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+ HOWTO proxy certificates
+
+0. WARNING
+
+NONE OF THE CODE PRESENTED HERE HAS BEEN CHECKED! The code is just examples to
+show you how things could be done. There might be typos or type conflicts, and
+you will have to resolve them.
+
+1. Introduction
+
+Proxy certificates are defined in RFC 3820. They are really usual certificates
+with the mandatory extension proxyCertInfo.
+
+Proxy certificates are issued by an End Entity (typically a user), either
+directly with the EE certificate as issuing certificate, or by extension through
+an already issued proxy certificate. Proxy certificates are used to extend
+rights to some other entity (a computer process, typically, or sometimes to the
+user itself). This allows the entity to perform operations on behalf of the
+owner of the EE certificate.
+
+See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3820.txt for more information.
+
+
+2. A warning about proxy certificates
+
+No one seems to have tested proxy certificates with security in mind. To this
+date, it seems that proxy certificates have only been used in a context highly
+aware of them.
+
+Existing applications might misbehave when trying to validate a chain of
+certificates which use a proxy certificate. They might incorrectly consider the
+leaf to be the certificate to check for authorisation data, which is controlled
+by the EE certificate owner.
+
+subjectAltName and issuerAltName are forbidden in proxy certificates, and this
+is enforced in OpenSSL. The subject must be the same as the issuer, with one
+commonName added on.
+
+Possible threats we can think of at this time include:
+
+ - impersonation through commonName (think server certificates).
+ - use of additional extensions, possibly non-standard ones used in certain
+ environments, that would grant extra or different authorisation rights.
+
+For these reasons, OpenSSL requires that the use of proxy certificates be
+explicitly allowed. Currently, this can be done using the following methods:
+
+ - if the application directly calls X509_verify_cert(), it can first call:
+
+ X509_STORE_CTX_set_flags(ctx, X509_V_FLAG_ALLOW_PROXY_CERTS);
+
+ Where ctx is the pointer which then gets passed to X509_verify_cert().
+
+ - proxy certificate validation can be enabled before starting the application
+ by setting the environment variable OPENSSL_ALLOW_PROXY_CERTS.
+
+In the future, it might be possible to enable proxy certificates by editing
+openssl.cnf.
+
+
+3. How to create proxy certificates
+
+Creating proxy certificates is quite easy, by taking advantage of a lack of
+checks in the 'openssl x509' application (*ahem*). You must first create a
+configuration section that contains a definition of the proxyCertInfo extension,
+for example:
+
+ [ v3_proxy ]
+ # A proxy certificate MUST NEVER be a CA certificate.
+ basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
+
+ # Usual authority key ID
+ authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer:always
+
+ # The extension which marks this certificate as a proxy
+ proxyCertInfo=critical,language:id-ppl-anyLanguage,pathlen:1,policy:text:AB
+
+It's also possible to specify the proxy extension in a separate section:
+
+ proxyCertInfo=critical,@proxy_ext
+
+ [ proxy_ext ]
+ language=id-ppl-anyLanguage
+ pathlen=0
+ policy=text:BC
+
+The policy value has a specific syntax, {syntag}:{string}, where the syntag
+determines what will be done with the string. The following syntags are
+recognised:
+
+ text indicates that the string is simply bytes, without any encoding:
+
+ policy=text:räksmörgås
+
+ Previous versions of this design had a specific tag for UTF-8 text.
+ However, since the bytes are copied as-is anyway, there is no need for
+ such a specific tag.
+
+ hex indicates the string is encoded in hex, with colons between each byte
+ (every second hex digit):
+
+ policy=hex:72:E4:6B:73:6D:F6:72:67:E5:73
+
+ Previous versions of this design had a tag to insert a complete DER
+ blob. However, the only legal use for this would be to surround the
+ bytes that would go with the hex: tag with whatever is needed to
+ construct a correct OCTET STRING. The DER tag therefore felt
+ superfluous, and was removed.
