NAME¶

pkcs15-init - smart card personalization utility

DESCRIPTION¶

The pkcs15-init utility can be used to create a PKCS #15 structure on a smart card, and add key or certificate objects. Details of the structure that will be created are controlled via profiles. The profile used by default is pkcs15. Alternative profiles can be specified via the -p switch.

PIN USAGE¶

pkcs15-init can be used to create a PKCS #15 structure on your smart card, create PINs, and install keys and certificates on the card. This process is also called personalization. An OpenSC card can have one security officer PIN, and zero or more user PINs. PIN stands for Personal Identification Number, and is a secret code you need to present to the card before being allowed to perform certain operations, such as using one of the stored RSA keys to sign a document, or modifying the card itself. Usually, PINs are a sequence of decimal digits, but some cards will accept arbitrary ASCII characters. Be aware however that using characters other than digits will make the card unusable with PIN pad readers, because those usually have keys for entering digits only. The security officer (SO) PIN is special; it is used to protect meta data information on the card, such as the PKCS #15 structure itself. Setting the SO PIN is optional, because the worst that can usually happen is that someone finding your card can mess it up. To extract any of your secret keys stored on the card, an attacker will still need your user PIN, at least for the default OpenSC profiles. However, it is possible to create card profiles that will allow the security officer to override user PINs. For each PIN, you can specify a PUK (also called unblock PIN). The PUK can be used to overwrite or unlock a PIN if too many incorrect values have been entered in a row. For some cards that use the PKCS#15 emulation, the attributes of private objects are protected and cannot be parsed without authentication (usually with User PIN). This authentication need to be done immediately after the card binding. In such cases --verify-pin has to be used.

MODES OF OPERATION¶

Initialization¶

This is the first step during card personalization, and will create the basic files on the card. To create the initial PKCS #15 structure, invoke the utility as pkcs15-init --create-pkcs15 You will then be asked for the security officer PIN and PUK. Simply pressing return at the SO PIN prompt will skip installation of an SO PIN. If the card supports it, you should erase the contents of the card with pkcs15-init --erase-card before creating the PKCS#15 structure.

User PIN Installation¶

Before installing any user objects such as private keys, you need at least one PIN to protect these objects. you can do this using pkcs15-init --store-pin --id " nn where nn is a PKCS #15 ID in hexadecimal notation. Common values are 01, 02, etc. Entering the command above will ask you for the user's PIN and PUK. If you do not wish to install an unblock PIN, simply press return at the PUK prompt. To set a label for this PIN object (which can be used by applications to display a meaningful prompt to the user), use the --label command line option.

Key generation¶

pkcs15-init lets you generate a new key and store it on the card. You can do this using: pkcs15-init --generate-key " keyspec " --auth-id " nn where keyspec describes the algorithm and length of the key to be created, such as rsa/512. This will create a 512 bit RSA key. Currently, only RSA key generation is supported. Note that cards usually support just a few different key lengths. Almost all cards will support 512 and 1024 bit keys, some will support 768 or 2048 as well. nn is the ID of a user PIN installed previously, e.g. 01. In addition to storing the private portion of the key on the card, pkcs15-init will also store the the public portion of the key as a PKCS #15 public key object.

Private Key Download¶

You can use a private key generated by other means and download it to the card. For instance, to download a private key contained in a file named okir.pem, which is in PEM format, you would use pkcs15-init --store-private-key okir.pem --id 45 --auth-id 01 In addition to storing the private portion of the key on the card, pkcs15-init will also store the the public portion of the key as a PKCS #15 public key object. Note the use of the --id option. The current pkcs15 profile defines two key templates, one for authentication (key ID 45), and one for non-repudiation purposes (key ID 46). Other key templates will probably be added in the future. Note that if you don't specify a key ID, pkcs15-init will pick just the first key template defined by the profile. In addition to the PEM key file format, pkcs15-init also supports DER encoded keys, and PKCS #12 files. The latter is the file format used by Netscape Navigator (among others) when exporting certificates to a file. A PKCS #12 file usually contains the X.509 certificate corresponding to the private key. If that is the case, pkcs15-init will store the certificate instead of the public key portion.

Public Key Download¶

You can also download individual public keys to the card using the --store-public-key option, which takes a filename as an argument. This file is supposed to contain the public key. If you don't specify a key file format using the --format option, pkcs15-init will assume PEM format. The only other supported public key file format is DER. Since the corresponding public keys are always downloaded automatically when generating a new key, or when downloading a private key, you will probably use this option only very rarely.

Certificate Download¶

You can download certificates to the card using the --store-certificate option, which takes a filename as an argument. This file is supposed to contain the PEM encoded X.509 certificate.

Downloading PKCS #12 bags¶

Most browsers nowadays use PKCS #12 format files when you ask them to export your key and certificate to a file. pkcs15-init is capable of parsing these files, and storing their contents on the card in a single operation. This works just like storing a private key, except that you need to specify the file format: pkcs15-init --store-private-key okir.p12 --format pkcs12 --auth-id 01 This will install the private key contained in the file okir.p12, and protect it with the PIN referenced by authentication ID 01. It will also store any X.509 certificates contained in the file, which is usually the user certificate that goes with the key, as well as the CA certificate.

OPTIONS¶

--profile name, -p name --card-profile name, -c name --create-pkcs15, -C --erase-card, -E --generate-key keyspec, -G keyspec --store-private-key filename, -S filename --store-public-key filename --store-certificate filename, -X filename --update-certificate filename, -U filename --use-default-transport-keys, -T --so-pin, --so-puk, --pin, --puk --options-file filename --verbose, -v

SEE ALSO¶

pkcs15-profile(5)