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Crypt-OpenSSL-CA-0.23
River stage one • 2 direct dependents • 3 total dependents
++
/ Crypt::OpenSSL::CA

NAME

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA - The crypto parts of an X509v3 Certification Authority

SYNOPSIS

    use Crypt::OpenSSL::CA;

    my $dn = Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME->new
            (C => "fr", CN => "test");

    my $privkey = Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey
         ->parse($pem_private_key, -password => "secret");
    my $pubkey = $privkey->get_public_key;

    my $x509 = Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509->new($pubkey);
    $x509->set_serial("0xdeadbeef");
    $x509->set_subject_DN($dn);
    $x509->set_issuer_DN($dn);
    $x509->set_extension("basicConstraints", "CA:TRUE",
                         -critical => 1);
    $x509->set_extension("subjectKeyIdentifier",
                         $pubkey->get_openssl_keyid);
    $x509->set_extension("authorityKeyIdentifier",
                         { keyid => $pubkey->get_openssl_keyid });
    my $pem = $x509->sign($privkey, "sha1");

DESCRIPTION

This module performs the cryptographic operations necessary to issue X509 certificates and certificate revocation lists (CRLs). It is implemented as a Perl wrapper around the popular OpenSSL library.

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA is an essential building block to create an X509v3 Certification Authority or CA, a crucial part of an X509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). A CA is defined by RFC4210 and friends (see Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Resources) as a piece of software that can (among other things) issue and revoke X509v3 certificates. To perform the necessary cryptographic operations, it needs a private key that is kept secret (currently only RSA is supported).

Despite the name and unlike the openssl ca command-line tool, Crypt::OpenSSL::CA is not designed as a full-fledged X509v3 Certification Authority (CA) in and of itself: some key features are missing, most notably persistence (e.g. to remember issued and revoked certificates between two CRL issuances) and security-policy based screening of certificate requests. Crypt::OpenSSL::CA mostly does ``just the crypto'', and this is deliberate: OpenSSL's features such as configuration file parsing, that are best implemented in Perl, have been left out for maximum flexibility.

API Overview

The crypto in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA is implemented using the OpenSSL cryptographic library, which is lifted to Perl thanks to a bunch of glue code in C and a lot of magic in Inline::C and Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Inline::C.

Most of said glue code is accessible as class and instance methods in the ancillary classes such as "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509" and "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL"; the parent namespace Crypt::OpenSSL::CA is basically empty. Each of these ancillary classes wrap around OpenSSL's ``object class'' with the same name (e.g. "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME" corresponds to the X509_NAME_foo functions in libcrypto.so). OpenSSL concepts are therefore made available in an elegant object-oriented API; moreover, they are subjugated to Perl's automatic garbage collection, which allows the programmer to stop worrying about that. Additionally, Crypt::OpenSSL::CA provides some glue in Perl too, which is mostly syntactic sugar to get a more Perlish API out of the C in OpenSSL.

Note that the OpenSSL-wrapping classes don't strive for completeness of the exposed API; rather, they seek to export enough features to make them simultaneously testable and useful for the purpose of issuing X509 certificates and CRLs. In particular, Crypt::OpenSSL::CA is currently not so good at parsing already-existing cryptographic artifacts (However, "PATCHES WELCOME", plus there are other modules on the CPAN that already do that.)

Error Management

All functions and methods in this module, including XS code, throw exceptions as if by "die" in perlfunc if anything goes wrong. The resulting exception is either a plain string (in case of memory exhaustion problems, incorrect arguments, and so on) or an exception blessed in class Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Error with the following structure:

  {
    -message => $message,
    -openssl => [
                  $openssl_error_1,
                  $openssl_error_2,
                  ...
                ]
  }

where $message is a message by Crypt::OpenSSL::CA and the -openssl list is the contents of OpenSSL's error stack at the time when the exception was raised.

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME

This Perl class wraps around the X509_NAME_* functions of OpenSSL, that deal with X500 DNs. Unlike OpenSSL's X509_NAME, Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME objects are immutable: only the constructor can alter them.

new_utf8 ($dnkey1, $dnval1, ...)

Constructs and returns a new Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME object; implemented in terms of X509_NAME_add_entry_by_txt(3). The RDN elements are to be passed in the same order as they will appear in the RDNSequence ASN.1 object that will be constructed, that is, the most-significant parts of the DN (e.g. C) must come first. Be warned that this is order is the reverse of RFC4514-compliant DNs such as those that appear in LDAP, as per section 2.1 of said RFC4514.

