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Provisioners

Note: The canonical documentation for step-ca provisioners now lives at https://smallstep.com/docs/step-ca/provisioners. Documentation found on this page may be out of date.

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.

See step ca provisioner add --help for documentation and examples on adding provisioners.

Attn: We strongly recommend using the step ca provisioner add ... utility to generate provisioners in your ca.json configuration. We often encode fields differently in the JSON than you might expect. And you can always come in and modify the configuration manually after using the utility.

Claims

Each provisioner can define an optional claims attribute. The settings in this attribute override any settings in the global claims attribute in the authority configuration.

Example claims:

    ...
    "claims": {
        "minTLSCertDuration": "5m",
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "24h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "24h",
        "disableRenewal": false,
        "minHostSSHCertDuration": "5m",
        "maxHostSSHCertDuration": "1680h",
        "defaultHostSSHCertDuration": "720h",
        "minUserSSHCertDuration": "5m",
        "maxUserSSHCertDuration": "24h",
        "defaultUserSSHCertDuration": "16h",
        "enableSSHCA": true
    },
    ...

claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority. You can set one or more of the following claims:
- 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 no certificate validity period is specified, use this value.
- disableIssuedAtCheck: disable a check verifying that provisioning tokens must be issued after the CA has booted. This claim is one prevention against token reuse. The default value is false. Do not change this unless you know what you are doing.
SSH CA properties
- minUserSSHCertDuration: do not allow certificates with a duration less than this value.
- maxUserSSHCertDuration: do not allow certificates with a duration greater than this value.
- defaultUserSSHCertDuration: if no certificate validity period is specified, use this value.
- minHostSSHCertDuration: do not allow certificates with a duration less than this value.
- maxHostSSHCertDuration: do not allow certificates with a duration greater than this value.
- defaultHostSSHCertDuration: if no certificate validity period is specified, use this value.
- enableSSHCA: enable all provisioners to generate SSH Certificates. The default value is false. You can enable this option per provisioner by setting it to true in the provisioner claims.

Provisioner Types

Each provisioner has a different method of authentication with the CA.

A JWK provisioner uses a JWT signed by a JWK.
An OIDC provisioner uses a OIDC token signed by an Identity Provider e.g. Google, Okta, Azure.
An AWS provisioner uses an Instance Identity Document signed by AWS.
etc.

Capabilities by Type

Provisioners are used to authenticate certificate signing requests, and every provisioner has a slightly different scope of authorization. Below is a table detailing the authorization capabilities of each provisioner.

Provisioner Capabilities	x509-sign	x509-renew	x509-revoke	ssh-user-cert-sign	ssh-host-cert-sign	ssh-user-cert-renew	ssh-host-cert-renew	ssh-revoke	ssh-rekey
JWK	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	✔️	𝗫
OIDC	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️ ¹	𝗫	𝗫	✔️	𝗫
X5C	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫
K8sSA	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫
ACME	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫
SSHPOP	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	✔️	✔️	✔️
AWS	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫
Azure	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫
GCP	✔️	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	✔️	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫	𝗫

1 Admin OIDC users can generate Host SSH Certificates. Admins can be configured in the OIDC provisioner. ↩

JWK

JWK is the default provisioner type. It uses public-key cryptography to sign and validate a JSON Web Token (JWT).

The step CLI tool will create a JWK provisioner when step ca init is used, and it also contains commands to add (step ca provisioner add) and remove (step ca provisioner remove) JWK provisioners.

In the ca.json configuration file, a complete JWK provisioner example looks like:

