
+           fact fine as the same guarantees would hold *inductively*: either
+           the remote builder has those paths and already trusts them, or it
+           needs to build them too and thus their evidence must be provided in
+           turn.  The advantage of this variant algorithm is that the evidence
+           for input-addressed paths which the remote builder already has
+           doesn't need to be sent again.
+
+           That said, now that we have floating CA derivations, it is better
+           that people just migrate to those which also solve this problem, and
+           others. It's the same migration difficulty with strictly more
+           benefit.
+
+           Lastly, do note that when we parse fixed-output content-addressed
+           derivations, we throw out the precomputed output paths and just
+           store the hashes, so there aren't two competing sources of truth an
+           attacker could exploit. */
+        if (drv.type() == DerivationType::InputAddressed && !trusted)
+            throw Error("you are not privileged to build input-addressed derivations");
+
+        /* Make sure that the non-input-addressed derivations that got this far
+           are in fact content-addressed if we don't trust them. */
+        assert(derivationIsCA(drv.type()) || trusted);
+
         auto res = store->buildDerivation(drvPath, drv, buildMode);
         logger->stopWork();
         to << res.status << res.errorMsg;