Keys can be given either as uppercase short names (e.g. OU - ou is not allowed), long names with the proper case (organizationalUnitName) or dotted-integer OIDs ("2.5.4.11"). Values are interpreted as strings. Certain keys (especially countryName) limit the range of acceptable values.

All DN values will be converted to UTF-8 if needed, and the returned DN string encodes all its RDN components as UTF8Strings regardless of their value, as mandated by RFC3280 section 4.1.2.4. This may pose a risk for compatibility with buggy, uh, I mean, proprietary software; consider using new() instead of new_utf8().

new_utf8 does not support multiple AVAs in a single RDN. If you don't understand this sentence, consider yourself a lucky programmer.

See also "get_subject_DN" and "get_issuer_DN" for an alternative way of constructing instances of this class.

new ($dnkey1, $dnval1, ...)

Constructs a DN in just the same way as "new_utf8", except that the resulting DN will be encoded using the heuristics recommended by the "X509 Style Guide" in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Resources: namely, by selecting the ``least wizz-bang'' character set that will accomodate the data actually passed. Note that this behavior runs afoul of RFC3280 section 4.1.2.4, which instates december 31, 2003 as a flag day after which all certificates should be unconditionally encoded as UTF-8; use "new_utf8" if you prefer RFC compliance over making proprietary software work.

to_string ()

Returns a string representation of this DN object. Uses X509_NAME_oneline(3). The return value does not conform to any standard; in particular it does not comply with RFC4514, and embedded Unicode characters will not be dealt with elegantly. to_string() is therefore intended only for debugging.

to_asn1 ()

Returns an ASN.1 DER representation of this DN object, as a string of bytes.

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey

This Perl class wraps around the public key abstraction of OpenSSL. Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey objects are immutable.

parse_RSA ($pemstring)

Parses an RSA public key from $pemstring and returns an Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey instance. See also "get_public_key" for an alternative way of creating instances of this class.

validate_SPKAC ($spkacstring)

validate_PKCS10 ($pkcs10string)

Validates a "CSR" in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::AlphabetSoup of the respective type and returns the public key as an object of class Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey if the signature is correct. Throws an error if the signature is invalid. validate_SPKAC($spkacstring) wants the ``naked'' Base64 string, without a leading SPKAC= marker, URI escapes, newlines or any such thing.

Note that those methods are in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA only by virtue of them requiring cryptographic operations, best implemented using OpenSSL. We definitely do not want to emulate the request validity checking features of openssl ca, which are extremely inflexible and that a full-fledged PKI built on top of Crypt::OpenSSL::CA would have to reimplement anyway. If one wants to parse other details of the SPKAC or PKCS#10 messages (including the challenge password if present), one should use other means such as Convert::ASN1; ditto if one just wants to extract the public key and doesn't care about the signature.

to_PEM

Returns the contents of the public key as a PEM string.

get_modulus ()

Returns the modulus of this Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey instance, assuming that it is an RSA or DSA key. This is similar to the output of openssl x509 -modulus, except that the leading Modulus= identifier is trimmed and the returned string is not newline-terminated.

get_openssl_keyid ()

Returns a cryptographic hash over this public key, as OpenSSL's subjectKeyIdentifier=hash configuration directive to openssl ca would compute it for a certificate that contains this key. The return value is a string of colon-separated pairs of uppercase hex digits, adequate e.g. for passing as the $value parameter to "set_extension".

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey

This Perl class wraps around the private key abstraction of OpenSSL. Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey objects are immutable.

parse ($pemkey, %named_options)

Parses a private key $pemkey and returns an instance of Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey. Available named options are:

-password => $password

Tells that $pemkey is a software key encrypted with password $password.

Only software keys are supported for now (see "TODO" about engine support).

get_public_key ()

Returns the public key associated with this Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey instance, as an "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey" object.

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509

This Perl class wraps around the X509 certificate creation routines of OpenSSL. Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509 objects are mutable; they typically get constructed piecemeal, and signed once at the end with "sign".

There is also limited support in this class for parsing certificates using "parse" and various read accessors, but only insofar as it helps Crypt::OpenSSL::CA be feature-compatible with OpenSSL's command-line CA. Namely, Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509 is currently only able to extract the information that customarily gets copied over from the CA's own certificate to the certificates it issues: the DN (with "get_subject_DN" on the CA's certificate), the serial number (with "get_serial") and the public key identifier (with "get_subject_keyid"). Patches are of course welcome, but TIMTOWTDI: please consider using a dedicated ASN.1 parser such as Convert::ASN1 or Crypt::X509 instead.

