[kmf-discuss] kmf pktool

[David Major]

Wyllys Ingersoll wrote:
> David Major wrote:
> 
>>Wyllys Ingersoll wrote:
>>  
>>
>>>David -
>>>
>>>I'm adding kmf-discuss to the CC list.  Response below...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>David Major wrote:
>>>
>>>    
>>>
>>>>Hi Wyllys,
>>>>
>>>>We are really new to PKI.
>>>>
>>>>We are working on a data archiving project which requires SSLv3.
>>>>
>>>>	http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/mms/whatis/
>>>>
>>>>We are currently using OpenSSL with DSA certs.
>>>>      
>>>
>>>Why DSA?  
>>>    
>>
>>MMS is based on several IEEE 1244 specs.
>>
>>The IEEE standard 1244.2-2000 for Media Management Systems (MMS) Session
>>Security, Authentication, Initialization Protocol (SSAIP) calls out
>>using SHA1 to sign messages. According to the O'Reilly "Network Security
>>with OpenSSL" book RSA does not support SHA1/DSS1. To keep it simple, I
>>assumed DSA keys were needed so why not use DSA certificates. I also
>>assume RSA had a patent on it until the year 2000 and the IEEE spec was
>>published in 2000.
>>  
> 
> 
> You can have SHA1 signatures with an RSA key/cert, it is pretty common.  
> DSS, though,
> not so much.  RSA certs can have SHA1 or MD5 signatures, when you use 
> DSA, you are
> limited to SHA1 - at least insofar as the KMF support goes.  There are 
> probably other combinations,
> but we just used the most common ones.

Thanks Wyllys! I messed how SHA1 can be used and did not comprehend what
the book was trying to tell me.

> 
> 
>>KMF has support for DSA, but it hasn't been tested nearly
>>  
>>
>>>as well as RSA.
>>>    
>>
>>We'll also need to store the server's DH and dsa parameters in KMF.
>>Another assumption we made is all DSA certs are generated using the same
>>dsa parameters.
>>  
> 
> 
> The DSA parameters are encoded in the cert along with the public key 
> information.   DH
> parameters are not (I don't think).
> 
> 
> 
>>>>It seems (I feel) most applications are adding certificates to the
>>>>server and skipping getting the certificate request signed by the CA. Is
>>>>it valid to use certificates not signed by at least a self-signed
>>>>certificate authority or does pktool provide that function?
>>>>      
>>>
>>>No it is not secure or useful to have a certificate that is not signed. 
>>>In fact, it is not a certificate at all until it has a signature, even
>>>if it is only self-signed.   Most security experts frown on the use of
>>>self-signed certs in favor of actually getting them signed by a CA
>>>which will manage the revocation lists properly.
>>>
>>>    
>>
>>I did not see the value in it either, for example mercurial uses
>>ssh-keygen certs which I heard is bad practice to use other applications
>>certificate handling...
>>  
> 
> 
> The only problem with the above is that ssh-keygen is only creating 
> self-signed certs,
> there is no CA involved that can manage the certs and keys being used.
> 
> 
>>You'd have to get a mercurial account from Jon first.  To do that, you
>>need to generate an ssh key via
>>$ ssh-keygen -t dsa*
>>*Then send Jon the ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub and he'll be able to set it up for you
>>After you authorization, the rest is pretty simple.
>>
>>  
> 
> 
> I have a DSA cert that I've used with mercurial before.
> 
> 
> 
>>>>Can we use KMF across the network to get at a self-signed CA CRL?
>>>>      
>>>
>>>KMF can retrieve CRLs  and certificates across the network.  See the
>>>"kmf_download_crl" and "kmf_download_cert" functions documented here:
>>>http://opensolaris.org/os/project/kmf/files/KMFAPI_Reference.pdf
>>>
>>>What you may really want is the "kmf_validate_cert" function (also
>>>documented above). I don't know of any real-world apps that use these
>>>functions yet, but they have been tested.
>>>    
>>
>>Ok, the IEEE SSAIP spec allows for the hello command and welcome
>>commands to pass a certificate and an authentication message to valid
>>its peer on a non-SSL/SSL connection. We are thinking about using
>>two-authentication and possibly client authentication of the server's
>>certificate. We currently use the OpenSSL
>>SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file() and X509_verify_cert() group of
>>functions for peer verification and revoked cert check.
>>  
> 
> I believe that should work ok.
> 
> -Wyllys
>