{
    "type": "JWK",
    "name": "you@smallstep.com",
    "key": {
        "use": "sig",
        "kty": "EC",
        "kid": "NPM_9Gz_omTqchS6Xx9Yfvs-EuxkYo6VAk4sL7gyyM4",
        "crv": "P-256",
        "alg": "ES256",
        "x": "bBI5AkO9lwvDuWGfOr0F6ttXC-ZRzJo8kKn5wTzRJXI",
        "y": "rcfaqE-EEZgs34Q9SSH3f9Ua5a8dKopXNfEzDD8KRlU"
    },
    "encryptedKey": "eyJhbGciOiJQQkVTMi1IUzI1NitBMTI4S1ciLCJjdHkiOiJqd2sranNvbiIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00iLCJwMmMiOjEwMDAwMCwicDJzIjoiTlV6MjlEb3hKMVdOaFI3dUNjaGdYZyJ9.YN7xhz6RAbz_9bcuXoymBOj8bOg23ETAdmSCRyHpxGekkV0q3STYYg.vo1oBnZsZjgRu5Ln.Xop8AvZ74h_im2jxeaq-hYYWnaK_eF7MGr4xcZGodMUxp-hGPqS85oWkyprkQLYt1-jXTURfpejtmPeB4-sxgj7OFxMYYus84BdkG9BZgSBmMN9SqZItOv4pqg_NwQA0bv9g9A_e-N6QUFanxuYQsEPX_-IwWBDbNKyN9bXbpEQa0FKNVsTvFahGzOxQngXipi265VADkh8MJLjYerplKIbNeOJJbLd9CbS9fceLvQUNr3ACGgAejSaWmeNUVqbho1lY4882iS8QVx1VzjluTXlAMdSUUDHArHEihz008kCyF0YfvNdGebyEDLvTmF6KkhqMpsWn3zASYBidc9k._ch9BtvRRhcLD838itIQlw",
    "claims": {
        "minTLSCertDuration": "5m",
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "24h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "24h",
        "disableRenewal": false,
        "minHostSSHCertDuration": "5m",
        "maxHostSSHCertDuration": "1680h",
        "minUserSSHCertDuration": "5m",
        "maxUserSSHCertDuration": "24h",
        "enableSSHCA": true
    }
}

type (mandatory): for a JWK provisioner it must be JWK, this field is case insensitive.
name (mandatory): identifies the provisioner, a good practice is to use an email address or a descriptive string that allows the identification of the owner, but it can be any non-empty string.
key (mandatory): is the JWK (JSON Web Key) representation of a public key used to validate a signed token.

encryptedKey (recommended): is the encrypted private key used to sign a token. It's a JWE compact string containing the JWK representation of the private key.

We can use step to see the private key encrypted with the password asdf:

$ echo ey...lw | step crypto jwe decrypt  | jq
Please enter the password to decrypt the content encryption key:
{
  "use": "sig",
  "kty": "EC",
  "kid": "NPM_9Gz_omTqchS6Xx9Yfvs-EuxkYo6VAk4sL7gyyM4",
  "crv": "P-256",
  "alg": "ES256",
  "x": "bBI5AkO9lwvDuWGfOr0F6ttXC-ZRzJo8kKn5wTzRJXI",
  "y": "rcfaqE-EEZgs34Q9SSH3f9Ua5a8dKopXNfEzDD8KRlU",
  "d": "rsjCCM_2FQ-uk7nywBEQHl84oaPo4mTpYDgXAu63igE"
}

If the ca.json does not contain the encryptedKey, the private key must be provided using the --key flag of the step ca token to be able to sign the token.

OIDC

An OIDC provisioner allows a user to get a certificate after authenticating with an OAuth OpenID Connect identity provider. The ID token provided will be used on the CA authentication, and by default, the certificate will only have the user's email as a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) Extension.

One of the most common providers and the one we'll use in the following example is G-Suite.

{
    "type": "OIDC",
    "name": "Google",
    "clientID": "1087160488420-8qt7bavg3qesdhs6it824mhnfgcfe8il.apps.googleusercontent.com",
    "clientSecret": "udTrOT3gzrO7W9fDPgZQLfYJ",
    "configurationEndpoint": "https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration",
    "admins": ["you@smallstep.com"],
    "domains": ["smallstep.com"],
    "listenAddress": ":10000",
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "8h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2h",
        "disableRenewal": true
    }
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be OIDC.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
clientID (mandatory): the client id provided by the identity provider used to initialize the authentication flow.
clientSecret (mandatory): the client secret provided by the identity provider used to get the id token. Some identity providers might use an empty string as a secret.
configurationEndpoint (mandatory): is the HTTP address used by the CA to get the OpenID Connect configuration and public keys used to validate the tokens.
admins (optional): is the list of emails that will be able to get certificates with custom SANs. If a user is not an admin, it will only be able to get a certificate with its email in it.
domains (optional): is the list of domains valid. If provided only the emails with the provided domains will be able to authenticate.
listenAddress (optional): is the loopback address (:port or host:port) where the authorization server will redirect to complete the authorization flow. If it's not defined step will use 127.0.0.1 with a random port. This configuration is only required if the authorization server doesn't allow any port to be specified at the time of the request for loopback IP redirect URIs.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

X5C

An X5C provisioner allows a client to get an x509 or SSH certificate using an existing x509 certificate that is trusted by the X5C provisioner.