Support for OpenSSL-style extensions

"set_extension" and "add_extension" work with OpenSSL's X509V3_EXT_METHOD mechanism, which is summarily described in "openssl.txt" in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Resources. This means that most X509v3 extensions that can be set through OpenSSL's configuration file can be passed to this module as Perl strings in exactly the same way; see "set_extension" for details.

Constructors and Methods

new ($pubkey)

Create an empty certificate shell waiting to be signed for public key $pubkey, an instance of "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey". All mandatory values in an X509 certificate are set to a dummy default value, which the caller will probably want to alter using the various set_* methods in this class. Returns an instance of the class Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509, wrapping around an OpenSSL X509 * handle.

parse ($pemcert)

Parses a PEM-encoded X509 certificate and returns an instance of Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509 that already has a number of fields set. Despite this, the returned object can be "sign"ed anew if one wants.

verify ($pubkey)

Verifies that this certificate is validly signed by $pubkey, an instance of "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey", and throws an exception if not.

get_public_key ()

Returns an instance of "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PublicKey" that corresponds to the RSA or DSA public key in this certificate. Memory-management wise, this performs a copy of the underlying EVP_PKEY * structure; therefore it is safe to destroy this certificate object afterwards and keep only the returned public key.

get_subject_DN ()

get_issuer_DN ()

Returns the subject DN (resp. issuer DN) of this Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509 instance, as an "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME" instance. Memory-management wise, this performs a copy of the underlying X509_NAME * structure; therefore it is safe to destroy this certificate object afterwards and keep only the returned DN.

set_subject_DN ($dn_object)

set_issuer_DN ($dn_object)

Sets the subject and issuer DNs from "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME" objects.

get_subject_keyid ()

Returns the contents of the subjectKeyIdentifier field, if present, as a string of colon-separated pairs of uppercase hex digits. If no such extension is available, returns undef. Depending on the whims of the particular CA that signed this certificate, this may or may not be the same as $self->get_public_key->get_openssl_keyid.

get_serial ()

Returns the serial number as a scalar containing a lowercase, hexadecimal string that starts with "0x".

set_serial ($serial_hexstring)

Sets the serial number to $serial_hexstring, which must be a scalar containing a lowercase, hexadecimal string that starts with "0x".

get_notBefore ()

set_notBefore ($startdate)

get_notAfter ()

set_notAfter ($enddate)

Get or set the validity period of the certificate. The dates are in the GMT timezone, with the format yyyymmddhhmmssZ (it's a literal Z at the end, meaning "Zulu" in case you care).

extension_by_name ($extname)

Returns true if and only if $extname is a valid X509v3 certificate extension, susceptible of being passed to "set_extension" and friends.

set_extension ($extname, $value, %options, %more_openssl_config)

Sets X509 extension $extname to the value $value in the certificate, erasing any extension previously set for $extname in this certificate. To make a long story short, $extname and $value may be almost any explicit legit key-value pair in the OpenSSL configuration file's section that is pointed to by the x509_extensions parameter (see the details in the x509v3_config(5ssl) manpage provided with OpenSSL). For example, OpenSSL's

   subjectKeyIdentifier=00:DE:AD:BE:EF

becomes

   $cert->set_extension( subjectKeyIdentifier => "00:DE:AD:BE:EF");

However, implicit extension values (ie, deducted from the CA certificate or the subject DN) are not supported:

  $cert->set_extension("authorityKeyIdentifier",
                       "keyid:always,issuer:always");  # WRONG!
  $cert->set_extension(subjectAltName  => 'email:copy');  # WRONG!

The reason is that we don't want the API to insist on the CA certificate when setting these extensions. You can do this instead:

  $cert->set_extension(authorityKeyIdentifier =>
                       { keyid  => $ca->get_subject_keyid(),
                         issuer => $ca->get_issuer_dn(),
                         serial => $ca->get_serial() });

  $cert->set_extension(subjectAltName  => 'foo@example.com');

where $ca is the CA's "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509" object, constructed for instance with "parse".

(Note in passing, that using the issuer and serial elements for an authorityKeyIdentifier, while discussed in RFC3280 section 4.2.1.1, is frowned upon in "X509 Style Guide" in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Resources).

