[strongSwan-dev] X509_AA flag does not meet spec; implementation is buggy too

[Mike Ryan]

In that case, the following code in x509_ac::issued_by produces
incorrect results for an X.509 cert that has been manually loaded:

if (!(x509->get_flags(x509) & X509_AA))
{
    return FALSE;
}

the code can be found in libstrongswan/plugins/x509/x509_ac.c line 739.

On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 10:01:51PM +0200, Andreas Steffen wrote:
> Hello Mike,
> 
> it was never my intention to encode the X509_AA flag in an X.509
> certificate. The X509_AA flag is used by strongSwan to mark
> certificates read from /etc/ipsec.d/aacerts/ in the internal
> certificate linked list storage structure so that they can be
> extracted again during the trust chain verification of an X.509
> attribute certificate. Of course an authorization authority
> extended key usage (EKU) OID similar to ocspSigner would be
> helpful so that AA certs could be fetched from some public places.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Andreas
> 
> On 06/23/2010 09:02 PM, Mike Ryan wrote:
> >The X509_AA flag parallels the X509_CA flag. Its basic meaning is: the
> >holder if this certificate has the authority to issue X.509 attribute
> >certificates.
> >
> >According to RFC3281, there is no provision to encode a simple boolean
> >flag with the meaning of X509_AA in an X.509 certificate.
> >
> >AA controls, an optional sequence described in section 7.1, provide a
> >rich set of controls over which attributes may be issued by an AA. There
> >IS a boolean flag in there: permitUnSpecified. If this is true, then the
> >holder is allowed to issue any attribute.
> >
> >This flag is semantically subtly different from a boolean meaning 'is an
> >attribute authority'.
> >
> >The handling of the X509_AA flag is buggy as well. Setting the X509_AA
> >flag on a certificate sets a flag in the data structure, but when the
> >certificate is encoded into ASN.1 there is no difference between a cert
> >with and without this flag.
> >
> >-
> >
> >To exercise this bug, create a cert with the X509_AA flag, save its
> >encoding to a file, and then load it again. The X509_AA flag will not be
> >set.
> >
> >To create a cert with the AA flag, I modified pki/commands/self.c and
> >added X509_AA to the --ca flag like so:
> >
> >case 'b':
> >     flags |= X509_CA;
> >     flags |= X509_AA;
> >     continue;
> >
> >Then generate a self-signed cert with the CA flag and print the cert:
> >
> >$ pki --self --dn cn=test --ca --in private.der>  test.der
> >$ pki --print --in test.der | grep AA
> >
> >No mention of the AA flag is made. The cert is identical to a cert
> >without the AA flag specified.
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Dev mailing list
> >Dev at lists.strongswan.org
> >https://lists.strongswan.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
> 
> 
> -- 
> ======================================================================
> Andreas Steffen                         andreas.steffen at strongswan.org
> strongSwan - the Linux VPN Solution!                www.strongswan.org
> Institute for Internet Technologies and Applications
> University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil
> CH-8640 Rapperswil (Switzerland)
> ===========================================================[ITA-HSR]==