1 / 18

UK e-Science Certification Authority

UK e-Science Certification Authority. Overview and Status. What is a certificate?. A certificate and the corresponding private key constitute the fundamental personal identifier in a PKI.

flint
Download Presentation

UK e-Science Certification Authority

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. UK e-Science Certification Authority Overview and Status Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  2. What is a certificate? • A certificate and the corresponding private key constitute the fundamental personal identifier in a PKI. • A certificate identifies a person to a remote computer (or vice versa) – the private key is needed to complete the authentication. • A certificate does not contain personal information (other than the user’s name). • In particular, a certificate does not contain authorisation information. Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  3. Anatomy of a certificate Public Key A text string ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV Validity Data Extensions Signature from CA’s private key Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  4. How a certificate is issued • The Registration Authority (RA) approves a request for a certificate. The RA is local to the users. • The CA then issues the corresponding certificate. Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  5. How does it work? 1. Scientist wishes to access a resource, so he sends a copy of the certificate to the resource 2. Resource says: prove it’s your certificate Challenge Response 3. Scientist proves that he has the corresponding private key 4. Resource is convinced that scientist is who he claims to be and decides to give him access Private Key Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  6. Objectives • Issue certificates to “UK e-Science activities funded by the UK Research Councils” • Issue personal, server, and service certificates • May also issue certificates to UK collaborators in other Grid projects • So far, all have been covered by e-Science Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  7. Applicability • Personal certificates can be used by individuals to identify themselves to resources (Grid services: gatekeeper, storage, etc). • Can also be used for other public-key purposes such as email encryption. • Server and service certificates are required to prevent “man-in-the-middle” attacks – to ensure that users talk to the resource they think they are talking to. Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  8. Trust, or “selling” certificates • Users and Resource Administrators decide whether to trust certificates from a CA based on the CA’s CP/CPS. (Certificate Policy and Certification Practices Statement) • The CP/CPS is a formal document describing the security and procedures of the CA. • Groups of peer CAs can form PMAs which decide inter-CA trust relationships. • Cross Signing is possible but is not used much in practice for Grid CAs. Instead, the PMA issues a list of “trusted” CAs (conforming to some minimal requirements). Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  9. PMAs • Member of DataGrid and CrossGrid PMA Group : • CERN, Czech Republic, CNRS (France), Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Nordic Countries, Portugal, Russia, Spain, UK, US DOE. • Slovakia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain. • Collaboration with US DOE Group (via DOE CAs). • Collaboration with GridForum CA group. Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  10. Importance of PMA collaborations • Define and agree minimal requirements for conforming CAs. • This makes it easier for Resource Administrators to decide whether to trust a given CA or not. For example, currently most DataGrid resources trust all DataGrid CAs. • Discuss technical issues and new developments (e.g. specialised hardware, interaction with Kerberos CAs). • Advise less experienced and get advice from more experienced CA managers. Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  11. Key security issues • Protection of CA’s private key • User identification • Require photo id? Or can anyone get a certificate? • Trade-off between ease of getting certificate and applicability of certificate • Appointments – ensure that trusted personnel is formally appointed by a suitable authority Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  12. New security requirements • RA operators must be appointed by a formal letter signed by the head of department (or similar) in the institution employing the RA operators. • Users must show photo id. • Use HTTPS for RACA communication. Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  13. RA structure = Appointment Head of Department Manager Operator Operator Department Operators verify users’ requests Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  14. What’s done • Software (OpenCA based) installed • Many RAs appointed and trained, certificates issued • CA staff trained • Close-to-final CP/CPS issued • Physical security implemented • Approved as DataGrid CA (December) Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  15. What’s currently being done • More RAs being appointed and trained • CP/CPS being updated to reflect proposed change in extensions • RA and CA procedures being reviewed - must ensure that they conform to CPS Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  16. To do • Appoint enough RAs to cover the entire UK e-Science and Grid community • Few missing, some are currently being appointed • Issue final CP/CPS • Update extensions to conform to new policies and recommendations Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  17. Status • New e-Science CA being deployed • UKHEP CA will be terminated • UKHEP certificates will be allowed to expire • UKHEP still issues certificates for users not yet covered by new CA Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

  18. Statistics, 06 Jan 2002 • 190 valid certificates (236 issued, 46 revoked) • 24 Ras (more waiting for approval/training etc) • Issuing 50 certs /month • Adding 3 RAs / month • Adding 6 RA operators /month Jens G Jensen, CCLRC/RAL

More Related