# SHHHH, THIS PROJECT HASN'T OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED YET AND THIS REPO IS SUPER SECRET!!!

# Step Certificates

An online certificate authority and related tools for secure automated
certificate management, so you can use TLS everywhere.

For more information and docs see [the Step website](https://smallstep.com/cli/)
and the [blog post](https://smallstep.com/blog/zero-trust-swiss-army-knife.html)
announcing Step Certificate Authority.

### Table of Contents

- [Installing](#installing)
- [Documentation](#documentation)
- [Terminology](#terminology)
- [Getting Started](#getting-started)
- [I've Got a Running CA! Now What?](#now-what)
- [Versioning](#versioning)
- [How To Create A New Release](./distribution.md)
- [LICENSE](./LICENSE)
- [CHANGELOG](./CHANGELOG.md)

## Installing

These instructions will install an OS specific version of the `step` binary on
your local machine.

### Mac OS

Install `step` via [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/):

```
brew install smallstep/smallstep/step
```

### Linux

Download the latest Debian package from [releases](https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/releases):

```
wget https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/releases/download/X.Y.Z/step_X.Y.Z_amd64.deb
```

Install the Debian package:

```
sudo dpkg -i step-ca_X.Y.Z_amd64.deb
```

## Documentation

Documentation can be found in three places:

1. On the command line with `step ca help xxx` where `xxx` is the subcommand you are interested in. Ex: `step help ca provisioners list`

2. On the web at https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca

3. In your browser with `step ca help --http :8080` and visiting http://localhost:8080

## Terminology

### PKI - Public Key Infrastructure

Blah blah

### Provisioners

Provisioners are people or code that are registered with the CA and authorized
to issue "provisioning tokens". Provisioning tokens are single use tokens that
can be used to authenticate with the CA and get a certificate.

## Getting Started

Demonstrates setting up your own PKI and certificate authority using `step ca`
and getting certificates using the `step` command line tool and SDK.

### Prerequisites

1. [Step Cli](https://github.com/smallstep/cli/blob/master/README.md#installing)

2. [Step CA](#installing)

### Initializing PKI and configuring the Certificate Authority

To initialize a PKI and configure the Step Certificate Authority run:

```
step ca init
```

You'll be asked for a name for your PKI. This name will appear in your CA
certificates. It doesn't really matter what you choose. The name of your
organization or your project will suffice.

If you run:

```
tree .
```

You should see:

```
...
├── config
│   └── ca.json
└── secrets
    ├── intermediate_ca.crt
    ├── intermediate_ca_key
    ├── root_ca.crt
    ├── root_ca_key
```

The files created include:

* `root_ca.crt` and `root_ca_key`: the root certificate and private key for
  your PKI
* `intermediate_ca.crt` and `intermediate_ca_key`: the intermediate certificate
  and private key that will be used to sign leaf certificates
* `ca.json`: the configuration file necessary for running the Step CA.

All of the files endinging in `_key` are password protected using the password
you chose during PKI initialization.

### What's Inside `ca.json`?

`ca.json` is responsible for configuring communication, authorization, and
default new certificate values for the Step CA. Below is a short list of
definitions and descriptions of available configuration attributes.

* `root`: location of the root certificate on the filesystem. The root certificate
is used to mutually authenticate all api clients of the CA.

* `crt`: location of the intermediate certificate on the filesystem. The
intermediate certificate is returned alongside each new certificate,
allowing the client to complete the certificate chain.

* `key`: location of the intermediate private key on the filesystem. The
intermediate key signs all new certificates generated by the CA.

* `password`: optionally store the password for decrypting the intermediate private
key (this should be the same password you chose during PKI initialization). If
the value is not stored in configuration then you will be prompted for it when
starting the CA.

* `address`: e.g. `127.0.0.1:8080` - address and port on which the CA will bind
and respond to requests.

* `dnsNames`: comma separated list of DNS Name(s) for the CA.

