4.1.6 Verifying a certificate using trust on first use authentication

It is possible to use a trust on first use (similar to SSH) authentication method in GnuTLS. That is the concept used by the SSH programs, where the public key of the peer is not verified, or verified in an out-of-bound way, but subsequent connections to the same peer require the public key to remain the same. Such a system in combination with the typical CA verification of a certificate, and OCSP revocation checks, can help to provide multiple factor verification, where a single point of failure is not enough to compromise the system. For example a server compromise may be detected using OCSP, and a CA compromise can be detected using the trust on first use method. Such a hybrid system with X.509 and trust on first use authentication is shown in Simple client example with SSH-style certificate verification.

Function: int gnutls_verify_stored_pubkey (const char* db_name, gnutls_tdb_t tdb, const char* host, const char* service, gnutls_certificate_type_t cert_type, const gnutls_datum_t * cert, unsigned int flags)

db_name: A file specifying the stored keys (use NULL for the default)

tdb: A storage structure or NULL to use the default

host: The peer’s name

service: non-NULL if this key is specific to a service (e.g. http)

cert_type: The type of the certificate

cert: The raw (der) data of the certificate

flags: should be 0.

This function will try to verify the provided certificate using a list of stored public keys. The service field if non-NULL should be a port number.

The retrieve variable if non-null specifies a custom backend for the retrieval of entries. If it is NULL then the default file backend will be used. In POSIX-like systems the file backend uses the $HOME/.gnutls/known_hosts file.

Note that if the custom storage backend is provided the retrieval function should return GNUTLS_E_CERTIFICATE_KEY_MISMATCH if the host/service pair is found but key doesn’t match, GNUTLS_E_NO_CERTIFICATE_FOUND if no such host/service with the given key is found, and 0 if it was found. The storage function should return 0 on success.

Returns: If no associated public key is found then GNUTLS_E_NO_CERTIFICATE_FOUND will be returned. If a key is found but does not match GNUTLS_E_CERTIFICATE_KEY_MISMATCH is returned. On success, GNUTLS_E_SUCCESS (0) is returned, or a negative error value on other errors.

Since: 3.0

Function: int gnutls_store_pubkey (const char* db_name, gnutls_tdb_t tdb, const char* host, const char* service, gnutls_certificate_type_t cert_type, const gnutls_datum_t * cert, time_t expiration, unsigned int flags)

db_name: A file specifying the stored keys (use NULL for the default)

tdb: A storage structure or NULL to use the default

host: The peer’s name

service: non-NULL if this key is specific to a service (e.g. http)

cert_type: The type of the certificate

cert: The data of the certificate

expiration: The expiration time (use 0 to disable expiration)

flags: should be 0.

This function will store the provided certificate to the list of stored public keys. The key will be considered valid until the provided expiration time.

The store variable if non-null specifies a custom backend for the storage of entries. If it is NULL then the default file backend will be used.

Returns: On success, GNUTLS_E_SUCCESS (0) is returned, otherwise a negative error value.

Since: 3.0

In addition to the above the gnutls_store_commitment can be used to implement a key-pinning architecture as in [KEYPIN]. This provides a way for web server to commit on a public key that is not yet active.

Function: int gnutls_store_commitment (const char* db_name, gnutls_tdb_t tdb, const char* host, const char* service, gnutls_digest_algorithm_t hash_algo, const gnutls_datum_t* hash, time_t expiration, unsigned int flags)

db_name: A file specifying the stored keys (use NULL for the default)

tdb: A storage structure or NULL to use the default

host: The peer’s name

service: non-NULL if this key is specific to a service (e.g. http)

hash_algo: The hash algorithm type

hash: The raw hash

expiration: The expiration time (use 0 to disable expiration)

flags: should be 0.

This function will store the provided hash commitment to the list of stored public keys. The key with the given hash will be considered valid until the provided expiration time.

The store variable if non-null specifies a custom backend for the storage of entries. If it is NULL then the default file backend will be used.

Note that this function is not thread safe with the default backend.

Returns: On success, GNUTLS_E_SUCCESS (0) is returned, otherwise a negative error value.

Since: 3.0

The storage and verification functions may be used with the default text file based back-end, or another back-end may be specified. That should contain storage and retrieval functions and specified as below.

gnutls_tdb_init

gnutls_tdb_deinit

gnutls_tdb_set_verify_func

gnutls_tdb_set_store_func

gnutls_tdb_set_store_commitment_func