The arguments to set_extension after the first two are interpreted as a list of key-value pairs. Those that start with a hyphen are the named options; they are interpreted like so:

-critical => 1

Sets the extension as critical. You may alternatively use the OpenSSL trick of prepending "critical," to $value, but that's ugly.

-critical => 0

Do not set the extension as critical. If critical is present in $value, an exception will be raised.

The extra key-value key arguments that do not start with a hyphen are passed to OpenSSL as sections in its configuration file object; the corresponding values must therefore be references to hash tables. For example, here is how to transcribe the certificatePolicies example from "openssl.txt" in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Resources into Perl:

    $cert->set_extension(certificatePolicies =>
                          'ia5org,1.2.3.4,1.5.6.7.8,@polsect',
                         -critical => 0,
                         polsect => {
                            policyIdentifier => '1.3.5.8',
                            "CPS.1"        => 'http://my.host.name/',
                            "CPS.2"        => 'http://my.your.name/',
                            "userNotice.1" => '@notice',
                         },
                         notice => {
                            explicitText  => "Explicit Text Here",
                            organization  => "Organisation Name",
                            noticeNumbers => '1,2,3,4',
                         });

add_extension ($extname, $value, %options, %more_openssl_config)

Just like "set_extension", except that if there is already a value for this extension, it will not be removed; instead there will be a duplicate extension in the certificate. Note that this is explicitly forbiden by RFC3280 section 4.2, third paragraph, so maybe you shouldn't do that.

remove_extension ($extname)

Removes any and all extensions named $extname in this certificate.

dump ()

Returns a textual representation of all the fields inside the (unfinished) certificate. This is done using OpenSSL's X509_print().

sign ($privkey, $digestname)

Signs the certificate (TADA!!). $privkey is an instance of "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey"; $digestname is the name of one of cryptographic digests supported by OpenSSL, e.g. "sha1" or "sha256" (notice that using "md5" is strongly discouraged due to security considerations; see http://www.win.tue.nl/~bdeweger/CollidingCertificates/). Returns the PEM-encoded certificate as a string.

supported_digests()

This is a class method (invoking it as an instance method also works though). Returns the list of all supported digest names for the second argument of "sign". The contents of this list depends on the OpenSSL version and the details of how it was compiled.

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL

This Perl class wraps around OpenSSL's CRL creation features.

new ()

new ($version)

Creates and returns an empty Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL object. $version is the CRL version, e.g. 1 or 2 or CRLv1 or CRLv2 for idiomatics. The default is CRLv2, as per RFC3280. Setting the version to 1 will cause add_extension() and "add_entry" with extensions to throw an exception instead of working.

is_crlv2 ()

Returns true iff this CRL object was set to CRLv2 at "new" time.

set_issuer_DN ($dn_object)

Sets the CRL's issuer name from an "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_NAME" object.

set_lastUpdate ($enddate)

set_nextUpdate ($startdate)

Sets the validity period of the certificate. The dates must be in the GMT timezone, with the format yyyymmddhhmmssZ (it's a literal Z at the end, meaning "Zulu" in case you care).

set_extension ($extname, $value, %options, %more_openssl_config)

add_extension ($extname, $value, %options, %more_openssl_config)

remove_extension ($extname)

Manage CRL extensions as per RFC3280 section 5.2. These methods work like their respective counterparts in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509. Recognized CRL extensions are:

authorityKeyIdentifier

Works the same as in "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509". Implements RFC3280 section 5.2.1.

crlNumber

An extension (described in RFC3280 section 5.2.3, and made mandatory by section 5.1.2.1) to identify the CRL by a monotonically increasing sequence number. The value of this extension must be a serial number, with the same syntax as the first argument to "set_serial".

freshestCRL

An optional RFC3280 extension that indicates support for delta-CRLs, as described by RFC3280 section 5.2.6. The expected $value and %more_openssl_config are the same as for cRLDistributionPoints in an extension for certificates (see "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509").

deltaCRLIndicator

An optional RFC3280 extension that indicates that this CRL is as a delta-CRL, pursuant to RFC3280 section 5.2.4. For this extension, $value must be a serial number, with the same syntax as the first argument to "set_serial".

