[openssl-dev] [RFC 0/2] Proposal for seamless handling of TPM based RSA keys in openssl

[Dr. Stephen Henson]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2016, Richard Levitte wrote:

> If I understand correctly, the intention is to avoid having to use
> ENGINE_load_private_key() directly or having to say '-keyform ENGINE'
> to the openssl commands, and to avoid having to remember some cryptic
> key identity to give with '-key'.  Instead of all that, just give the
> name of a .pem file with '-key' and if that file contains some kind of
> magic information that the engine can understand, it will dig out a
> reference to the hw protected key.
> 
> Many years ago, I was thinking of something along the same lines, but
> with a .pem file that would just have a few headers, holding the name
> of the intended engine and the key identity, something like this:
> 
>     -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
>     X-key-id: flarflarflar
>     X-key-engine: foo
>     -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
> 
> The intent was that the PEM code would be massaged to recognise these
> headers and would then use ENGINE_by_id() / ENGINE_load_private_key()
> with those data and that would be it.
> 

Yes me too. Though if you're doing that something like "ENGINE PRIVATE KEY"
or "OPENSSL ENGINE PRIVATE KEY" as just "PRIVATE KEY" is associated with
PKCS#8.

Steve.
--
Dr Stephen N. Henson. OpenSSL project core developer.
Commercial tech support now available see: http://www.openssl.org