| ---[ Phrack Magazine Volume 8, Issue 52 January 26, 1998, article 15 of 20 |
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| -------------------------[ Technical Guide to Digital Certification |
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| --------[ Yggdrasil |
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| Introduction |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Today's software technology provides not only flexible controls for web pages |
| and complex remote interaction (ActiveX controls, Java applets and Netscape |
| plugins) but also offers the possibility of downloading pieces of code for |
| local execution to extend browsers capabilities. A major issue being the |
| fact that this code cannot be initially distinguished from malicious code |
| (virii/trojans, "man in the middle" attacks, forced downgrade, forgery of |
| electronic documents, etc), disguised as utilities. |
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| The point is that end users do not know who published of a piece of software, |
| if the code has been tampered with, and what that software will do, (until they |
| download and execute it). Anyone can create plugins, applets or controls |
| containing this potentially destructive code or even "intelligent" malevolent |
| code, able to communicate covertly with a remote server. |
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| Public-key cryptography has produced a number of different implementations |
| to verify the authenticity of software, network objects, documents and data |
| transactions (for example, Electronic Funds Transfer) using Digital IDs. |
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| Authenticode Certifications |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Microsoft recently adopted Authenticode technology to sign their ActiveX |
| based software. Any individual or commercial software publisher desiring |
| their code to be "trusted" must apply for and receive a Digital Certificate |
| from an Authenticode Certificate Authority (CA), such as VeriSign. The CA |
| will request proof-of-identity, and other information, only then will they |
| verify the publishers credentials (even employing Dun & Bradstreet rating). |
| After the CA has decided that the publisher meets its policy criteria, it |
| releases a Certificate (the expected cost is about $500 for a year, plus |
| additional costs for hardware storage for commercial developers, up to |
| $12,000). |
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| [ God save the next-generation developers. ] |
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| A Digital Certificate contains the publishers public-key (and other info) |
| encrypted according to the industry standard X.509 V3 certificate format and |
| PKCS #7 signed data standards. |
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| The ITU-T recommendation for X.509 states that: |
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| "It would be a serious breach of security if the CA issued a certificate for |
| a user with a public key that had been tampered with." |
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| All Certificates have an expiration time, but the CA may revoke them prior |
| to that time if a publisher's private-key or CA's certificate is assumed to |
| be compromised. The CA may (or may NOT) inform the owner of the certificate. |
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| Revocation Lists |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The Revocation Lists, also called "black-lists", are held within entries as |
| attributes of types CertificateRevocationList and AuthorityRevocationList. |
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| Their attribute types are defined as follows: |
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| certificateRevocationList ATTRIBUTE ::= { |
| WITH SYNTAX CertificateList |
| EQUALITY MATCHING RULE certificateListExactMatch |
| ID id-at-certificateRevocationList } |
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| authorityRevocationList ATTRIBUTE ::= { |
| WITH SYNTAX CertificateList |
| EQUALITY MATCHING RULE certificateListExactMatch |
| ID id-at-authorityRevocationList } |
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| CertificateList ::= SIGNED { SEQUENCE { |
| version Version OPTIONAL, |
| signature AlgorithmIdentifier, <----+ |
| issuer Name, | |
| thisUpdate UTCTime, | |
| nextUpdate UTCTime OPTIONAL, version 2 |
| revokedCertificates SEQUENCE OF SEQUENCE { only |
| userCertificate CertificateSerialNumber, (extension) |
| revocationDate UTCTime, | |
| crlEntryExtensions Extensions OPTIONAL } OPTIONAL, | |
| crlExtensions [0] Extensions OPTIONAL }} <----+ |
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| Implementation of X.509-3 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The ITU-T X.509 Directory Specification makes use of a set of cryptographic |
| systems known as asymmetric Public-Key Crypto-Systems (PKCS). This system |
| involves the use of two keys (one secret and one public as used in common |
| public key packages like PGP). |
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| Both keys can be used for encoding: the private key to decipher if the |
