HX509


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Heimdal

This manual is last updated $Date: 2008-04-21 12:18:41 +0100 (Mån, 21 Apr 2008) $ for version 1.2.1 of hx509.

--- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Setting up a CA

CMS signing and encryption

Certificate matching

Software PKCS 11 module


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1 Introduction

hx509 is a somewhat complete X.509 stack that can handle CMS messages (crypto system used in S/MIME and Kerberos PK-INIT) and basic certificate processing tasks, path construction, path validation, OCSP and CRL validation, PKCS10 message construction, CMS Encrypted (shared secret encrypted), CMS SignedData (certificate signed), and CMS EnvelopedData (certificate encrypted).

hx509 can use PKCS11 tokens, PKCS12 files, PEM files, DER encoded files.


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2 What is X.509, PKIX, PKCS7 and CMS ?

X.509 is from the beginning created by CCITT (later ITU) for the X.500 directory service. But today when people are talking about X.509 they are commonly referring to IETF's PKIX Certificate and CRL Profile of the X.509 v3 certificate standard, as specified in RFC 3280.

ITU continues to develop the X.509 standard together in a complicated dance with IETF.

X.509 is public key based security system that have associated data stored within a so called certificate. From the beginning X.509 was a strict hierarchical system with one root. This didn't not work so over time X.509 got support for multiple policy roots, bridges, and mesh solutions. You can even use it as a peer to peer system, but this is not very common.

2.1 Type of certificates

There are several flavors of certificate in X.509.

2.2 Building a path

Before validating a path the path must be constructed. Given a certificate (EE, CA, Proxy, or any other type), the path construction algorithm will try to find a path to one of the trust anchors.

It start with looking at whom issued the certificate, by name or Key Identifier, and tries to find that certificate while at the same time evaluates the policy.


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3 Setting up a CA

Do not let this chapter scare you off, it's just to give you an idea how to complicated setting up a CA can be. If you are just playing around, skip all this and go to the next chapter, see Creating a CA certificate.

Creating a CA certificate should be more the just creating a certificate, there is the policy of the CA. If it's just you and your friend that is playing around then it probably doesn't matter what the policy is. But then it comes to trust in an organisation, it will probably matter more whom your users and sysadmins will find it acceptable to trust.

At the same time, try to keep thing simple, it's not very hard to run a Certificate authority and the process to get new certificates should simple.

Fill all this in later.

How do you trust your CA.

What is the CA responsibility.

Review of CA activity.

How much process should it be to issue certificate.

Who is allowed to issue certificates.

Who is allowed to requests certificates.

How to handle certificate revocation, issuing CRLs and maintain OCSP services.


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3.1 Creating a CA certificate

This section describes how to create a CA certificate and what to think about.

3.1.1 Lifetime CA certificate

You probably want to create a CA certificate with a long lifetime, 10 years at the shortest. This because you don't want to push out the certificate (as a trust anchor) to all you users once again when the old one just expired. A trust anchor can't really expire, but not all software works that way.

Keep in mind the security requirements might be different 10-20 years into the future. For example, SHA1 is going to be withdrawn in 2010, so make sure you have enough buffering in your choice of digest/hash algorithms, signature algorithms and key lengths.

3.1.2 Create a CA certificate

This command below will create a CA certificate in the file ca.pem.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
         --self-signed \
         --issue-ca \
         --generate-key=rsa \
         --subject="CN=CertificateAuthority,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
         --lifetime=10years \
         --certificate="FILE:ca.pem"

3.1.3 Extending lifetime of a CA certificate

You just realised that your CA certificate is going to expire soon and that you need replace it with something else, the easiest way to do that is to extend the lifetime of your CA certificate.

The example below will extend the CA certificate 10 years into the future. You should compare this new certificate if it contains all the special tweaks as the old certificate had.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
         --self-signed \
         --issue-ca \
         --lifetime="10years" \
         --template-certificate="FILE:ca.pem" \
         --template-fields="serialNumber,notBefore,subject,SPKI" \
         --ca-private-key=FILE:ca.pem \
         --certificate="FILE:new-ca.pem"

3.1.4 Subordinate CA

This example create a new subordinate certificate authority.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
         --ca-certificate=FILE:ca.pem \
         --issue-ca \
         --generate-key=rsa \
         --subject="CN=CertificateAuthority,DC=dev,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
         --certificate="FILE:dev-ca.pem"


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3.2 Issuing certificates

First you'll create a CA certificate, after that you have to deal with your users and servers and issue certificate to them.

CA can generate the key for the user.

Can receive PKCS10 certificate requests from the users. PKCS10 is a request for a certificate. The user can specified what DN the user wants and what public key. To prove the user have the key, the whole request is signed by the private key of the user.

3.2.1 Name space management

What people might want to see.

Re-issue certificates just because people moved within the organization.

Expose privacy information.

Using Sub-component name (+ notation).

3.2.2 Certificate Revocation, CRL and OCSP

Sonetimes people loose smartcard or computers and certificates have to be make not valid any more, this is called revoking certificates. There are two main protocols for doing this Certificate Revocations Lists (CRL) and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP).

If you know that the certificate is destroyed then there is no need to revoke the certificate because it can not be used by someone else.