An X5C provisioner is configured with a root certificate, supplied by the user, at the time the provisioner is created. The X5C provisioner can authenticate X5C tokens.

An X5C token is a JWT, signed by the certificate private key, with an x5c header that contains the chain.

If you would like any certificate signed by step-ca to become a provisioner, you can configure the X5C provisioner using the root certificate used by step-ca, like so:

step ca provisioner add x5c-smallstep --type X5C --x5c-root $(step path)/certs/root_ca.crt

Or you can configure the X5C provisioner with an outside root, giving provisioner capabilities to a completely separate PKI.

Below is an example of an X5C provisioner in the ca.json:

...
{
    "type": "X5C",
    "name": "x5c",
    "roots": "LS0tLS1 ... Q0FURS0tLS0tCg==",
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "8h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2h",
        "disableRenewal": true
    }
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be X5C.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
roots (mandatory): a base64 encoded list of root certificates used for validating X5C tokens.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

SSHPOP

An SSHPOP provisioner allows a client to renew, revoke, or rekey an SSH certificate using that certificate for authentication with the CA. The renew and rekey methods can only be used on SSH host certificates.

An SSHPOP provisioner is configured with the user and host root ssh certificates from the ca.json. The SSHPOP provisioner can only authenticate SSHPOP tokens generated using SSH certificates created by step-ca.

An SSHPOP token is a JWT, signed by the certificate private key, with an sshpop header that contains the SSH certificate.

Below is an example of an SSHPOP provisioner in the ca.json:

...
{
    "type": "SSHPOP",
    "name": "sshpop-smallstep",
    "claims": {
		"enableSSHCA": true
	}
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be SSHPOP.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

ACME

An ACME provisioner allows a client to request a certificate from the server using the ACME Protocol. The ACME provisioner can only request X509 certificates. All authentication of the CSR is managed by the ACME protocol.

Below is an example of an ACME provisioner in the ca.json:

...
{
    "type": "ACME",
    "name": "my-acme-provisioner",
    "forceCN": true,
    "requireEAB": false,
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "8h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2h",
	}
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be ACME.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
forceCN (optional): force one of the SANs to become the Common Name, if a common name is not provided.
requireEAB (optional): require clients to provide External Account Binding credentials when creating an ACME Account.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

See our step-ca ACME tutorial for more guidance on configuring and using the ACME protocol with step-ca.

K8sSA - Kubernetes Service Account

A K8sSA provisioner allows a client to request a certificate from the server using a Kubernetes Service Account Token.

As of the time when this provisioner was coded, the Kubernetes Service Account API for retrieving the token from a running instance was still in beta. Therefore, our K8sSA provisioner must be configured with the public key that will be used to validate K8sSA tokens.

K8sSA tokens are very minimal. There is no place for SANs, or other details that a user may want validated in a CSR. It is essentially a bearer token. Therefore, at this time a K8sSA token can be used to sign a CSR with any SANs. Said differently, the K8sSA provisioner does little to no validation on the CSR before signing it. You should only configure and use this provisioner if you know what you are doing. If a malicious user obtains the private key they will be able to create certificates with any SANs and Subject.

Below is an example of a K8sSA provisioner in the ca.json:

...
{
    "type": "K8sSA",
    "name": "my-kube-provisioner",
    "publicKeys": "LS0tLS1...LS0tCg==",
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "8h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2h",
    }
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be K8sSA.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
publicKeys (mandatory): a base64 encoded list of public keys used to validate K8sSA tokens.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

Provisioners for Cloud Identities

Step certificates can grant certificates to code running in a machine without any other authentication than the one provided by the cloud. Usually, this is implemented with some kind of signed document, but the information contained on them might not be enough to generate a certificate. Due to this limitation, the cloud identities use by default a trust model called Trust On First Use (TOFU).