| public key was used, and vice versa (Xp*Xs = Xs*Xp, where Xp/Xs are the |
| key-encoding/decoding functions). |
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| When applied to Digital Signatures, the public key encryption is used to |
| encipher the data to be signed after it's passed through a hash function. |
| Information is signed by appending to it an enciphered summary of the info. |
| The summary is produced by means of a one-way hash function, while the |
| enciphering is carried out using the private key of the signer. |
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| For further information about X.509 and certificate types please read |
| the ITU-T Recommendation X.509 ("The Directory: Authentication Framework"). |
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| Windows Trust API |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| To ascertain an objects reliability under Win32, the WinVerifyTrust() API |
| function is used, according to its prototype as follows: |
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| HRESULT --------------- Description --------------- |
| WINAPI |
| WinVerifyTrust ( |
| HWND hwnd, <>0 to allow user to assist in trust decision |
| DWORD dwTrustProvider, 0 = provider unknown, 1 = software publisher |
| DWORD dwActionID, specifies what to verify |
| LPVOID ActionData information required by the trust provider |
| ) |
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| The HRESULT return code will be TRUST_E_SUBJECT_NOT_TRUSTED if the object |
| is not trusted (according to the specified action in dwActionID). An error |
| code more detailed than this could be provided by the trust provider. |
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| Creation of a Digitally Signed message |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| PKCS #7 specifies several "types", such as ContentInfo, SignedData and |
| SignerInfo. Version 1.5 of PKCS #7 describes the ContentInfo type as: |
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| ContentInfo ::= SEQUENCE { |
| contentType ContentType, |
| content |
| [0] EXPLICIT ANY DEFINED BY contentType OPTIONAL } |
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| ContentType ::= OBJECT IDENTIFIER |
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| the content is (or better: MAY be) an octet-stream ASCII string to be passed |
| to the selected digest algorithm (an example is MD2, see RFC-1321). |
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| The first step is to encode the ContentInfo field according to PKCS #7. |
| This is the resulting encoded data: |
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| == DATA BLOCK #1 == |
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| {30 28} 06 09 0x0609: contentType = data |
| 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 07 01 PKCS #7 data-object ID |
| A0 1B [0] EXPLICIT |
| 04 [msg_len] content = OCTET STRING |
| [octet stream representing |
| the ASCII string, msg_len bytes long] <-- value (*) |
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| This (*) data is the input stream to the encoding algorithm (MD2 or other): |
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| (the identifier of the PKCS #7 data object is {1 2 840 113549 1 7 1}) |
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| == DATA BLOCK #2 == |
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| {30 20} 30 0C 0x300C: digestAlgorithm |
| 06 08 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 02 02 algorithm ID = MD2 |
| 05 00 parameters = NULL (0x00) |
| 04 [block_len] digest |
| [encoded data (MD2 output)] |
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| (the object identifier of the MD2 algorithm is {1 2 840 113549 2 2}) |
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| This data is the encoded DigestInfo. It will be encrypted under RSA using |
| the user's private key. |
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| According to PKCS #1, RSA encryption has two main steps: an encryption data |
| block is constructed from a padding string and the prefixed message digest; |
| then the encryption block is exponentiated with the user's private key. |
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| The encryption block EB is the following 64-octet string: |
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| 00 01 block type |
| FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF padding string |
| FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF |
| 00 separator (0x00) |
| [here goes the whole DATA BLOCK #2] data bytes (prf. message digest) |
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| Now we need to encode various information: a SignedData value from the inner |
| ContentInfo value, then the encrypted message digest, the issuer and serial |
| number of the user's certificate, the certificate data, the message digest |
| algorithm ID (MD2) and the encryption algorithm ID (PKCS #1 RSA). |
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| The encoded SignedData is: |
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| == DATA BLOCK #3 == |
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| 30 82 02 3D |
