Using the PKCS #11 Key Manager Provider

PKCS #11 is a standard interface used for interacting with devices capable of holding cryptographic information and performing cryptographic functions. The PKCS #11 interface has two common uses of interest for the directory server:

• Cryptographic accelerators use this interface to allow products to offload their cryptographic processing to an external board (or in some cases, a special module inside the system's CPU or a framework inside the OS kernel), which might provide better performance for those operations.

• Hardware security modules (HSMs) use this interface to provide a secure repository for storing key information. This significantly reduces the likelihood that sensitive key information will be exposed and helps protect the overall integrity of the secure communication mechanisms.

At present, the PKCS #11 support that the directory server provides has been tested and verified only on systems running at least Solaris 10 (on SPARC^® and x86/x64 systems) through the use of the Solaris OS cryptographic framework. Any device that plugs into this Solaris cryptographic framework should be supported in this manner. This includes the softtoken device, which is simulated in software and is therefore available on all systems supporting the Solaris cryptographic framework regardless of whether they have a hardware device providing PKCS #11 support.

If you do have a third-party PKCS #11 device installed in a Solaris system, it is likely that the Solaris OS cryptographic framework is already configured to access that device. However, if you will simply be using the software token or if you are running on a Sun Fire^TM T1000 or T2000 system and want to take advantage of the cryptographic processor included in the UltraSPARC—T1^® CPU, you will likely need to initialize the PKCS #11 interface. This should first be accomplished by choosing a PIN to use for the certificate store, which can be done with this command:

$ pktool setpin

This command prompts you for the current passphrase. If you have not yet used the Solaris OS cryptographic framework, the default passphrase is changeme. You are then prompted twice for the new password.

Note - This step should be done while logged in as the user or role that will be used to run the directory server, since each user might have a different set of certificates.

At this point, it should be possible to use the Java keytool utility to interact with the Solaris cryptographic framework through PKCS #11. This will work much in the same way as it does when working with JKS or PKCS#12 keystores, with the following exceptions:

• The value of the -keystore argument must be NONE.

• The value of the -storetype argument must be PKCS11.

• You should not use the -keypass argument, and the tool will not prompt you for that password interactively if you do not provide it.

• The value of the -storepass argument must be the passphrase that you chose when using the pktool setpin command. Alternately, if you do not provide this argument on the command line, this is the password that you should enter when prompted.

For example, the following commands use the PKCS #11 interface to generate a self-signed certificate through the Solaris cryptographic framework:

$ keytool -genkey -alias server-cert -keyalg rsa \
  -dname "CN=server.example.com,O=example.com,C=US" \
  -keystore NONE -storetype PKCS11 -storepass password

Note - The preceding command uses syntax for the keytool provided with Java 1.5. If your installation uses Java 1.6, substitute -genkeypair for the -genkey option.

$ keytool -selfcert -alias server-cert -validity 1825 \
  -keystore NONE -storetype PKCS11 -storepass password

When the certificate is installed in the PKCS #11 keystore, the directory server must be configured to use that keystore. Configure the PKCS #11 keystore provider in the same way as the entry for the JKS and PKCS#12 keystore manager providers, with the exception that the key-store-file attribute is not included. However, a PIN is still required and is provided either directly, in a PIN file, through a Java property, or through an environment variable.

The following example uses dsconfig to configure the PKCS #11 key manager provider:

$ dsconfig -D "cn=directory manager" -w password -X -n \
  set-key-manager-provider-prop --provider-name "PKCS11" --advanced

For a complete list of configurable properties, see “PKCS11 Key Manager Provider Configuration” in the Sun OpenDS Standard Edition 2.0 Configuration Reference..