CODEWITHSUNDEEP
dockerpkcs#11softhsm
Faisal
Faisal

Reputation: 415

Expose SoftHSM library to the code running in host machine

I am generating keypairs in SoftHSMv2 using the node-webcrypto-p11 package that is installed locally on my computer. I want to setup a docker container for SoftHSM so that any developer can build the image and run the container using docker file in repo without having to go through the entire steps of building SoftHSM.

I'm currently using this https://github.com/psmiraglia/docker-softhsm to build image and run container for SoftHSM. But I'm not sure how can I access the library inside the container in my code. Currently I'm using the code given below. Is there a method I can access the library with in the container. NOTE: This is just to make the life of other developers not to be used for deployment. 

import {
    Crypto
} from 'node-webcrypto-p11';
// Need to set the library path from container.
// The given below path is for host machine.
const crypto = new Crypto({
    library: "/usr/local/lib/softhsm/libsofthsm2.so",
    name: "SoftHSMv2",
    slot: 0,
    readWrite: true,
    pin: "0987654321",
});

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3913

Answers (2)

Adam Papp
Adam Papp

Reputation: 11

I am also looking for some method to use a remote SoftHSM service. If someone is looking for a complex solution, maybe there is a project that will work properly: https://github.com/vegardit/docker-softhsm2-pkcs11-proxy

Upvotes: 0

ipeacocks
ipeacocks

Reputation: 2317

As @david-maze said SoftHSMv2 is a just library and it can be used only locally. In Ubuntu 20.04 it's available as a deb package in standard repository.

NOTE SoftHSMv2 is not for production usage at all, it could be used for development purposes as such hardware is very expensive. It has the PKCS11 interface and consequently code for all HSMs which can work with this interface should be the same.

By the way you can use SoftHSMv2 remotely with pkcs11-proxy/daemon https://github.com/SUNET/pkcs11-proxy. Seems it's quite abandoned but still working project. And again it's not production variant.

So how to use it in e.g. Ubuntu 20.04?

On server.

  1. Install dependencies for building pkcs11-proxy:
$ apt-get install -y \
    ca-certificates \
    git-core \
    build-essential \
    cmake \
    libssl-dev \
    libseccomp-dev
  1. Clone code:
$ git clone https://github.com/SUNET/pkcs11-proxy
  1. Build and make install:
$ cd pkcs11-proxy && \
  cmake . && \
  make && \
  make install
  1. Install SoftHSM2 with dependencies:
$ apt-get install -y \
    softhsm2 \
    opensc \
    gnutls-bin \
    libengine-pkcs11-openssl1.1
  1. Init slot/token in SoftHSM:
$ softhsm2-util --init-token --slot 0 --label "main" \
                                      --pin "123456" \
                                      --so-pin "78910"

Don't forget to chose better values. 6. Now you can launch pkcs11-proxy:

$ export PKCS11_DAEMON_SOCKET="tcp://0.0.0.0:5657"
$ /usr/local/bin/pkcs11-daemon /usr/lib/softhsm/libsofthsm2.so

On client.

  1. Again build pkcs11-proxy or just copy libpkcs11-proxy.so library from previous steps:
$ apt-get install -y \
    ca-certificates \
    git-core \
    build-essential \
    cmake \
    libssl-dev \
    libseccomp-dev

$ git clone https://github.com/SUNET/pkcs11-proxy

$ cd pkcs11-proxy && \
cmake . && \
make && \
make install
  1. Now you can remotely use your SoftHSM over network:
$ export PKCS11_PROXY_SOCKET="tcp://ip_or_domain_of_softhsm:5657"
$ pkcs11-tool --module=/usr/local/lib/libpkcs11-proxy.so -L

Available slots:
Slot 0 (0x5b763d80): SoftHSM slot ID 0x5b763d80
  token label        : main
  token manufacturer : SoftHSM project
  token model        : SoftHSM v2
  token flags        : login required, rng, token initialized, PIN initialized, other flags=0x20
  hardware version   : 2.5
  firmware version   : 2.5
  serial num         : 27c11aa55b763d80
  pin min/max        : 4/255
Slot 1 (0x1): SoftHSM slot ID 0x1
  token state:   uninitialized
  1. You also could generate new keys/upload own ones etc through pkcs11-tool and libpkcs11-proxy.so:
$ pkcs11-tool --module=/usr/local/lib/libpkcs11-proxy.so -l --keypairgen --key-type rsa:2048 --id 100 --label mykey
Logging in to "main".
Please enter User PIN: 
Key pair generated:
Private Key Object; RSA 
  label:      mykey
  ID:         0100
  Usage:      decrypt, sign, unwrap
  Access:     sensitive, always sensitive, never extractable, local
Public Key Object; RSA 2048 bits
  label:      mykey
  ID:         0100
  Usage:      encrypt, verify, wrap
  Access:     local

$ pkcs11-tool --module=/usr/local/lib/libpkcs11-proxy.so -O -l
Using slot 0 with a present token (0x2561b147)
Logging in to "main".
Please enter User PIN: 
Private Key Object; RSA 
  label:      my_key
  ID:         0100
  Usage:      decrypt, sign, unwrap
  Access:     sensitive
Public Key Object; RSA 2048 bits
  label:      my_key
  ID:         0100
  Usage:      encrypt, verify, wrap
  Access:     none

Read pkcs11-tool documentation for getting more info. TLS encryption is also supported but not stable at least for me https://github.com/SUNET/pkcs11-proxy/blob/master/USAGE#L56

Upvotes: 1

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