I'm developing an SDK that will allow iOS devices (iOS 13+) to connect to AWS IoT Core using Native C. The endpoint requires a mutual TLS handshake to connect. I have been able to successfully import a Certificate and Private Key into the keychain but am unable to generate a SecIdentityRef from them for use in setting up a nw_protocol_options_t. I've looked through other forum posts and have been unable to figure out what's going on (Some are from 5+ years ago and maybe things have changed since then).
After prepping the raw data for the cert and key into expected formats I import the certificate:
const void *add_keys[] = {
kSecClass,
kSecAttrLabel,
kSecAttrSerialNumber,
kSecValueData,
kSecReturnRef };
const void *add_values[] = {
kSecClassCertificate,
label,
serial_data,
cert_data,
kCFBooleanTrue };
attributes = CFDictionaryCreate(
cf_alloc,
add_keys,
add_values,
5,
&kCFTypeDictionaryKeyCallBacks,
&kCFTypeDictionaryValueCallBacks);
status = SecItemAdd(attributes, (CFTypeRef *)out_certificate);
Next I import the private key:
const void *add_keys[] = {
kSecClass,
kSecAttrKeyClass,
kSecAttrKeyType,
kSecAttrApplicationLabel,
kSecAttrLabel,
kSecValueData,
kSecReturnRef };
const void *add_values[] = {
kSecClassKey,
kSecAttrKeyClassPrivate,
key_type,
application_label,
label,
key_data,
kCFBooleanTrue };
attributes = CFDictionaryCreate(
cf_alloc,
add_keys,
add_values,
7,
&kCFTypeDictionaryKeyCallBacks,
&kCFTypeDictionaryValueCallBacks);
status = SecItemAdd(attributes, (CFTypeRef *)out_private_key);
The full code handles duplicate items in which case attributes are updated. Following the successful import of the cert and key to the keychain, I attempt to retrieve the identity with the following:
SecIdentityRef identity = NULL;
CFDictionaryRef query = NULL;
const void *query_keys[] = {
kSecClass,
kSecReturnRef,
// kSecAttrSerialNumber,
// kSecAttrLabel
kSecMatchLimit
};
const void *query_values[] = {
kSecClassIdentity,
kCFBooleanTrue,
// cert_serial_data,
// cert_label_ref
kSecMatchLimitAll
};
query = CFDictionaryCreate(
cf_alloc,
query_keys,
query_values,
3,
&kCFTypeDictionaryKeyCallBacks,
&kCFTypeDictionaryValueCallBacks);
OSStatus identity_status = SecItemCopyMatching(query, (CFTypeRef *)&identity);
I have attempted using various search parameters related to the label and the serial of the certificate. Based on other forum post suggestions I have also tried expanding the search to kSecMatchLimitAll to get back ANY stored kSecClassIdentity and all variations returned OSStatus of -25300 (errSecItemNotFound). Once I am able to retrieve the SecIdentityRef, my understanding is that I can add it to the following during creation of the socket:
nw_protocol_options_t tls_options = nw_tls_create_options();
sec_protocol_options_t sec_options = nw_tls_copy_sec_protocol_options(tls_options);
sec_protocol_options_set_min_tls_protocol_version(sec_options, tls_protocol_version_TLSv12);
sec_protocol_options_set_max_tls_protocol_version(sec_options, tls_protocol_version_TLSv13);
sec_protocol_options_set_local_identity(sec_options, SecIdentityRef);
Am I missing some step that is required to create an identity from the certificate and private key? I have tested the cert/key pair and they connect properly when using the old deprecated SecItemImport and SecIdentityCreateWithCertificate (on our old macOS only implementation).
I will continue to dig through Apple documentation as well as more forum posts but I feel like I'm hitting a wall and missing something very obvious as this seems like a very common networking task. Thanks!
The provided links below are to the full code related to the work in progress iOS import functions:
Link to import function https://github.com/awslabs/aws-c-io/blob/cad8639ef0ea08ba3cc74b72cfc1c9866adbb7e5/source/darwin/darwin_pki_utils.c#L735
Link to private key import: https://github.com/awslabs/aws-c-io/blob/cad8639ef0ea08ba3cc74b72cfc1c9866adbb7e5/source/darwin/darwin_pki_utils.c#L561
Link to certificate import: https://github.com/awslabs/aws-c-io/blob/cad8639ef0ea08ba3cc74b72cfc1c9866adbb7e5/source/darwin/darwin_pki_utils.c#L398
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Hello, I'm developing an SDK that will allow iOS devices (iOS 13+) to connect to AWS IoT Core using Native C. The endpoint requires a mutual TLS handshake to connect. I have been able to successfully import a Certificate and Private Key into the keychain and generate a SecIdentityRef that combines the cert/key pair which I believe is necessary to establish a TCP TLS nw_connection.
I've searched around and while I can find the individual pieces related to creating a TLS connection, I can't seem to find any that show how things go together.
The goal would be to use
nw_connection_create(endpoint, parameters);
to establish a TLS connection.
This is currently how I am creating the parameters for this connection.
transport_ctx->secitem_identity is where the SecIdentityRef is kept.
nw_parameters_create_secure_tcp(
// nw_parameters_configure_protocol_block_t for configure_tls
^(nw_protocol_options_t tls_options) {
sec_protocol_options_t sec_options = nw_tls_copy_sec_protocol_options(tls_options);
// Set the minimum TLS version to TLS 1.2
sec_protocol_options_set_min_tls_protocol_version(sec_options, tls_protocol_version_TLSv12);
// Set the maximum TLS version to TLS 1.3
sec_protocol_options_set_max_tls_protocol_version(sec_options, tls_protocol_version_TLSv13);
sec_protocol_options_set_local_identity(sec_options, transport_ctx->secitem_identity);
},
// nw_parameters_configure_protocol_block_t for configure_tcp
// This is also manually set with a code block but not relevant to this q.
NW_PARAMETERS_DEFAULT_CONFIGURATION);
My question is whether or not I'm even on the right track with attempting to use these functions to setup the TLS options associated with the parameters? The sec_protocol_options_set_local_identity appears to be listed under "Security legacy reference" in the apple dev docs: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/sec_protocol_options_set_local_identity(_:_:)?language=objc
And the surrounding documentation related to using TLS with a network connection feels sparse at best.
Follow up question is whether there is any documentation or reading material available for setting up TLS with a TCP socket connection. I'd love to not have to take up time asking these questions if there's somewhere I can just learn it.
Thanks!