The Trust On First Use model allows the use of more permissive CSRs that can have custom SANs that cannot be validated. But it comes with the limitation that you can only grant a certificate once. After this first grant, the same machine will need to renew the certificate using mTLS, and the CA will block any other attempt to grant a certificate to that instance.

AWS

The AWS provisioner allows granting a certificate to an Amazon EC2 instance using the Instance Identity Documents

The step CLI will generate a custom JWT token containing the instance identity document and its signature and the CA will grant a certificate after validating it.

In the ca.json, an AWS provisioner looks like:

{
    "type": "AWS",
    "name": "Amazon Web Services",
    "accounts": ["1234567890"],
    "disableCustomSANs": false,
    "disableTrustOnFirstUse": false,
    "instanceAge": "1h",
    "iidRoots": "/path/to/aws.crt",
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "2160h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2160h"
    }
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be AWS.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
accounts (optional): the list of AWS account numbers that are allowed to use this provisioner. If none is specified, all AWS accounts will be valid.
disableCustomSANs (optional): by default custom SANs are valid, but if this option is set to true only the SANs available in the instance identity document will be valid, these are the private IP and the DNS ip-<private-ip>.<region>.compute.internal.
disableTrustOnFirstUse (optional): by default only one certificate will be granted per instance, but if the option is set to true this limit is not set and different tokens can be used to get different certificates.
instanceAge (optional): the maximum age of an instance to grant a certificate. The instance age is a string using the duration format.
iidRoots (optional): the path to one or more public certificates in PEM format used to validate the signature of the instance identity document.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

GCP

The GCP provisioner grants certificates to Google Compute Engine instance using its identity token. The CA will validate the JWT and grant a certificate.

In the ca.json, a GCP provisioner looks like:

{
    "type": "GCP",
    "name": "Google Cloud",
    "serviceAccounts": ["1234567890"],
    "projectIDs": ["project-id"],
    "disableCustomSANs": false,
    "disableTrustOnFirstUse": false,
    "instanceAge": "1h",
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "2160h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2160h"
    }
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be GCP.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
serviceAccounts (optional): the list of service account numbers that are allowed to use this provisioner. If none is specified, all service accounts will be valid.
projectIDs (optional): the list of project identifiers that are allowed to use this provisioner. If non is specified all project will be valid.
disableCustomSANs (optional): by default custom SANs are valid, but if this option is set to true only the SANs available in the instance identity document will be valid, these are the DNS <instance-name>.c.<project-id>.internal and <instance-name>.<zone>.c.<project-id>.internal
disableTrustOnFirstUse (optional): by default only one certificate will be granted per instance, but if the option is set to true this limit is not set and different tokens can be used to get different certificates.
instanceAge (optional): the maximum age of an instance to grant a certificate. The instance age is a string using the duration format.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

Azure

The Azure provisioner grants certificates to Microsoft Azure instances using the managed identities tokens. The CA will validate the JWT and grant a certificate.

In the ca.json, an Azure provisioner looks like:

{
    "type": "Azure",
    "name": "Microsoft Azure",
    "tenantId": "b17c217c-84db-43f0-babd-e06a71083cda",
    "resourceGroups": ["backend", "accounting"],
    "audience": "https://management.azure.com/",
    "disableCustomSANs": false,
    "disableTrustOnFirstUse": false,
    "claims": {
        "maxTLSCertDuration": "2160h",
        "defaultTLSCertDuration": "2160h"
    }
}

type (mandatory): indicates the provisioner type and must be Azure.
name (mandatory): a string used to identify the provider when the CLI is used.
tenantId (mandatory): the Azure account tenant id for this provisioner. This id is the Directory ID available in the Azure Active Directory properties.
audience (optional): defaults to https://management.azure.com/ but it can be changed if necessary.
resourceGroups (optional): the list of resource group names that are allowed to use this provisioner. If none is specified, all resource groups will be valid.
disableCustomSANs (optional): by default custom SANs are valid, but if this option is set to true only the SANs available in the token will be valid, in Azure only the virtual machine name is available.
disableTrustOnFirstUse (optional): by default only one certificate will be granted per instance, but if the option is set to true this limit is not set and different tokens can be used to get different certificates.
claims (optional): overwrites the default claims set in the authority, see the top section for all the options.

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