14.9. Configuration for Server-Side Key Generation for Certificate Enrollment using the CA EE Portal

This section describes how to configure Server-Side Key Generation for Certificate Enrollment using the CA EE Portal.

14.9.1. Installation Configuration

Note

A KRA instance is required in addition to the CA for setting up Server-Side Keygen.

Note

In case the CA and KRA are sharing a Tomcat instance, you do not need to execute the below step to import the transport certificate.
After installing the CA and KRA instances, in case of stand-alone Tomcat web server instances, you would need to add the KRA transport certificate to the nssdb of the CA.
  1. First, stop the CA: 
    # systemctl stop pki-tomcatd@ca_instance_name.service
    For example: 
    # systemctl stop pki-tomcatd@pki-ca.service
  2. Add the below line to the CA's CS.cfg: 
    ca.connector.KRA.transportCertNickname=KRA transport cert
    For example: 
    ca.connector.KRA.transportCertNickname=transportCert cert-topology-02-KRA KRA
    where topology-02-KRA is the name of the KRA's instance.
  3. Find and export the KRA transport certificate into a file: 
    # grep "kra.transport.cert=" /var/lib/pki/kra_instance_name/kra/conf/CS.cfg | sed 's/kra.transport.cert=//' > kra transport cert file
    For example: 
    # grep "kra.transport.cert=" /var/lib/pki/pki-kra/kra/conf/CS.cfg | sed 's/kra.transport.cert=//' > /tmp/kraTransport.cert
  4. Import the KRA transport certificate into the nssdb of the CA, using the nickname specified in the CA's CS.cfg file:
    1. List the transport certificate nickname: 
    grep "ca.connector.KRA.transportCertNickname" /var/lib/pki/ca_instance_name/ca/conf/CS.cfg
    For example: 
    # grep "ca.connector.KRA.transportCertNickname" /var/lib/pki/pki-ca/ca/conf/CS.cfg
								ca.connector.KRA.transportCertNickname=KRA transport cert
    • Import the certificate using the nickname listed from the previous step: 
    certutil -d /var/lib/pki/ca_instance_name/alias -A -t “,,” -n transportNickName -i kra transport cert file
    For example: 
    # certutil -d /var/lib/pki/pki-ca/alias -A -t “,,” -n "KRA transport cert" -i /tmp/kraTransport.cert
  5. Start the CA: 
    # systemctl start pki-tomcatd@ca_instance_name.service
    For example: 
    # systemctl start pki-tomcatd@pki-ca.service

14.9.2. Profile Configuration

Two default profiles, caServerKeygen_UserCert and caServerKeygen_DirUserCert, are provided by default to allow for certificate enrollments where keys are generated on the server side. However, any profile with the right input, output, and policy set could be turned into a server-side keygen profile.
A Server-Side Keygen profile must contain the following components.

Input

input.i1.class_id=serverKeygenInputImpl

Output

output.o1.class_id=pkcs12OutputImpl

Policyset

Key type and key size parameters can be configured as exemplified below: 
policyset.userCertSet.3.constraint.class_id=keyConstraintImpl
policyset.userCertSet.3.constraint.name=Key Constraint
policyset.userCertSet.3.constraint.params.keyType=-
policyset.userCertSet.3.constraint.params.keyParameters=1024,2048,3072,4096,nistp256,nistp384,nistp521
policyset.userCertSet.3.default.class_id=serverKeygenUserKeyDefaultImpl
policyset.userCertSet.3.default.name=Server-Side Keygen Default
policyset.userCertSet.3.default.params.keyType=RSA
policyset.userCertSet.3.default.params.keySize=2048
policyset.userCertSet.3.default.params.enableArchival=true

Authentication

The two default server-side keygen enrollment profiles differ in the authentication mechanism, where
  • caServerKeygen_UserCert.cfg
    contains an empty value to "auth.class_id=", meaning that enrollment requests through this profile will require approval from a CA agent.
  • caServerKeygen_DirUserCert.cfg
    contains "auth.instance_id=UserDirEnrollment", meaning that the user is required to pass LDAP uid/password authentication; such authentication mechanism is considered as an automatic certificate issuance as it does not require per-request approval from a CA agent.
    Automatic approval could be configured by setting the auth.instance_id directive to any compatible authentication plugin class, as examplified in the caServerKeygen_DirUserCert.cfg profile mentioned above. Here is an example of such a configuration in the CS.cfg file: 
    auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.dnpattern=
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldap.basedn=ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldap.ldapconn.host=host.example.com
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldap.ldapconn.port=389
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldap.ldapconn.secureConn=false
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldap.maxConns=
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldap.minConns=
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldapByteAttributes=
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.ldapStringAttributes=mail
auths.instance.UserDirEnrollment.pluginName=UidPwdDirAuth