torspec/cert-spec.txt

                    Ed25519 certificates in Tor

Table of Contents

    1. Scope and Preliminaries
        1.1. Signing
        1.2. Integer encoding
    2. Document formats
        2.1. Ed25519 Certificates
        2.2. Basic extensions
            2.2.1. Signed-with-ed25519-key extension [type 04]
        2.3. RSA->Ed25519 cross-certificate
    A.1. List of certificate types (CERT_TYPE field)
    A.2. List of extension types
    A.3. List of signature prefixes
    A.4. List of certified key types (CERT_KEY_TYPE field)

1. Scope and Preliminaries

   This document describes a certificate format that Tor uses for
   its Ed25519 internal certificates.  It is not the only
   certificate format that Tor uses.  For the certificates that
   authorities use for their signing keys, see dir-spec.txt.
   Additionally, Tor uses TLS, which depends on X.509 certificates;
   see tor-spec.txt for details.

   The certificates in this document were first introduced in
   proposal 220, and were first supported by Tor in Tor version
   0.2.7.2-alpha.

1.1. Signing

   All signatures here, unless otherwise specified, are computed
   using an Ed25519 key.

   In order to future-proof the format, before signing anything, the
   signed document is prefixed with a personalization string, which
   will be different in each case.

1.2. Integer encoding

   Network byte order (big-endian) is used to encode all integer values
   in Ed25519 certificates unless explicitly specified otherwise.

2. Document formats

2.1. Ed25519 Certificates

   When generating a signing key, we also generate a certificate for it.
   Unlike the certificates for authorities' signing keys, these
   certificates need to be sent around frequently, in significant
   numbers.  So we'll choose a compact representation.

         VERSION         [1 Byte]
         CERT_TYPE       [1 Byte]
         EXPIRATION_DATE [4 Bytes]
         CERT_KEY_TYPE   [1 byte]
         CERTIFIED_KEY   [32 Bytes]
         N_EXTENSIONS    [1 byte]
         EXTENSIONS      [N_EXTENSIONS times]
         SIGNATURE       [64 Bytes]

   The "VERSION" field holds the value [01].  The "CERT_TYPE" field
   holds a value depending on the type of certificate. (See appendix
   A.1.) The CERTIFIED_KEY field is an Ed25519 public key if
   CERT_KEY_TYPE is [01], or a digest of some other key type
   depending on the value of CERT_KEY_TYPE.  (See appendix A.4.)
   The EXPIRATION_DATE is a date, given in HOURS since the epoch,
   after which this certificate isn't valid. (A four-byte field here
   will work fine until 10136 A.D.)

   The EXTENSIONS field contains zero or more extensions, each of
   the format:

         ExtLength [2 bytes]
         ExtType   [1 byte]
         ExtFlags  [1 byte]
         ExtData   [ExtLength bytes]

   The meaning of the ExtData field in an extension is type-dependent.

   The ExtFlags field holds flags; this flag is currently defined:

      1 -- AFFECTS_VALIDATION. If this flag is present, then the
           extension affects whether the certificate is valid; clients
           must not accept the certificate as valid unless they
           understand the extension.

   It is an error for an extension to be truncated; such a
   certificate is invalid.

   Before processing any certificate, parties SHOULD know which
   identity key it is supposed to be signed by, and then check the
   signature.  The signature is formed by signing the first N-64
   bytes of the certificate.

2.2. Basic extensions

2.2.1. Signed-with-ed25519-key extension [type 04]

   In several places, it's desirable to bundle the key signing a
   certificate along with the certificate.  We do so with this
   extension.

        ExtLength = 32
        ExtData =
           An ed25519 key    [32 bytes]

   When this extension is present, it MUST match the key used to
   sign the certificate.

2.3. RSA->Ed25519 cross-certificate

   Certificate type [07] (Cross-certification of Ed25519 identity
   with RSA key) contains the following data:

       ED25519_KEY                       [32 bytes]
       EXPIRATION_DATE                   [4 bytes]
       SIGLEN                            [1 byte]
       SIGNATURE                         [SIGLEN bytes]

   Here, the Ed25519 identity key is signed with router's RSA
   identity key, to indicate that authenticating with a key
   certified by the Ed25519 key counts as certifying with RSA
   identity key.  (The signature is computed on the SHA256 hash of
   the non-signature parts of the certificate, prefixed with the
   string "Tor TLS RSA/Ed25519 cross-certificate".)

   This certificate type is used to mean, "This Ed25519 identity key
   acts with the authority of the RSA key that signed this
   certificate."

A.1. List of certificate types (CERT_TYPE field)

   The values marked with asterisks are not types corresponding to
   the certificate format of section 2.1.  Instead, they are
   reserved for RSA-signed certificates to avoid conflicts between
   the certificate type enumeration of the CERTS cell and the
   certificate type enumeration of in our Ed25519 certificates.


   **[00],[01],[02],[03] - Reserved to avoid conflict with types used
          in CERTS cells.

   [04] - Ed25519 signing key with an identity key
          (see prop220 section 4.2)

   [05] - TLS link certificate signed with ed25519 signing key
          (see prop220 section 4.2)

   [06] - Ed25519 authentication key signed with ed25519 signing key
          (see prop220 section 4.2)

   **[07] - Reserved for RSA identity cross-certification;
          (see section 2.3 above, and tor-spec.txt section 4.2)

   [08] - Onion service: short-term descriptor signing key, signed
          with blinded public key.
          (See rend-spec-v3.txt, section [DESC_OUTER])

   [09] - Onion service: intro point authentication key, cross-certifying the
          descriptor signing key.
          (See rend-spec-v3.txt, description of "auth-key")

   [0A] - ntor onion key cross-certifying ed25519 identity key
          (see dir-spec.txt, description of "ntor-onion-key-crosscert")

   [0B] - Onion service: ntor-extra encryption key, cross-certifying
          descriptor signing key.
          (see rend-spec-v3.txt, description of "enc-key-cert")

A.2. List of extension types

   [04] - signed-with-ed25519-key (section 2.2.1)

A.3. List of signature prefixes

   We describe various documents as being signed with a prefix. Here
   are those prefixes:

   "Tor router descriptor signature v1" (see dir-spec.txt)

A.4. List of certified key types (CERT_KEY_TYPE field)

   [01] ed25519 key
   [02] SHA256 hash of an RSA key. (Not currently used.)
   [03] SHA256 hash of an X.509 certificate. (Used with certificate
        type 5.)

   (NOTE: Up till 0.4.5.1-alpha, all versions of Tor have incorrectly used
   "01" for all types of certified key.  Implementations SHOULD
   allow "01" in this position, and infer the actual key type from
   the CERT_TYPE field.)