Note that CRL extensions are not implemented by OpenSSL as of version 0.9.8c, but rather by C glue code directly in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA.

add_entry ($serial_hex, $revocationdate, %named_options)

Adds an entry to the CRL. $serial_hex is the serial number of the certificate to be revoked, as a scalar containing a lowercase, hexadecimal string starting with "0x". $revocationdate is a time in "Zulu" format, like in "set_lastUpdate".

The following named options provide access to CRLv2 extensions as defined in RFC3280 section 5.3:

-reason => $reason

Sets the revocation reason to $reason, a plain string. Available reasons are unspecified (which is not the same thing as not setting a revocation reason at all), keyCompromise, CACompromise, affiliationChanged, superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold and removeFromCRL.

-compromise_time => $time

The time at which the compromise is suspected to have taken place, which may be earlier than the $revocationdate. The syntax for $time is the same as that for $revocationdate. Note that this CRL extension only makes sense if -reason is either keyCompromise or CACompromise.

-hold_instruction => $oid
-hold_instruction => $string

Sets the hold instruction token to $oid (which is a string containing a dot-separated sequence of decimal integers), or $string (one of the predefined string constants none, callIssuer, reject and pickupToken, case-insensitive). This option only makes sense if the revocation reason is certificateHold. See also "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionNone", "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionCallIssuer", "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionReject" and "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionPickupToken".

All the above options should be specified at most once. If they are specified several times, only the last occurence in the parameter list will be taken into account.

The criticality is set according to the recommendations of RFC3280 section 5.3; practically speaking, all certificate entry extensions are noncritical, given that 5.3.4-style certificateIssuer is UNIMPLEMENTED. Support for critical certificate entry extensions may be added in a future release of Crypt::OpenSSL::CA.

sign ($privkey, $digestname)

Signs the CRL. $privkey is an instance of "Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::PrivateKey"; $digestname is the name of one of cryptographic digests supported by OpenSSL, e.g. "sha1" or "sha256" (notice that using "md5" is strongly discouraged due to security considerations; see http://www.win.tue.nl/~bdeweger/CollidingCertificates/). Returns the PEM-encoded CRL as a string.

supported_digests()

This is a class method (invoking it as an instance method also works though). Returns the list of all supported digest names for the second argument of "sign". The contents of this list depends on the OpenSSL version and the details of how it was compiled.

dump ()

Returns a textual representation of all the fields inside the (unfinished) CRL. This is done using OpenSSL's X509_CRL_print().

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionNone

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionCallIssuer

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionReject

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL::holdInstructionPickupToken

OID constants for the respective hold instructions (see the -hold_instruction named option in "add_entry"). All these functions return a string containing a dot-separated sequence of decimal integers.

TODO

Add centralized key generation.

Add some comfort features such as the ability to transfer certification information automatically from the CA certificate to the issued certificates and CRLs, RFC3280 compliance checks (especially as regards the criticality of X509v3 certificate extensions) and so on.

OpenSSL engines are only a few hours of work away, but aren't done yet.

Key formats other than RSA are not (fully) supported, and at any rate, not unit-tested.

Only the subset of the CRL extensions required to support delta-CRLs is working, as documented in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::X509_CRL; RFC3280 sections 5.2.2 (issuerAltName), 5.2.5 (issuingDistributionPoint) and 5.3.4 (certificateIssuer entry extension) are UNIMPLEMENTED. I am quite unlikely to implement these arcane parts of the specification myself; "PATCHES WELCOME".

SEE ALSO

Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Resources, Crypt::OpenSSL::CA::Inline::C.

AUTHOR

Dominique QUATRAVAUX, <domq at cpan.org>

PATCHES WELCOME

If you feel that a key feature is missing in Crypt::OpenSSL::CA, please feel free to send me patches; I'll gladly apply them and re-release the whole module within a short time. The only thing I require is that the patch cover all three of documentation, unit tests and code; and that tests pass successfully afterwards, of course, at least on your own machine. In particular, this means that patches that only add code will be declined, no matter how desirable the new features are.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-crypt-openssl-ca at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Crypt-OpenSSL-CA. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

    perldoc Crypt::OpenSSL::CA

You can also look for information at:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IDEALX (http://www.idealx.com/) is the company that put food on my family's table for 5 years while I was busy coding IDX-PKI. I owe them pretty much everything I know about PKIX, and a great deal of my todays' Perl-fu. However, the implementation of this module is original and does not re-use any code in IDX-PKI.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2007 Siemens Business Services France SAS, all rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.