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Alternative CA software

Explore a detailed breakdown of three distinct CA software solutions, including technical requirements, terminology, and additional insights. From Baltimore.uniCert's online signing system to the Python-based pyCA and the Java-driven solution for e-Science projects.

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Alternative CA software

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  1. Alternative CA software Jens G Jensen UK e-Science CA Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

  2. A talk in three parts • Part one being about Baltimore uniCert • Part two, being the second part, about pyCA • Part three, being the third and final part, about the Java based solution that we’re working on

  3. Part one Baltimore uniCert

  4. Baltimore uniCert • Spent a day talking with Baltimore techies • We haven’t actually tested it yet… • …so presentation will be salvo errore et omissione… • You can get more information from the Baltimore web site (but will have to register to get it ) • And we also know people you can ask…

  5. uniCert, technical requirements • Root CA is online – works with FIPS 140 level 3 or 4 HSM • Must use Oracle as underlying database (comes with licence) • CA Operator (see later) must run on Microsoft Windows • All other parts of the CA run on Solaris (two boxes required)

  6. uniCert, terminology • “CA” – refers to online signing system • “RA” – refers to online request management system • “RA Operator” (“RAO”) – the (human) RA • “CA Operator” (“CAO”) – the signing module • “ARM” – advanced registration module – sort of an “automated RAO”

  7. Schematics CA CAO CMP Cert Status Service SQL dB CMP RA RAX SQL SQL dB Web RAO Web interface User ARM

  8. uniCert, additional comments • Can modify contents of certificates easily • Point-and-click CA “policies” – also very easy to manage sub-CAs with different policies • Can have different policies for different RAs • Can do automatic renewal (on old keys) • Cannot do automatic re-key (i.e. re-key is like initial request – have to go through RAs again)

  9. Baltimore Tech • I quote: “Full development roadmap and commitment” • Standard protocols used whenever possible (CMP, OCSP, LDAP, SQL) – not for RAO, though • 30 day evaluation licence available • (of course this requires 30 consecutive days of my time…)

  10. uniCert in e-Science? • We decided not to evaluate it for now… • …too much work to migrate from existing solution (uniCert mostly assumes you start from scratch) • …too much work to adopt “weird” UK namespace requirements (OU and L identify RA) – may be possible with ARM but will probably be a lot of work

  11. Part two pyCA

  12. Overview • Written in python • Runs as CGI programs under Apache • Front end to OpenSSL • LDAP support • http://www.pyca.de/ • Not being actively developed at the moment – the author “does not have time but will bugfix”

  13. (Default) Certificate Hierarchy ROOT CA Email CA Auth CA Server CA Code Signing CA Email certs Auth certs Server certs Code signing

  14. Part three UK e-Science Java solution

  15. Overview • Submits request to our current OpenCA system • Written in Java as signed applets • Crypto based on the BouncyCastle and jcetaglib libraries http://www.bouncycastle.org/ http://jcetaglib.sourceforge.net/ • Still under development

  16. Obligatory Diagram Request Applet Online OpenCA Web User interface Private key Cert Applet Offline signing system cert & key User’s computer thingy CA

  17. PCKS#12 • Problems using KeyStore class from applet – not from java application • Applet complains of invalid signature on provider • Problem is with JCE 1.4, works with 1.3 • The KeyStore class is used to generate the PKCS#12 file

  18. Browser support • Browsers generally come equipped with JCE 1.1 or similar • Currently users must install 1.4

  19. Portability • Not very… • Written to take some of e-Science’s peculiarities into account • Namespace: OU and L, requirements on name forms • Written to submit requests into OpenCA • In the (near) future, can provide more generally useful CA software

  20. Future developments • Need to review the code, and clean it up • Can replace OpenCA: since applets provide the user friendly interface, no need for OpenCA • Plan to replace system with a simpler Apache/mod_ssl/Perl-CGI/OpenSSL system using a PostgreSQL database • Produce general non-eScience software?

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