/** @page libssh_tutor_pkcs11 Chapter 9: Authentication using PKCS #11 URIs @section how_to How to use PKCS #11 URIs in libssh? PKCS #11 is a Cryptographic Token Interface Standard that provides an API to devices like smart cards that store cryptographic private information. Such cryptographic devices are referenced as tokens. A mechanism through which objects stored on the tokens can be uniquely identified is called PKCS #11 URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) and is defined in RFC 7512 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7512). # Pre-requisites (OpenSSL < 3.0): OpenSSL 1.x defines an abstract layer called the "engine" to achieve cryptographic acceleration. The engine_pkcs11 module acts like an interface between the PKCS #11 modules and the OpenSSL application. To build and use libssh with PKCS #11 support: 1. Enable the cmake option: $ cmake -DWITH_PKCS11_URI=ON 2. Build with OpenSSL. 3. Install and configure engine_pkcs11 (https://github.com/OpenSC/libp11). 4. Plug in a working smart card or configure softhsm (https://www.opendnssec.org/softhsm). # Pre-requisites (OpenSSL 3.0.8+) The OpenSSL 3.0 is deprecating usage of low-level engines in favor of high-level "providers" to provide alternative implementation of cryptographic operations or acceleration. To build and use libssh with PKCS #11 support using OpenSSL providers: 1. Install and configure pkcs11 provider (https://github.com/latchset/pkcs11-provider). 2. Enable the cmake options: $ cmake -DWITH_PKCS11_URI=ON -DWITH_PKCS11_PROVIDER=ON 3. Build with OpenSSL. 4. Plug in a working smart card or configure softhsm (https://www.opendnssec.org/softhsm). # New API functions The functions ssh_pki_import_pubkey_file() and ssh_pki_import_privkey_file() that import the public and private keys from files respectively are now modified to support PKCS #11 URIs. These functions automatically detect if the provided filename is a file path or a PKCS #11 URI (when it begins with "pkcs11:"). If a PKCS #11 URI is detected, the engine is loaded and initialized. Through the engine, the private/public key corresponding to the PKCS #11 URI are loaded from the PKCS #11 device. If you wish to authenticate using public keys on your own, follow the steps mentioned under "Authentication with public keys" in Chapter 2 - A deeper insight into authentication. The function pki_uri_import() is used to populate the public/private ssh_key from the engine with PKCS #11 URIs as the look up. Here is a minimalistic example of public key authentication using PKCS #11 URIs: @code int authenticate_pkcs11_URI(ssh_session session) { int rc; char priv_uri[1042] = "pkcs11:token=my-token;object=my-object;type=private?pin-value=1234"; rc = ssh_options_set(session, SSH_OPTIONS_IDENTITY, priv_uri); assert_int_equal(rc, SSH_OK) rc = ssh_userauth_publickey_auto(session, NULL, NULL); if (rc == SSH_AUTH_ERROR) { fprintf(stderr, "Authentication with PKCS #11 URIs failed: %s\n", ssh_get_error(session)); return SSH_AUTH_ERROR; } return rc; } @endcode @subsection Caveats We recommend the users to provide a specific PKCS #11 URI so that it matches only a single slot in the engine. If the engine discovers multiple slots that could potentially contain the private keys referenced by the provided PKCS #11 URI, the engine will not try to authenticate. For testing, the SoftHSM PKCS#11 library is used. But it has some issues with OpenSSL initialization/cleanup when used with OpenSSL 3.0 so we are using it indirectly through a p11-kit remoting as described in the following article: https://p11-glue.github.io/p11-glue/p11-kit/manual/remoting.html */