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IETF Hackathon - PQC Certificates

This project provides a set of data repositories for X.509 data structures that make use of post-quantum and composite algorithms (classic with PQC).

This repo represents work done between IETF 115 - 119.

A summary table of the ongoing certificate interoperability testing can be found here: https://ietf-hackathon.github.io/pqc-certificates/pqc_hackathon_results_certs_r3.html

A summary table of the ongoing CMS interoperability testing can be found here: https://ietf-hackathon.github.io/pqc-certificates/pqc_hackathon_results_cms_v1.html

An older version showing more (now obsolete) algorithms can be found here instead: https://ietf-hackathon.github.io/pqc-certificates/pqc_hackathon_results.html

Goals

• Adding PQ algorithm support into existing X.509 structures (keys, signatures, certificates and protocols)
• Test and interoperate with newer draft updated to support the migration to PQ
• provide an artifact repository for interoperability testing
• Provide a comprehensive compatibility matrix to show results
• Provide feedback to the standards groups about practical usage

Folder structure of this repo

The project's directory structure is as follows:

    - main_project_dir
    - Makefile
    - docs/
    - providers/
        - provider_name_1/
            - artifacts_certs_r3.zip
            - artifacts_cms_v1.zip
            - implementation_name_1/
                - artifacts_certs_r3.zip
                - artifacts_cms_v1.zip
            - implementation_name_2/
                - artifacts_certs_r3.zip
                - artifacts_cms_v1.zip
            - compatMatrices
              - artifacts_certs_r3
                - prov2_prov1.csv
                - prov3_prov1.csv
                - ...
              - artifacts_cms_v1
                - prov2_prov1.csv
                - prov3_prov1.csv
                - ...
            - gen.sh
            - check.sh
            - Makefile
                - unzip, generate, verify, and cross_verify targets
        - provider_name_2
            - implementation_name_1
            - ...

Note that your artifacts zip can be placed either at the top-level of your provider, or if you have multiple implementations, then they can be placed in implementation sub-folders.

Where:

• The Makefile provides few useful targets for generating data (for open-source packages) and/or validating the distributed artifacts.

  Required targets to be supported are:

  • unzip - decompresses the artifacts.zip, if any

  • generate - generates the directory structure (might require local tools) (requires gen.sh)

  • verify - verifies the provided artifacts material for the entire provider (requires check.sh). The material can be either generated (gen.sh) and/or directly provided in the package (artifacts.zip)

  • cross_verify - verifiers the decompressed artifacts material from a different directory that is passed as the argument to the check.sh script

• The docs directory contains the extended documentation related to this project.

• The providers directory is where the core of the data is kept. Each provider must come with a bin directory where the gen.sh and check.sh scripts must be stored (more on this later). Each provider sub directory also contains one directory for each different implementation from the provider (if more than one), inside each directory, the artifacts.zip file must be present carrying the X.509 structures (e.g., keys, requests, certs, etc.) generated via the implementation. See the Zip format section for more information about its structure.

Zip Format (R3)

Certificates - artifacts_certs_r3.zip

Starting with artifacts for the NIST Draft standards released 2023-08-24, we will use a much simpler artifact format:

• Only produce a self-signed certificate (TAs). Let's not bother with CA / EE / CRL / OCSP; those are begging for compatibility issues that have nothing to do with the PQ algs.
• We will restrict the R3 artifacts to only the algorithms with NIST draft standards.
• Use PEM formats.
• Switch to a flat folder structure with filenames _ta.pem
• For Kyber, use the the Dilithium TA of the equivalent security level to sign a <kyber_oid>_ee.pem
• For hybrid certificate formats, name the file <hybrid_format>_<oid1>_with_<oid2>_ta.pem

Within providers/<provider_name>/[implementation_name/]

• artifacts_certs_r3.zip
  • <oid>_ta.pem # self-signed cert for signature alg oids
  • <oid>_ee.pem # ex.: Kyber512 - signed with Dilithium2
  • <hybrid_format>_<oid1>_with_<oid2>_ta.pem # ex.: catalyst_1.2.840.10045.4.3.2_with_1.3.6.1.4.1.2.267.12.4.4_ta.pem

The KEM end entity certificate can be used to validate encrypted artifacts in either the CMS or CMP artifacts zips.

CMS -- artifacts_cms_v1.zip

This is version 1 of the CMS artifacts format. It may change if needs change.

Within providers/<provider_name>/[implementation_name/]

• artifacts_cms_v1.zip
  • artifacts_cms_v1/ subfolder which will contain the artifacts
  • artifacts_cms_v1/expected_plaintext.txt # The message which was encrypted and can be compared against the decrypted artifacts.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/ukm.txt # The User Keying Material (UKM) included in some of the enveloped messages.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/<ta>.der # dilithium2 trust anchor used to sign the KEM end-entity certificates.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/<oid>_<friendly>_ee.der # The KEM certificate that the message is enveloped to.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/<oid>_<friendly>_priv.der # The private key to decrypt the enveloped messages.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/<oid>_<friendly>_kemri_ukm.der # An Enveloped artifact using KEMRI’s UKM field and one of the MTI KDFs for the KEM algorithm.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/<oid>_<friendly>_kemri_auth.der # An AuthEnveloped artifact using KEMRI without UKM and one of the MTI KDFs for the KEM algorithm.
  • artifacts_cms_v1/<oid>_<friendly>_kemri_<kdf>.der # Enveloped artifacts using KEMRI without UKM and the specified KDF. Implementations must provide artifacts for each of the MTI KDFs for the OID, and may provider artifacts for others.

