Storing your grid certificate on an Aladdin eToken

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Of course, before attempting to store or generate a grid certificate on your eToken, please read the instructions on Using an Aladdin eToken PRO to store grid certificates and make sure the eToken RTE software is properly installed before continuing.

Note

On Windows 

 PKCS11_MOD=$WINDIR\\system32\\etpkcs11.dll

On Linux 

 PKCS11_MOD=/usr/local/lib/libetpkcs11.so

Generating a new certificate ON the eToken

The best method for keeping your precious grid private key safe is to make sure it never leaves the eToken. If you generate a private key on the eToken itself then nobody can extract a copy from it. Here's the procedure: 

 export PCPL=2
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./platform/lib
 export PKCS11_ENG=./platform/lib/engine_pkcs11.so  # Linux
 export PKCS11_MOD=/usr/local/lib/libetpkcs11.so    # Linux

 export PKCS11_ENG=./cygwin/bin/engine_pkcs11.dll   # Cygwin
 export PKCS11_MOD=$WINDIR\\system32\\etpkcs11.dll  # Cygwin

where platform can be either fc5 or rhel4.

  • generate a new RSA private key on the eToken
 # pkcs11-tool --module $PKCS11_MOD \
               --keypairgen --key-type rsa:1024  \
               --login \
               --label "janjust@nikhef.nl" --id 12345678
 Please enter User PIN:  (please enter your User PIN)
 Key pair generated:
 Private Key Object; RSA
   label:      janjust@nikhef.nl
   ID:         12345678
   Usage:      decrypt, sign, unwrap
 Public Key Object; RSA 1024 bits
   label:      janjust@nikhef.nl
   ID:         12345678
   Usage:      encrypt, verify, wrap

where you can pick your own label and id, of course.

  • next, create a new Certificate Signing Request using
 # openssl req -engine pkcs11 -keyform engine -key 12345678 -new -text \
               -out newcert.csr -config openssl.cnf \
               -subj "/O=dutchgrid/O=users/O=nikhef/CN=Jan Just Keijser"
 engine "pkcs11" set.
 PKCS#11 token PIN: (please enter your User PIN)
  • Human Intervention Required: Get your local Certificate Authority to sign the certificate request.
  • take the signed certificate request newcert.pem and convert it to a format that pkcs11-tool can grok:
 # openssl x509 -in newcert.pem -outform der -out newcert.der
  • write the newcert.der file back to the eToken (with the SAME --label and --id as you used to generate the RSA private key!):
 # pkcs11-tool --module $PKCS11_MOD \
               -w newcert.der --type cert \
               --login \
               --label "janjust@nikhef.nl" --id 12345678 
 Please enter User PIN:  (please enter your User PIN)
 Generated certificate:
 Certificate Object, type = X.509 cert
   label:      janjust@nikhef.nl
   ID:         12345678

Storing your existing grid certificate

The easiest and safest method for storing your existing grid certificate on an Aladdin eToken is to use your web browser. Start your browser, import the certificate (in PKCS12 format) and store it on the eToken Security Device.

It is possible to store data on your eToken using the appropriate pkcs11-tool commands but especially storing your private key (userkey.pem file) can disturb the terminal settings.

To store your existing grid certificate (usercert.pem and userkey.pem files) use the following commands

  • Convert your public certificate to DER format:
 # openssl x509 -in ~/.globus/usercert.pem -outform der -out usercert.der
  • Load your public certificate on the eToken (you must use your user PIN to do this):
 # pkcs11-tool --module $PKCS11_MOD \
               --label "My Grid Certificate" \
               --id 1234 \
               --login \
               -w usercert.der \
               --type cert
 Please enter User PIN:
 Generated certificate:
 Certificate Object, type = X.509 cert
   label:      My Grid Certificate
   ID:         1234
  • Load your private key on the eToken (you must use your user PIN to do this; do this in a single step):
 # openssl rsa -in ~/.globus/userkey.pem -outform der | \
     pkcs11-tool --module $PKCS11_MOD \
                 --label "My Grid Certificate"  \
                 --id 1234 \ 
                 --login \
                 -w /proc/self/fd/0 \
                 --type privkey
 Enter pass phrase for ~/.globus/userkey.pem:
 Please enter User PIN:
 Generated private key:
 Private Key Object; RSA
 label:      My Grid Certificate
 ID:         1234
 Usage:      decrypt, sign, unwrap

Important Notes

  • It is important that the private key is loaded onto your eToken in a single step, as your private key is decrypted first and then encrypted again using your eToken user PIN when it is stored on the eToken. Thus, if you were to store your decrypted private key in a temporary file first, then that would pose a serious security threat.
  • It is also important that both the --label and --id of both the certifcate and the private key are exactly the same. This is used by the openssl commands and the mkproxy script to match the public certificate and private key.
  • the -w /proc/self/fd/0 is required, as the pkcs11-tool -w option does not have support to read from standard input. By using the special filename /proc/self/fd/0 we circumvent this shortcoming.

Listing the contents of your eToken

You can list both the public and private objects stored on your eToken using 

 # pkcs11-tool --module $PKCS11_MOD -O -l 
 Please enter User PIN:  (please enter your User PIN)
 Certificate Object, type = X.509 cert
   label:      My Grid Certificate
   ID:         1234
 Private Key Object; RSA
   label:      My Grid Certificate
   ID:         1234
   Usage:      decrypt, sign, unwrap

Note that without the -l option you would not have to type your User PIN but you also would not see the second object in the output above.

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