+
+ file indicates that the text of the policy should really be taken from a
+ file. The string is then really a file name. This is useful for
+ policies that are large (more than a few lines, e.g. XML documents).
+
+The 'policy' setting can be split up in multiple lines like this:
+
+ 0.policy=This is
+ 1.policy= a multi-
+ 2.policy=line policy.
+
+NOTE: the proxy policy value is the part which determines the rights granted to
+the process using the proxy certificate. The value is completely dependent on
+the application reading and interpreting it!
+
+Now that you have created an extension section for your proxy certificate, you
+can easily create a proxy certificate by doing:
+
+ openssl req -new -config openssl.cnf -out proxy.req -keyout proxy.key
+ openssl x509 -req -CAcreateserial -in proxy.req -days 7 -out proxy.crt \
+ -CA user.crt -CAkey user.key -extfile openssl.cnf -extensions v3_proxy
+
+You can also create a proxy certificate using another proxy certificate as
+issuer (note: I'm using a different configuration section for it):
+
+ openssl req -new -config openssl.cnf -out proxy2.req -keyout proxy2.key
+ openssl x509 -req -CAcreateserial -in proxy2.req -days 7 -out proxy2.crt \
+ -CA proxy.crt -CAkey proxy.key -extfile openssl.cnf -extensions v3_proxy2
+
+
+4. How to have your application interpret the policy?
+
+The basic way to interpret proxy policies is to start with some default rights,
+then compute the resulting rights by checking the proxy certificate against
+the chain of proxy certificates, user certificate and CA certificates. You then
+use the final computed rights. Sounds easy, huh? It almost is.
+
+The slightly complicated part is figuring out how to pass data between your
+application and the certificate validation procedure.
+
+You need the following ingredients:
+
+ - a callback function that will be called for every certificate being
+ validated. The callback be called several times for each certificate,
+ so you must be careful to do the proxy policy interpretation at the right
+ time. You also need to fill in the defaults when the EE certificate is
+ checked.
+
+ - a data structure that is shared between your application code and the
+ callback.
+
+ - a wrapper function that sets it all up.
+
+ - an ex_data index function that creates an index into the generic ex_data
+ store that is attached to an X509 validation context.
+
+Here is some skeleton code you can fill in:
+
+ #include <string.h>
+ #include <netdb.h>
+ #include <openssl/x509.h>
+ #include <openssl/x509v3.h>
+
+ #define total_rights 25
+
+ /*
+ * In this example, I will use a view of granted rights as a bit
+ * array, one bit for each possible right.
+ */
+ typedef struct your_rights {
+ unsigned char rights[(total_rights + 7) / 8];
+ } YOUR_RIGHTS;
+
+ /*
+ * The following procedure will create an index for the ex_data
+ * store in the X509 validation context the first time it's called.
+ * Subsequent calls will return the same index. */
+ static int get_proxy_auth_ex_data_idx(X509_STORE_CTX *ctx)
+ {
+ static volatile int idx = -1;
+ if (idx < 0) {
+ X509_STORE_lock(X509_STORE_CTX_get0_store(ctx));
+ if (idx < 0) {
+ idx = X509_STORE_CTX_get_ex_new_index(0,
+ "for verify callback",
+ NULL,NULL,NULL);
+ }
+ X509_STORE_unlock(X509_STORE_CTX_get0_store(ctx));
+ }
+ return idx;
+ }
+
+ /* Callback to be given to the X509 validation procedure. */
+ static int verify_callback(int ok, X509_STORE_CTX *ctx)
+ {
+ if (ok == 1) {
+ /*
+ * It's REALLY important you keep the proxy policy
+ * check within this section. It's important to know
+ * that when ok is 1, the certificates are checked
+ * from top to bottom. You get the CA root first,
+ * followed by the possible chain of intermediate
+ * CAs, followed by the EE certificate, followed by
+ * the possible proxy certificates.