* `logger`: the default logging format for the CA is `text`. The other options
is `json`.

* `tls`: settings for negotiating communication with the CA; includes acceptable
ciphersuites, min/max TLS version, etc.

* `authority`: controls the request authorization and signature processes.

    - `template`: default ASN1DN values for new certificates.

    - `claims`: default validation for requested attributes in the certificate request.
    Can be overriden by similar claims objects defined by individual provisioners.

        * `minTLSCertDuration`: do not allow certificates with a duration less
        than this value.

        * `maxTLSCertDuration`: do not allow certificates with a duration greater
        than this value.

        * `defaultTLSCertDuration`: if not certificat validity period is specified,
        use this value.

        * `disableIssuedAtCheck`: disable a check verifying that provisioning
        tokens must be issued after the CA has booted. This is one prevention
        against token reuse. The default value is `false`. Do not change this
        unless you know what you are doing.

    - `provisioners`: list of provisioners. Each provisioner has a `name`,
    associated public/private keys, and an optional `claims` attribute that will
    override any values set in the global `claims` directly underneath `authority`.


`step ca init` will generate one provisioner. New provisioners can be added by
running `step ca provisioner add`.

### Running the CA

To start the CA run:

```
step-ca $STEPPATH/config/ca.step
```

## [I've got a running CA! Now What?](#now-what)

Now that you have an online CA that authenticates requests before issuing
certificates you can begin automating the distribution and maintenance of your
PKI.

### Issuing x.509 certificates for TLS (HTTPS)

There are two steps to issuing a certificate at the command line:

1. Generate a provisioning token using your provisioning credentials.
2. Generate a CSR and exchange it, along with the provisioning token, for a certificate.

If you would like to generate a certificate from the command line, the Step CLI
provides a single command that will prompt you to select and decrypt an
authorized provisioner and then request a new certificate.

```
$ step ca certificate "foo.example.com" foo.crt foo.key --ca-url https://ca.smallstep.com \
    --root /path/to/root_ca.crt
```

If you would like to generate certificates on demand from an automated configuration
configuration management solution (no user input) you would split the above flow
into two commands.

```
$ TOKEN=$(step ca token foo.example.com \
    --kid 4vn46fbZT68Uxfs9LBwHkTvrjEvxQqx-W8nnE-qDjts \
    --ca-url https://ca.example.com \
    --root /path/to/root_ca.crt  --password-file /path/to/provisioner/password)

$ step ca certificate "foo.example.com" foo.crt foo.key --token "$TOKEN" \
    --ca-url https://ca.example.com --root /path/to/root_ca.crt
```

You can take a closer look at the contents of the certificate using `step certificate inspect`:

```
$ step certificate inspect foo.crt
```

## Hot Reload

It is important that the CA be able to handle configuration changes with no downtime.
Our CA has a built in `reload` feature allowing it to:

1. Finish processing existing connections while blocking new ones.
2. Re-read the configuration file and initialize the API.
3. Begin accepting blocked and new connections.

The `reload` feature is triggered by sending a SIGHUP to the PID (see `man kill` for your OS) of the
Step CA process. A few important details to note when using `reload`:

* The location of the modified configuration must be in the same location as it
was in the original invocation of the `step-ca`. So, if the original command was

```
$ step-ca ./.step/config/ca.json
```

then, upon reload, the Step CA will read it's new configuration from the same
configuration file.

* Step CA requires the password to decrypt the intermediate certificate again
upon `reload`. You can auotmate this in one of two ways:

    * Use the `--password-file` flag in the original invocation.
    * Use the toplevel `password` attribute in the `ca.json` configuration file.

## Versioning

We use [SemVer](http://semver.org/) for versioning. For the versions available,
see the [tags on this repository](https://github.com/smallstep/cli).


## License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the
[LICENSE](./LICENSE) file for details

### Individual Contributor License

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