wa_keyring - WebAuth keyring manipulation tool

wa_keyring [--hv] -f file command [arg ...]

wa_keyring -f keyring add valid-after

wa_keyring -f keyring gc oldest-valid-after-to-keep

wa_keyring -f keyring list

wa_keyring -f keyring remove id

wa_keyring is a command line tool to manage WebAuth key ring files, which contain the private AES keys used by mod_webauth and mod_webkdc. It supports the following individual commands:

add valid-after

Adds a new key to the key ring. valid-after uses the format:

    nnnn[s|m|h|d|w]

to indicate a time relative to the current time. The units for the time are specified by appending a single letter. That letter can be any of s, m, h, d, or w, which correspond to seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks respectively. For example: 10d is 10 days from the current time, and -60d is 60 days before the current time.

gc oldest-valid-after-to-keep

Garbage collects (removes) old keys on the key ring. Any keys with a valid-after date older then the specified time will be removed from the key ring. The format for oldest-valid-after-to-keep is the same as valid-after from the add command. Note that this means that times given to the gc command should generally be negative, to remove keys that have expired in the past.

list

Lists all the keys in the key ring. By default, a brief listing is used, but a verbose listing can be requested with the -v option. The following fields are present in a short listing:

id

The index/position of the key in the key ring.

Created

The date the key was created.

Valid after

The date at which the key becomes valid (in other words, the point at which the WebAuth server will start using it to encrypt and decrypt new data).

Fingerprint

The MD5 digest of the key data. Used to compare keys in two key rings. The following fields are present in the long listing:

Key-Id

The index/position of the key in the key ring.

Created

The date the key was created.

Valid-After

The date at which the key becomes valid (in other words, the point at which the WebAuth server will start using it to encrypt and decrypt new data).

Key-Type

The type of key. Currently, AES is the only supported key type.

Key-Size

Length in bytes of the key.

Fingerprint

The MD5 digest of the key data. Used to compare keys in two key rings.

remove id

Remove the key with ID id from the key ring.

Add a key to the keyring valid as of the current time:

    wa_keyring -f keyring add 0d

Add a key to the keyring that will be valid three days from now:

    wa_keyring -f keyring add 3d

Remove keys from the key ring that became invalid more than 90 days ago:

    wa_keyring -f keyring gc -90d

Remove the first key in the keyring.

    wa_keyring -f keyring remove 0

Display a verbose listing of all of the keys in the key ring:

    wa_keyring -f keyring -v list

Note that a WebAuth server will normally manage its keyring file by itself, and wa_keyring is normally only used for debugging purposes. However, if you are setting up a load-balanced pool of servers that need to all share the same keys, turn off automatic keyring handling by putting the line:

    WebAuthKeyringAutoUpdate off

to your Apache configuration, running a script periodically from cron on one server that does something like:

    wa_keyring -f keyring gc -90d
    wa_keyring -f keyring add 2d

and then copying (in a secure manner!) the new keyring file to all of the other servers.

Roland Schemers <schemers@stanford.edu>