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PKCS 11 - Wikipedia

18 Jul 20254 min read

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In cryptography, PKCS #11 is a Public-Key Cryptography Standard that defines a C programming interface to create and manipulate cryptographic tokens that may contain secret cryptographic keys. It is often used to communicate with a Hardware Security Module or smart cards.

The PKCS #11 standard is managed by OASIS 1 with the current version being 3.1 2 PKCS #11 is sometimes referred to as “Cryptoki” (from “cryptographic token interface” and pronounced as “crypto-key”).

The API defines most commonly used cryptographic object types (RSA keys, X.509 certificates, DES / Triple DES keys, etc.) and all the functions needed to use, create/generate, modify and delete those objects.

Usage

Most commercial (CA) software uses PKCS #11 to access the CA signing key or to enroll user certificates. Cross-platform software that needs to use smart cards uses PKCS #11, such as Mozilla Firefox and OpenSSL (using an extension). It is also used to access smart cards and HSMs. Software written for Microsoft Windows may use the platform specific MS-CAPI API instead. Both Oracle Solaris and Red Hat Enterprise Linux contain implementations for use by applications, as well.

The Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) defines a wire protocol that has similar functionality to the PKCS #11 API.

The two standards were originally developed independently but are now both governed by an OASIS technical committee. It is the stated objective of both the PKCS #11 and KMIP committees to align the standards where practicable. KMIP also has special operations that provide a complete standards based wire protocol for PKCS #11.

There is considerable overlap between members of the two technical committees.

History

The PKCS #11 standard originated from RSA Security along with its other PKCS standards in 1994. In 2013, RSA contributed the latest draft revision of the standard (PKCS #11 2.30) to OASIS to continue the work on the standard within the newly created OASIS PKCS11 Technical Committee.3 The following list contains significant revision information:

  • 01/1994: project launched
  • 04/1995: v1.0 published
  • 12/1997: v2.01 published
  • 12/1999: v2.10 published
  • 01/2001: v2.11 published
  • 06/2004: v2.20 published 1
  • 12/2005: amendments 1 & 2 (one-time password tokens, CT-KIP 4)
  • 01/2007: amendment 3 (additional mechanisms)
  • 09/2009: v2.30 draft published for review, but final version never published
  • 12/2012: RSA announce that PKCS #11 management is being transitioned to OASIS 5
  • 03/2013: OASIS PKCS #11 Technical Committee Inaugural meetings, works starts on v2.40 6
  • 04/2015: OASIS PKCS #11 v2.40 specifications become approved OASIS standards 7
  • 05/2016: OASIS PKCS #11 v2.40 Errata 01 specifications become approved OASIS errata 8
  • 07/2020: OASIS PKCS #11 v3.0 specifications become approved OASIS standards 9
  • 07/2023: OASIS PKCS #11 v3.1 specifications become approved OASIS standards 2

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Dieter Bong; Tony Cox, eds. (2023-07-23). “PKCS #11 Specification Version 3.1”. OASIS. Retrieved 2024-08-29. ↩ ↩2

  2. Paul Knight, ed. (2023-08-10). “Two PKCS #11 OASIS Standards published”. OASIS. Retrieved 2025-01-05. ↩ ↩2

  3. “OASIS Enhances Popular Public-Key Cryptography Standard, PKCS #11, for Mobile and Cloud”. OASIS. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 2016-08-24. ↩

  4. “CT-KIP: Cryptographic Token Key Initialization Protocol”. RSA Security. Archived from the original on 2017-04-17. ↩

  5. Griffin, Bob (2012-12-26). “Re-invigorating the PKCS #11 Standard”. Archived from the original on 2013-05-25. ↩

  6. “OASIS PKCS 11 TC Public Documents”. OASIS. Retrieved 2020-01-16. ↩

  7. “#PKCS #11 Cryptographic Token Interface Base Specification, Interface Profiles, Current Mechanisms Specification, and Historical Mechanisms Specification Versions 2.40 become OASIS Standards”. OASIS. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-24. ↩

  8. “#PKCS 11 V2.40 Approved Erratas published by PKCS 11 TC”. OASIS. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-24. ↩

  9. “#PKCS #11 Cryptographic Token Interface Base Specification, Interface Profiles, Current Mechanisms Specification, and Historical Mechanisms Specification Versions 3.0 become OASIS Standards”. OASIS. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-23. ↩

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