forked from TrueCloudLab/certificates
210 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
210 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
# Revocation
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**Active Revocation**: A certificate is no longer valid from the moment it has
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been actively revoked. Clients are required to check against centralized
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sources of certificate validity information (e.g. by using CRLs (Certificate
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Revocation Lists) or OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol)) to
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verify that certificates have not been revoked. Active Revocation requires
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clients to take an active role in certificate validation for the benefit of
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real time revocation.
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**Passive Revocation**: A certificate that has been passively revoked can no
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longer be renewed. It will still be valid for the remainder of it's validity period,
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but cannot be prolonged. The benefit of passive revocation is that clients
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can verify certificates in a simple, decentralized manner without relying on
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centralized 3rd parties. Passive revocation works best with short
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certificate lifetimes.
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`step certificates` currently only supports passive revocation. Active revocation
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is on our roadmap.
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Run `step help ca revoke` from the command line for full documentation, list of
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command line flags, and examples.
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## How It Works
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Certificates can be created and revoked through the `step cli`. Let's walk
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through an example.
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### Requirements
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* `step` (>=v0.10.0) ([install instructions](../README.md#installation-guide))
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### Let's Get To It
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1. Bootstrap your PKI.
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> If you've already done this before and you have a `$STEPPATH` with certs,
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> secrets, and configuration files then you can move on to step 2.
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Run `step ca init`.
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step ca init --name "Local CA" --provisioner admin --dns localhost --address ":443"</b>
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</code></pre>
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Move on to step 3.
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2. Configure a persistence layer in your `ca.json`.
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> If you did step 1 with `step` v0.10.0 or greater then your db will
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> have been configured in the previous step.
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Get your full step path by running `echo $(step path)`. Now edit
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your `ca.json` by adding the following stanza as a top-level attribute:
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> Your `ca.json` should be in `$(step path)/config/ca.json`.
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```
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...
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"db": {
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"type": "badger",
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"dataSource": "<full step path>/db"
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},
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...
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```
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Check out our [database documentation](./database.md) to see all available
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database backends and adapters.
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3. Run the CA
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step-ca $(step path)/config/ca.json</b>
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</code></pre>
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4. Create a certificate for localhost
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step ca certificate localhost localhost.crt localhost.key</b>
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✔ Key ID: n2kqNhicCCqVxJidspCQrjXWBtGwsa9zk3eBObrViy8 (sebastian@smallstep.com)
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✔ Please enter the password to decrypt the provisioner key:
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✔ CA: https://ca.smallstep.com
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✔ Certificate: localhost.crt
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✔ Private Key: localhost.key
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<b>$ step certificate inspect --short localhost.crt</b>
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X.509v3 TLS Certificate (ECDSA P-256) [Serial: 2400...2409]
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Subject: localhost
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Issuer: Smallstep Intermediate CA
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Provisioner: sebastian@smallstep.com [ID: n2kq...Viy8]
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Valid from: 2019-04-23T22:55:54Z
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to: 2019-04-24T22:55:54Z
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</code></pre>
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5. Renew the certificate (just to prove we can!)
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step ca renew localhost.crt localhost.key</b>
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✔ Would you like to overwrite localhost.crt [y/n]: y
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Your certificate has been saved in localhost.crt.
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# Make sure the from timestamp is "newer"
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<b>$ step certificate inspect --short localhost.crt</b>
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X.509v3 TLS Certificate (ECDSA P-256) [Serial: 5963...8406]
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Subject: localhost
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Issuer: Smallstep Intermediate CA
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Provisioner: sebastian@smallstep.com [ID: n2kq...Viy8]
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Valid from: 2019-04-23T22:57:50Z
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to: 2019-04-24T22:57:50Z
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</pre></code>
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6. Now let's revoke the certificate
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step certificate inspect --format=json localhost.crt | jq .serial_number</b>
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"59636004850364466675608080466579278406"
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# the serial number is unique
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<b>$ step ca revoke 59636004850364466675608080466579278406</b>
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✔ Key ID: n2kqNhicCCqVxJidspCQrjXWBtGwsa9zk3eBObrViy8 (sebastian@smallstep.com)
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✔ Please enter the password to decrypt the provisioner key:
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✔ CA: https://ca.smallstep.com
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Certificate with Serial Number 59636004850364466675608080466579278406 has been revoked.