+ */
+ X509 *xs = X509_STORE_CTX_get_current_cert(ctx);
+
+ if (X509_get_extension_flags(xs) & EXFLAG_PROXY) {
+ YOUR_RIGHTS *rights =
+ (YOUR_RIGHTS *)X509_STORE_CTX_get_ex_data(ctx,
+ get_proxy_auth_ex_data_idx(ctx));
+ PROXY_CERT_INFO_EXTENSION *pci =
+ X509_get_ext_d2i(xs, NID_proxyCertInfo, NULL, NULL);
+
+ switch (OBJ_obj2nid(pci->proxyPolicy->policyLanguage)) {
+ case NID_Independent:
+ /*
+ * Do whatever you need to grant explicit rights to
+ * this particular proxy certificate, usually by
+ * pulling them from some database. If there are none
+ * to be found, clear all rights (making this and any
+ * subsequent proxy certificate void of any rights).
+ */
+ memset(rights->rights, 0, sizeof(rights->rights));
+ break;
+ case NID_id_ppl_inheritAll:
+ /*
+ * This is basically a NOP, we simply let the current
+ * rights stand as they are.
+ */
+ break;
+ default:
+ /* This is usually the most complex section of code.
+ * You really do whatever you want as long as you
+ * follow RFC 3820. In the example we use here, the
+ * simplest thing to do is to build another, temporary
+ * bit array and fill it with the rights granted by
+ * the current proxy certificate, then use it as a
+ * mask on the accumulated rights bit array, and
+ * voilà, you now have a new accumulated rights bit
+ * array.
+ */
+ {
+ int i;
+ YOUR_RIGHTS tmp_rights;
+ memset(tmp_rights.rights, 0, sizeof(tmp_rights.rights));
+
+ /*
+ * process_rights() is supposed to be a procedure
+ * that takes a string and it's length, interprets
+ * it and sets the bits in the YOUR_RIGHTS pointed
+ * at by the third argument.
+ */
+ process_rights((char *) pci->proxyPolicy->policy->data,
+ pci->proxyPolicy->policy->length,
+ &tmp_rights);
+
+ for(i = 0; i < total_rights / 8; i++)
+ rights->rights[i] &= tmp_rights.rights[i];
+ }
+ break;
+ }
+ PROXY_CERT_INFO_EXTENSION_free(pci);
+ } else if (!(X509_get_extension_flags(xs) & EXFLAG_CA)) {
+ /* We have an EE certificate, let's use it to set default! */
+ YOUR_RIGHTS *rights =
+ (YOUR_RIGHTS *)X509_STORE_CTX_get_ex_data(ctx,
+ get_proxy_auth_ex_data_idx(ctx));
+
+ /* The following procedure finds out what rights the owner
+ * of the current certificate has, and sets them in the
+ * YOUR_RIGHTS structure pointed at by the second
+ * argument.
+ */
+ set_default_rights(xs, rights);
+ }
+ }
+ return ok;
+ }
+
+ static int my_X509_verify_cert(X509_STORE_CTX *ctx,
+ YOUR_RIGHTS *needed_rights)
+ {
+ int ok;
+ int (*save_verify_cb)(int ok,X509_STORE_CTX *ctx) =
+ X509_STORE_CTX_get_verify_cb(ctx);
+ YOUR_RIGHTS rights;
+
+ X509_STORE_CTX_set_verify_cb(ctx, verify_callback);
+ X509_STORE_CTX_set_ex_data(ctx, get_proxy_auth_ex_data_idx(ctx), &rights);
+ X509_STORE_CTX_set_flags(ctx, X509_V_FLAG_ALLOW_PROXY_CERTS);
+ ok = X509_verify_cert(ctx);
+
+ if (ok == 1) {
+ ok = check_needed_rights(rights, needed_rights);
+ }
+
+ X509_STORE_CTX_set_verify_cb(ctx, save_verify_cb);
+
+ return ok;
+ }
+
+
+If you use SSL or TLS, you can easily set up a callback to have the
+certificates checked properly, using the code above:
+
+ SSL_CTX_set_cert_verify_callback(s_ctx, my_X509_verify_cert, &needed_rights);
+
+
+--
+Richard Levitte