PKCS11SIGN.CNF(5)

💖 pkcs11sign.cnf — the vibe guide 💖

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for pkcs11sign.cnf, section 5 (File Formats Manual). it's literally the config file that tells the OpenSSL PKCS#11 sign provider module how to exist. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

pkcs11sign.cnf — Configuration for OpenSSL PKCS#11 sign provider module

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So the pkcs11-sign-provider implements the OpenSSL 3.0 provider interface, and it does cryptographic operation on asymmetric key material that lives in PKCS#11 infrastructure (think opencryptoki, iykyk). For more info you wanna check out pkcs11sign(7). 💅

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

🔥 OpenSSL Configuration 🔥

The pkcs11-sign-provider can be configured application-specific or system-wide. Either way, the configuration file need to define and reference a section for the pkcs11-sign-provider, following the OpenSSL configuration syntax, config(5). (yes bestie, following the syntax is mandatory, no skipping 💀)

The pkcs11-sign-provider section specifies:

• the shared library of the provider itself — mandatory
• the shared library of the Cryptoki implementation — mandatory
• initialization parameters for the Cryptoki implementation — optional

It is also possible to specify a forward provider. If no forward provider is specified, the OpenSSL built-in default-provider is selected. ✨

The pkcs11-sign-provider must also be preferred in the algorithm-properties, so that all requests are directed to the pkcs11-sign-provider. This can either be done in the application or in the configuration file — and the config file is the recommended way, periodt.

🦋 Provider Section 🦋

A provider section in the OpenSSL configuration define generic parameters, as well as provider-specific parameters. Each provider section can be references in a providers sections. The pkcs11-sign-provider requires at least the generic provider section parameters module, identity, and activate. For more details about the generic provider parameters, see config(5).

• module (mandatory) — This parameter takes a path to the provider shared object file. For the pkcs11-sign-provider, use the path to the installation location of pkcs11sign.so (provider shared object).
• identity (optional) — This parameter specifies an alias name for the provider and overrides the provider name in the providers section. It is recommended to use the same name as in the providers.
• activate (optional) — If present, this parameter activates the provider section.

The pkcs11-sign-provider defines the provider specific parameters pkcs11sign-module-path, pkcs11sign-module-init-args, and pkcs11sign-forward. 👑

• pkcs11sign-module-path (mandatory) — This parameter takes the path to the shared object file of a PKCS#11 Cryptoki module implementation. The provider can be used with PKCS#11 Cryptoki modules, implementing the PKCS#11 standard version 3.0 (or compatible).
• pkcs11sign-forward (optional) — The pkcs11sign-forward parameter takes the name of a provider, to which all operations are forwarded, which are not handled by the pkcs11-sign-provider itself, e.g. key derivation for ECDHE. If this parameter is not specified in the provider section, the pkcs11-sign-provider will use the built-in OpenSSL default provider as forward.

The syntax for this parameter is "provider=<name_of_forward_provider>". See the configuration example for more details.

• pkcs11sign-module-init-args (optional, not PKCS#11-3.0 conform) — The pkcs11sign-module-init-args takes a parameter string whose reference is passed to the Cryptoki module as pReserved in CK_C_INITIALIZE_ARGS during initialization.

⚠️ Note: The PKCS#11 standard v3.0 specifies that the initialization of a Cryptoki module fails if pReserved is not a NULL_PTR. This parameter will only work with Cryptoki modules (e.g. libnss) which do not implement this strict behavior. A Cryptoki module, which strictly implements the PKCS#11 standard v3.0 will fail on C_Initialize() with CKR_ARGUMENTS_BAD if this parameter is set. 💀 so like, know what you're doing before you set this one.

🌈 EVP Configuration (alg_section) 🌈

This section configures the algorithm-properties for the EVP API. The pkcs11-sign-provider should be set as the preferred provider for all EVP algorithms by adding the expression "?provider=pkcs11sign" to the default_properties. ✨

🍓 Configuration example 🍓

This example shows a pkcs11-sign-provider configuration for opencryptoki. slay.

openssl_conf = openssl_init

[openssl_init]
providers = provider_sect
alg_section = evp_properties

[provider_sect]
default = default_sect
base = base_sect
pkcs11sign = pkcs11sign_sect

[evp_properties]
default_properties = ?provider=pkcs11sign

[pkcs11sign_sect]
module = /path/to/pkcs11sign.so
identity = pkcs11sign
pkcs11sign-module-path = /path/to/libopencryptoki.so.0
pkcs11sign-forward = provider=default
activate = 1

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

The pkcs11-sign-provider allows to generate a detailed log-file. The log-file generation can be enabled by setting the environment variable PKCS11SIGN_DEBUG and PKCS11SIGN_DEBUG_LEVEL. The internal logging is disabled, until the environment variables are set. (so like, it's giving silent until you ask, fr fr)

• PKCS11SIGN_DEBUG — This variable specifies the path to the log-file. If specified, it will enable the logging. The pkcs11-sign-provider will override an existing file in this location. 🙈 careful bestie.
• PKCS11SIGN_DEBUG_LEVEL — This variable specifies the debugging level. Supported values are error (0), warning (1), info (2), and debug (3).

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

config(5), pkcs11sign(7)

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👑 Copyright 👑

Copyright © International Business Machines Corp. 2022, 2023

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and that's the whole page bestie, you ate it up 💅 the source is pkcs11sign.cnf, dated 2024-05-14, and it's page PKCS11SIGN.CNF(5) — go forth and configure, main character energy only 🎀✨