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</pre></code>
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7. Awesome! But did it work?
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step ca renew localhost.crt localhost.key</b>
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error renewing certificate: Unauthorized
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# log trace from CA:
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[...]
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WARN[0569] duration="82.782µs" duration-ns=82782
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error="renew: certificate has been revoked"
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fields.time="2019-04-23T16:03:01-07:00" method=POST
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name=ca path=/renew protocol=HTTP/1.1 referer=
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remote-address=127.0.0.1 request-id=bivpj9a3q563rpjheh5g
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size=40 status=401 user-agent=Go-http-client/1.1 user-id=
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[...]
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</pre></code>
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8. Other ways to revoke a Certificate
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Use the certificate and key. This method does not require a provisioner
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because it uses the certificate and key to authenticate the request.
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step ca revoke --cert localhost.crt --key localhost.key</b>
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Certificate with Serial Number 59636004850364466675608080466579278406 has been revoked.
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</pre></code>
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Or, revoke a certificate in two steps by first creating a revocation token and
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then exchanging that token in a revocation request.
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ TOKEN=$(step ca token --revoke 59636004850364466675608080466579278406)</b>
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✔ Key ID: n2kqNhicCCqVxJidspCQrjXWBtGwsa9zk3eBObrViy8 (sebastian@smallstep.com)
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✔ Please enter the password to decrypt the provisioner key:
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<b>$ echo $TOKEN | step crypto jwt inspect --insecure</b>
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{
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"header": {
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"alg": "ES256",
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"kid": "uxEunU9UhUo96lRvKgpEtRevkzbN5Yq88AFFtb1nSGg",
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"typ": "JWT"
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},
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"payload": {
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"aud": "https://localhost:443/1.0/revoke",
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"exp": 1556395590,
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"iat": 1556395290,
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"iss": "sebastian@smallstep.com",
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"jti": "1f222fc1a22530b7bcd2a40d7308c566c8e49f90413bc350e07bfabc8002b79b",
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"nbf": 1556395290,
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"sha": "fef4c75a050e1f3a31175ca4f4fdb711cbef1efcd374fcae4700596604eb8e5a",
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"sub": "59636004850364466675608080466579278406"
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},
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"signature": "M1wX0ea3VXwS5rIim0TgtcCXHDtvP1GWD15cJSvVkrHNO6XMYl6m3ZmnWdwMi976msv-n2GTG3h6dJ3j2ImdfQ"
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}
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<b>$ step ca revoke --token $TOKEN 59636004850364466675608080466579278406</b>
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Certificate with Serial Number 59636004850364466675608080466579278406 has been revoked.
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</pre></code>
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Or, revoke a certificate in offline mode:
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<pre><code>
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<b>$ step ca revoke --offline 59636004850364466675608080466579278406</b>
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Certificate with Serial Number 59636004850364466675608080466579278406 has been revoked.
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<b>$ step ca revoke --offline --cert localhost.crt --key localhost.key</b>
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Certificate with Serial Number 59636004850364466675608080466579278406 has been revoked.
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</pre></code>
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> NOTE: you can only revoke a certificate once. Any repeated attempts to revoke
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> the same serial number will fail.
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Run `step help ca revoke` from the command line for full documentation, list of
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command line flags, and examples.
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## What's next?
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[Use TLS Everywhere](https://smallstep.com/blog/use-tls.html) and let us know
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what you think of our tools. Get in touch over
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[Twitter](twitter.com/smallsteplabs) or through our
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[GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/discussions) to chat with us in real time.
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## Further Reading
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* [Use TLS Everywhere](https://smallstep.com/blog/use-tls.html)
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* [Everything you should know about certificates and PKI but are too afraid to ask](https://smallstep.com/blog/everything-pki.html)
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