CMP test CA

certrally mock runs a CMP test CA on your machine, for trying certrally and test scripts without a real CA. Start it in one terminal:

certrally mock --secret demo-secret --ca-out ca.pem

Request a certificate from another terminal in the same directory:

certrally enroll --server http://127.0.0.1:8080/.well-known/cmp --ref demo --ca-cert ca.pem --secret demo-secret --cert-out device.pem --key-out device.key

The test CA prints the same command when it starts. This page describes what it does and the fault flags that make it delay, reject or confirm requests differently and accept deviations from RFC 9483, to test how a client copes. To test a CA the other way around, certrally enroll --fault and poll --fault send deliberately wrong messages. Testing a CA with faulty messages describes them and how the test CA answers each one.

What it does

certrally mock listens on 127.0.0.1:8080 (--listen) and answers at /.well-known/cmp. It issues certificates for ir, cr, kur and p10cr, confirms and revokes them and answers the requests for CA certificates, a request template and CRLs. It accepts the shared secret for --ref (default demo) and signatures made with certificates it issued. It copies the requested subject and extensions, such as subjectAltName and extendedKeyUsage, into the certificate, but always sets keyUsage to digitalSignature. For enroll --central-keygen it generates the key pair. That is ECDSA P-256 when the request leaves the choice to it and otherwise any type that --key-type offers, with 2048 bits for RSA. A key generation authority certificate that it issues at startup with the id-kp-cmKGA extended key usage signs the private key. It accepts requests that a registration authority forwards. The secret comes from --secret, --secret-file or CERTRALLY_SECRET. Without any of them, a random secret is generated and printed. --ca-out saves the CA certificate for --ca-cert. Everything lives in memory and is lost when the CA stops.

The startup report shows the address, the CA name, the secret source and the fault flags in use, then an enroll command that works against the CA. The command gives the secret with --secret, names the file of --secret-file and leaves out a secret from CERTRALLY_SECRET. Every request is logged on one line: the time, the request body and its protection, the response and how long it took. A response with a statusString adds it in quotes, such as the reason the CA refused a request. A revocation adds a line below its request with the serial number, the reason and the invalidity date when the request gave one. A generated key pair adds a line with its key type. A forwarded request adds a line with the subject of the registration authority. A certConf that rejects the certificate adds a certificate rejected line and a certificate whose certConf came too late a certificate not confirmed in time line, each with the serial number. The CRL lists the invalidity date too.

Registration authorities

The test CA accepts a request that a registration authority (RA) forwards in a nested message, as enroll --ra-cert and --ra-key send it. The RA must sign the nested message with a certificate that the CA issued with the cmcRA extended key usage and has not revoked. Enroll one with --ext-key-usage cmcRA:

certrally enroll --server http://127.0.0.1:8080/.well-known/cmp --ref demo \
  --subject CN=ra --ext-key-usage cmcRA --cert-out ra.pem --key-out ra.key

Other RAs are refused with notAuthorized and a MAC-protected nested message with wrongIntegrity. Requests that no RA forwarded are accepted as usual. --require-ra refuses those with notAuthorized, except a request for a certificate with cmcRA, so that an RA can enroll.

certrally mock --require-ra

Delayed answers

--waiting N answers each certificate and revocation request with status waiting and decides it on the Nth poll. --check-after sets the time the response tells the client to wait before it polls (default 1s). certrally polls when asked and waits at least one second between polls. enroll --poll-later and poll collect the certificate in a later run.

certrally mock --waiting 2 --check-after 5s

Rejections

--reject FAILINFO[:TEXT] rejects every certificate and revocation request with the given failInfo and an optional statusString. With --waiting the rejection comes on the last poll.

certrally mock --reject badCertTemplate:'subject not allowed'

The failInfo names are those of RFC 9810 section 5.2.3, such as badRequest, badCertTemplate, badPOP or systemUnavail. Shell completion lists them.

Confirmation

--grant-implicit-confirm grants implicit confirmation to a request that asks for it, so that the client need not send certConf. A request that does not ask for it is confirmed as usual. certrally enroll --implicit-confirm asks for it, as does openssl cmp -implicit_confirm.

--confirm-wait sets the time the client has to confirm a certificate, sent as confirmWaitTime (default 10s). The CA refuses a later certConf with badRequest and drops a transaction whose certificate is not confirmed in time. certrally enroll --fault late-certconf tests this.

Profile checks

--strict refuses requests that break RFC 9483 instead of accepting the usual deviations, such as a missing transactionID, a NULL-DN sender or a reused senderNonce. It also overrides the --accept values that relax a rule of the profile.

--mac-iterations MIN-MAX accepts only shared-secret MACs whose iteration count is in the range. The default is 1 to 500000. Use it with certrally enroll --iterations to test the limits of a client.

--accept NAME (repeatable) accepts one deviation from the profile:

Name	Accepts
missing-pollreq-nonce	a pollReq without recipNonce
missing-certconf-nonce	a certConf without recipNonce
missing-subject	a certificate template without subject
any-cert-req-id	a certReqId other than 0, repeated in the response
missing-revocation-reason	a revocation request without reason code
missing-revocation-issuer	a revocation request without issuer
poposkinput	a signature proof of possession over poposkInput
signature-pop	no proof of possession in a request signed with a certificate for the key
sha1	SHA-1 signatures in the protection and the proof of possession
mac-revocation	revocation requests not signed with the revoked certificate, such as MAC-protected ones
raw-subject	the subject as encoded in the request, keeping every attribute, order and string type
encrypted-cert-pop	the encrypted certificate proof of possession
challenge-pop	the challenge-response proof of possession

mac-revocation authorizes every such request, because the test CA has no revocation policy of its own. encrypted-cert-pop and challenge-pop serve clients that prove possession without a signature, such as enroll with an ML-KEM key and --pop encrypted-cert or --pop challenge. The test CA certifies an ML-KEM key with keyEncipherment as its only key usage.

certrally mock --strict --mac-iterations 100-10000 --accept sha1