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Sign Inside a FIPS 140-3 Module

Source: R/fipsmod.R
fipsmod.Rd

Finds the OpenSSL FIPS provider (a FIPS 140-3 cryptographic module), loads it on its own, and reports which module it is and whether that module is on the package's list of validated ones. Keys from fipsmkg() are then made, and cpssign() signs with them, inside that module rather than in this package's own code.

Usage

fipsmod(
  openssl = getOption("rmbl.fips.openssl", Sys.which("openssl")),
  conf = getOption("rmbl.fips.conf", Sys.getenv("RMBL_FIPS_CONF"))
)

Arguments

openssl

Path to the openssl program. The default is the option rmbl.fips.openssl, else the openssl on the PATH.

conf

Path to an OpenSSL configuration that loads the FIPS provider, or "" to let the package write one.

Value

A list of class rmbl_fipsmod: name, version and build (the module as it reports itself), status ("validated", "validated without PQC" or "not listed"), cmvp (the certificate, such as "#5523", or NA), pqc (whether that certificate covers ML-DSA and SLH-DSA), openssl, openssl_version and conf. It prints as a box. The result is remembered for the session.

Details

The package's own ML-DSA and SLH-DSA are not a validated module, and FIPS mode does not change that. What it gives is a way to sign with a module that is: a module listed as validated, run as this function runs it, is used in its approved mode. Whether a given module is validated is NIST's to say; the package only recognises the exact module names and builds that a certificate names (the file modules.csv in the package's fips folder), and says "not on the list" for every other one, including a FIPS provider that may well be validated under a certificate the list does not have yet.

The openssl program must be 3.5 or later (the first with ML-DSA and SLH-DSA). Unless conf names a configuration, the package writes its own to a private temporary folder: it loads only the FIPS provider and the base provider, sets default_properties = fips=yes, and makes a configuration error fatal, so nothing can quietly fall back to the default provider. A distribution's own FIPS provider (Red Hat, Fedora, Chainguard) loads as it is; an upstream build is first installed with openssl fipsinstall, which runs the module's self-tests. Give conf (or set the option rmbl.fips.conf or the environment variable RMBL_FIPS_CONF) to use the configuration your organisation's FIPS deployment prescribes instead.

The status is the module's own report, matched against the list: it is as true as the openssl program run, which is why a key never chooses that program. cpssign() loads the module set up now (the options rmbl.fips.openssl and rmbl.fips.conf) and refuses a key made in another. Every run of the program is stopped after rmbl.fips.timeout seconds (default 300). The private key reaches the program through a file in a folder only you can read, removed when the operation ends; a process killed meanwhile leaves it in R's session folder.

Refusals: no openssl program, one older than 3.5, a FIPS provider that is missing or does not load, or a conf file that does not exist.

See also

fipsmkg(), cpssign(), cpsxvrf().

Examples

# Only where an OpenSSL 3.5 FIPS provider is installed:
mod <- try(fipsmod(), silent = TRUE)
if (inherits(mod, "rmbl_fipsmod")) {
  print(mod)
  key <- fipsmkg("ML-DSA-44", mod)
  sig <- cpssign("a manifest digest", key)
  cpsvrf("a manifest digest", sig, key)
}