Friendly

Per IETF-Hackathon#96 we would like a text description of the algorithm in the artifact names to make artifacts directory listings easier to read. Stick something same in there, for example the appropriate name from oid_mapping.md.

Trust Anchor

A trust anchor isn't necessary to verify the KEMRecipientInfo artifacts, but some implementations may find it useful. We're using dilithium2 at the moment since some might not have implemented ML-DSA.ipd.

DER vs PEM

We picked DER encoding so there's not an extra layer to mess up. You probably have a DER<->PEM re-encoding tool.

Encryption Algorithms

Use id-aes<size>wrap for KEK algorithm where <size> is appropriate for your <oid>. Each I-D/RFC should specify this.

Use aes-<size>-gcm for the CEK algorithm in the <oid>_kemri_auth.der artifact. Use aes-<size>-cbc for all others.

MTI KDFs

Each RFC will specify mandatory KDFs, and probably allow for others as well. You should have a <oid>_kemri_<kdf>.der artifact for all MTI KDFs for each KEM OID that you support.

I-D/RFC	Algorithm	MTI KDF	<kdf> string
rfc5990bis	RSA-KEM	KDF3 w/ SHA-256	id-kdf-kdf3
cms-kyber	ML-KEM-512	KMAC128-KDF*	id-kmac128*
cms-kyber	ML-KEM-768	KMAC256-KDF*	id-kmac256*
cms-kyber	ML-KEM-1024	KMAC256-KDF*	id-kmac256*
-	kyber512	KMAC256-KDF*	id-kmac128*
-	kyber768	KMAC256-KDF*	id-kmac256*
-	kyber1024	KMAC256-KDF*	id-kmac256*

* The MTI artifacts were updated to KMAC-based KDFs in draft-ietf-lamps-cms-kyber-03.

CMP -- artifacts_cmp.zip

CMP artifacts should be placed into a artifacts_cmp.zip within providers/<provider_name>/[implementation_name/]. We will specify the exact file format when we start to see more robust artifacts submitted.

Old Zip Format (R2)

OLD -- IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING ARTIFACTS AGAINST THE NIST DRAFT SPECS AS OF 2023-08-24, THEN PLEASE USE THE R3 FORMAT ABOVE.

At the hackathon, we are all going to script our PKI toolkit to produce and read zip bundles of certs in the following format. Scripts should place data into files with the following names so that parsing scripts

(parentheses denotes optional files)

• artifacts_r2.zip
  • artifacts/
    • alg_oid_dir/
      • ta/ # trust anchor, aka root CA, aka self-signed
        • ta.der
        • ta_priv.der
        • (*.pem)
      • ca/ # certificate authority, aka intermediate CA
        • ca.der
        • ca_priv.der
        • (*.pem)
      • ee/ # end entity
        • cert.der
        • cert_priv.der # corresponding private key
        • cert.csr
        • (*.pem)
      • (crl/)
        • crl_ta.crl
        • crl_ca.crl
      • (ocsp/)
        • ocsp.der /* R1 */
        • (ocsp_ca.der) /* R2 */
        • (ocsp_cert.der) /* R2 */

NOTE: The OCSP filename has changed from R1 (ocsp.der) to R2 (ocsp_ca.der) amd ocsp_cert.der for the OCSP responses for the Intermediate CA and the EE certificate.

OIDs

The OID mappings to be used for this hackathon are documented in oid_mapping.md.

Unzipping Artifacts

The repository comes with a Makefile that is meant to ease and automate the operations for unzipping, generating, and validating the artifacts provided.

To accommodate for different options from different providers, there are three primary targets for the Makefile:

• unzip - Uncompresses all the artifacts archives from all the providers, if present;

• gen - Generates new artifacts in all providers who support this option. In order to generate the artifacts you need to have all the requirements for the provider satisfied. Please refer to the provider directory's readme.md or the docs directory for further details; Providers that wish to provide the generation option are required to provide the gen.sh script in their directory.

• verify - Verifies the presence and validity of the artifacts for the individual providers. Providers that wish to provide the functionality they are required to provide the check.sh script.

• cross_verify - Runs the verify scripts from each provider by using the material from a different provider. Providers that wish to provide this functionality must provide the check.sh script for

Specifically, to unzip all the artifacts from all the providers, simply use the following:

$ make unzip

To run the verify for all the providers:

$ make verify

To run the verify from a single provider, simply change the directory to the specific provider and run the same command:

$ cd providers/<provider_name>
$ make verify

Interoperability Results

Instructions for documenting each provider's compatibility test results can be found in compat_matrix_intructions.md.