The main reason you as a CA administrator have to deal with CRLs however will be that some software require there to be CRLs. Example of this is Windows, so you have to deal with this somehow.


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3.3 Issuing CRLs

Create an empty CRL with not certificates revoked. Default expiration value is one year from now.

     hxtool crl-sign \
     	--crl-file=crl.der \
     	--signer=FILE:ca.pem

Create a CRL with all certificates in the directory /path/to/revoked/dir included in the CRL as revoked. Also make it expire one month from now.

     hxtool crl-sign \
     	--crl-file=crl.der \
             --signer=FILE:ca.pem \
     	--lifetime='1 month' \
             DIR:/path/to/revoked/dir


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3.4 Application requirements

Application have different requirements on certificates. This section tries to expand what they are and how to use hxtool to generate certificates for those services.

3.4.1 HTTPS - server

     hxtool issue-certificate \
     	  --subject="CN=www.test.h5l.se,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
     	  --type="https-server" \
               --hostname="www.test.h5l.se" \
               --hostname="www2.test.h5l.se" \
               ...

3.4.2 HTTPS - client

     hxtool issue-certificate \
     	  --subject="UID=testus,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
     	  --type="https-client" \
               ...

3.4.3 S/MIME - email

There are two things that should be set in S/MIME certificates, one or more email addresses and an extended eku usage (EKU), emailProtection.

The email address format used in S/MIME certificates is defined in RFC2822, section 3.4.1 and it should be an “addr-spec”.

There are two ways to specifify email address in certificates. The old ways is in the subject distinguished name, this should not be used. The new way is using a Subject Alternative Name (SAN).

But even though email address is stored in certificates, they don't need to, email reader programs are required to accept certificates that doesn't have either of the two methods of storing email in certificates. In that case, they try to protect the user by printing the name of the certificate instead.

S/MIME certificate can be used in another special way. They can be issued with a NULL subject distinguished name plus the email in SAN, this is a valid certificate. This is used when you wont want to share more information then you need to.

hx509 issue-certificate supports adding the email SAN to certificate by using the –email option, –email also gives an implicit emailProtection eku. If you want to create an certificate without an email address, the option –type=email will add the emailProtection EKU.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
     	  --subject="UID=testus-email,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
     	  --type=email \
     	  --email="testus@test.h5l.se" \
               ...

An example of an certificate without and subject distinguished name with an email address in a SAN.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
     	  --subject="" \
     	  --type=email \
     	  --email="testus@test.h5l.se" \
               ...

3.4.4 PK-INIT

How to create a certificate for a KDC.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
         --type="pkinit-kdc" \
         --pk-init-principal="krbtgt/TEST.H5L.SE@TEST.H5L.SE" \
         --hostname kerberos.test.h5l.se \
         --hostname pal.test.h5l.se \
         ...

How to create a certificate for a user.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
         --type="pkinit-client" \
         --pk-init-principal="user@TEST.H5L.SE" \
         ...

3.4.5 XMPP/Jabber

The jabber server certificate should have a dNSname that is the same as the user entered into the application, not the same as the host name of the machine.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
     	  --subject="CN=xmpp1.test.h5l.se,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
               --hostname="xmpp1.test.h5l.se" \
               --hostname="test.h5l.se" \
               ...

The certificate may also contain a jabber identifier (JID) that, if the receiver allows it, authorises the server or client to use that JID.

When storing a JID inside the certificate, both for server and client, it's stored inside a UTF8String within an otherName entity inside the subjectAltName, using the OID id-on-xmppAddr (1.3.6.1.5.5.7.8.5).

To read more about the requirements, see RFC3920, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core.

hxtool issue-certificate have support to add jid to the certificate using the option --jid.

     hxtool issue-certificate \
     	  --subject="CN=Love,DC=test,DC=h5l,DC=se" \
               --jid="lha@test.h5l.se" \
               ...


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4 CMS signing and encryption

CMS is the Cryptographic Message System that among other, is used by S/MIME (secure email) and Kerberos PK-INIT. It's an extended version of the RSA, Inc standard PKCS7.


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4.1 CMS background


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5 Certificate matching

To match certificates hx509 have a special query language to match certifictes in queries and ACLs.


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5.1 Matching syntax

This is the language definitions somewhat slopply descriped:

     
     expr = TRUE,
          FALSE,
          ! expr,
          expr AND expr,
          expr OR expr,
          ( expr )
          compare
     
     compare =
          word == word,
          word != word,
          word IN ( word [, word ...])
          word IN %{variable.subvariable}
     
     word =
          STRING,
          %{variable}
     


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6 Software PKCS 11 module

PKCS11 is a standard created by RSA, Inc to support hardware and software encryption modules. It can be used by smartcard to expose the crypto primitives inside without exposing the crypto keys.

Hx509 includes a software implementation of PKCS11 that runs within the memory space of the process and thus exposes the keys to the application.


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6.1 How to use the PKCS11 module

     $ cat > ~/.soft-pkcs11.rc <<EOF
     mycert	cert	User certificate	FILE:/Users/lha/Private/pkinit.pem
     app-fatal	true
     EOF
     $ kinit -C PKCS11:/usr/heimdal/lib/hx509.so lha@EXAMPLE.ORG

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