Title: Software Distribution Transparency and Auditability,
Abstract: A large user base relies on software updates provided through package
managers. This provides a unique lever for improving the security of the
software update process. We propose a transparency system for software updates
and implement it for a widely deployed Linux package manager, namely APT. Our
system is capable of detecting targeted backdoors without producing overhead
for maintainers. In addition, in our system, the availability of source code is
ensured, the binding between source and binary code is verified using
reproducible builds, and the maintainer responsible for distributing a specific
package can be identified. We describe a novel "hidden version" attack against
current software transparency systems and propose as well as integrate a
suitable defense. To address equivocation attacks by the transparency log
server, we introduce tree root cross logging, where the log's Merkle tree root
is submitted into a separately operated log server. This significantly relaxes
the inter-operator cooperation requirements compared to other systems. Our
implementation is evaluated by replaying over 3000 updates of the Debian
operating system over the course of two years, demonstrating its viability and
identifying numerous irregularities.