| 02 01 01 version = 1 |
| 31 [size of inner data block] digestAlgorithms |
| 30 [size] |
| 06 08 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 02 02 algorithm ID = MD2 |
| 05 00 parameters = NULL (0x00) |
| [ContentInfo data] content = inner ContentInfo |
| A0 82 01 [size] certificates |
| [certificate data] user's certificate |
| 31 81 [size] signerInfos |
| 30 81 [size] |
| 02 01 01 version = 1 |
| 30 [size] issuerAndSerialNumber |
| [issuer data] issuer |
| 02 04 {12 34 56 78} size (4), serialNumber (12345678) |
| 30 [alg_size] digestAlgorithm |
| 06 08 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 02 02 algorithm ID = MD2 |
| 05 00 parameters = NULL (0x00) |
| 30 [dig_size] digestEncryptionAlgorithm |
| 06 [sz] rsaEncryption (d.E.A.) |
| 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 01 01 |
| 05 00 parameters = NULL (0x00) |
| 04 [data_size] encryptedDigest |
| [encrypted digestInfo encoded data block] |
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| Finally, a ContentInfo value from this SignedData data block is encoded (once |
| again, using PKCS #7): |
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| 30 82 02 [size] |
| 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 07 02 contentType = signedData |
| A0 82 02 [size] [0] EXPLICIT |
| [here goes the whole DATA BLOCK #3] content = SignedData value |
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| (the object identifier of PKCS #7 signedData is {1 2 840 113549 1 7 2}) |
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| PKCS Key Example |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| The following is the full hex dump of the above PKCS #7 encoded key. |
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| HEX Dump -------------------------------------: ASCII Dump ----: |
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| 30 82 02 50 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 07 02 A0 0..P..*.H....... |
| 82 02 41 30 82 02 3D 02 01 01 31 0E 30 0C 06 08 ..A0..=...1.0... |
| 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 02 02 05 00 30 28 06 09 2A 86 *.H.......0(..*. |
| 48 86 F7 0D 01 07 01 A0 1B 04 19 41 20 64 65 6D H..........A dem |
| 6F 20 43 6F 6E 74 65 6E 74 49 6E 66 6F 20 73 74 o ContentInfo st |
| 72 69 6E 67 A0 82 01 5E 30 82 01 5A 30 82 01 04 ring...^0..Z0... |
| 02 04 14 00 00 29 30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D .....)0...*.H... |
| 01 01 02 05 00 30 2C 31 0B 30 09 06 03 55 04 06 .....0,1.0...U.. |
| 13 02 55 53 31 1D 30 1B 06 03 55 04 0A 13 14 45 ..US1.0...U....E |
| 78 61 6D 70 6C 65 20 4F 72 67 61 6E 69 7A 61 74 xample Organizat |
| 69 6F 6E 30 1E 17 0D 39 32 30 39 30 39 32 32 31 ion0...920909221 |
| 38 30 36 5A 17 0D 39 34 30 39 30 39 32 32 31 38 806Z..9409092218 |
| 30 35 5A 30 42 31 0B 30 09 06 03 55 04 06 13 02 05Z0B1.0...U.... |
| 55 53 31 1D 30 1B 06 03 55 04 0A 13 14 45 78 61 US1.0...U....Exa |
| 6D 70 6C 65 20 4F 72 67 61 6E 69 7A 61 74 69 6F mple Organizatio |
| 6E 31 14 30 12 06 03 55 04 03 13 0B 41 20 64 65 n1.0...U....A de |
| 6D 6F 20 55 73 65 72 30 5B 30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 mo User0[0...*.H |
| 86 F7 0D 01 01 01 05 00 03 4A 00 30 47 02 40 0A .........J.0G.@. |
| 66 79 1D C6 98 81 68 DE 7A B7 74 19 BB 7F B0 C0 fy....h.z.t..... |
| 01 C6 27 10 27 00 75 14 29 42 E1 9A 8D 8C 51 D0 ..'.'.u.)B....Q. |
| 53 B3 E3 78 2A 1D E5 DC 5A F4 EB E9 94 68 17 01 S..x*...Z....h.. |
| 14 A1 DF E6 7C DC 9A 9A F5 5D 65 56 20 BB AB 02 ....|....]eV ... |
| 03 01 00 01 30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 01 ....0...*.H..... |
| 02 05 00 03 41 00 45 1A A1 E1 AA 77 20 4A 5F CD ....A.E....w J_. |
| F5 76 06 9D 02 F7 32 C2 6F 36 7B 0D 57 8A 6E 64 .v....2.o6{.W.nd |
| F3 9A 91 1F 47 95 DF 09 94 34 05 11 A0 D1 DF 4A ....G....4.....J |
| 20 B2 6A 77 4C CA EF 75 FC 69 2E 54 C2 A1 93 7C .jwL..u.i.T...| |
| 07 11 26 9D 9B 16 31 81 9B 30 81 98 02 01 01 30 ..&...1..0.....0 |
| 34 30 2C 31 0B 30 09 06 03 55 04 06 13 02 55 53 40,1.0...U....US |
| 31 1D 30 1B 06 03 55 04 0A 13 14 45 78 61 6D 70 1.0...U....Examp |
| 6C 65 20 4F 72 67 61 6E 69 7A 61 74 69 6F 6E 02 le Organization. |
| 04 14 00 00 29 30 0C 06 08 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 02 ....)0...*.H.... |
| 02 05 00 30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 01 01 ...0...*.H...... |
| 05 00 04 40 05 FA 6A 81 2F C7 DF 8B F4 F2 54 25 ...@..j./.....T% |
| 09 E0 3E 84 6E 11 B9 C6 20 BE 20 09 EF B4 40 EF ..>.n... . ...@. |
| BC C6 69 21 69 94 AC 04 F3 41 B5 7D 05 20 2D 42 ..i!i....A.}. -B |
| 8F B2 A2 7B 5C 77 DF D9 B1 5B FC 3D 55 93 53 50 ...{\w...[.=U.SP |
| 34 10 C1 E1 E1 4.... |
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| Many other demo (not only ;) keys, tons of related C++ source/libraries for |
| Linux and Win32 and documentation can be found on my web site at this address |
| (case sensitive): |
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| http://members.tripod.com/~xception_0x0A28/penumbra.html |
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| "That which does not kill us |
| makes us stronger" |
| -- Friedrich Nietzsche |
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| ----[ EOF |
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