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If the default PKCS11 config is used, I'd expect that KeyPairGenerator
to generate a "session" key and then SunPKCS11 keystore impl will do a
C_CopyObject(...) w/ the desired alias.<br>
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Is a custom PKCS11 config file used here? If yes, perhaps it specifies
that token key be generated for key generation?<br>
Valerie<br>
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On 03/31/10 17:51, Michael StJohns wrote:<br>
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<pre wrap="">KeyPairGenerator should be generating a "Session" key pair.
When you write the key store object, the underlying function should do a C_CopyObject from the Session object to a Token object. (Or from a software key to a Token object). At that point, the template provided to C_CopyObject should be able to reset the CKA_LABEL attribute to the alias.
Let me look at the code and see what's going on and make further comments tomorrow.
Mike
At 03:26 AM 3/31/2010, Tomas Gustavsson wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Hi,
Sorry if I misunderstood you. That is actually exactly how we do it,
1. Use KeyPairGenerator with P11 provider to generate key pair.
2. Create a keystore with the P11 provier.
3. Generate a self signed certificate.
4. keystore.setKeyEntry(myalias, privateKey, null, cert).
The keys work fine to use in java. The issue is that in the HSM three objects are generated/stored.
1. Private key - no alias
2. Public key - no alias
3. Certificate - myalias
The reason for this is that the alias of the private and public keys are set in the HSM when the keys are generated (with the KeyPairGenerator). The HSMs do not allow an alias of a private key (in particular) to be changed after generation, so setKeyEntry can not change the empty alias of the private key object.
This has been confirmed by technicians at AEP, but it works the same in nCipher, SafeNet and Utimaco, i.e. no alias on the private key object.
If we want to use HSM vendors tools to manipulate objects this usually causes problems because they mostly rely on an alias.
So finally :-) this is why an alias parameter to KeyPairGenerator would be useful.
Cheers,
Tomas
On 03/30/2010 08:34 PM, Valerie (Yu-Ching) Peng wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Why do you assume that the key is generated in software?
You use the KeyGenerator API to generate a key, this key can be
generated on the HSM if you have SunPKCS11 provider configured to be the
most preferred provider. This key should actually just encapsulate the
native key handle (not the actual value/encoding) which you can then
pass it to the KeyStore API and specify an alias. The PKCS11 keystore
impl would then take this key object (with the native key handle) and
create a persistent copy on the HSM with the specified alias.
Regards,
Valerie
On 03/29/10 22:57, Tomas Gustavsson wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Hi, thanks for the answer.
Generating a key in software and trying to store it on the HSM violates
the whole idea of using an HSM. Which is to generate and maintain the
keys in the HSM at all times.
Most high security policies *requires* that the keys are generated by
the HSM, inside the HSM.
I also doubt that it would work to store software generated keys using
the keytool API. Many HSMs even forbid this, at least when running in
strict FIPS mode.
Regards,
Tomas
Valerie Peng wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Have you tried saving that key through the KeyStore API which allows you
to specify an alias?
Thanks,
Valerie
On 03/26/10 00:05, Tomas Gustavsson wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Slightly off topic.
Something I would like to see is API support for setting aliases when
using the KeyPairGenerator. This is due to the fact that many HSMs do
not allow changing an alias of private keys after they have been
generated. Since the key pair generator sets a blank alias when using
PKCS#11, HSM key pairs are left with no alias.
You can set an alias by providing it using pkcs11 attributes through
the provider, but that alias is provider global (for all generated key
pairs) which is not very usable.
Regards,
Tomas
On 03/26/2010 12:17 AM, Valerie Peng wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Probably not. Unless explicitly specified through KeyStore APIs, aliases
are constructed using the attributes values associated with the
keys/certs. Thus, this is probably due to some problem with the native
library which generated the keys/certs.
Valerie
On 03/18/10 19:03, Weijun Wang wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Hi Valerie
As described inhttp://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5432248,
customer's pkcs11 keystore has aliases ended with '\0'.
Is this something we should fix on the Java side?
Thanks
Max
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