pdfcraft/crates/sign
feraremag2680 fa52469dbe
sign: read the .p12 files Windows writes (BER, not DER) (#453)
Importing a digital ID exported by Windows failed with "PKCS #12: not a
PKCS #12 file" — at the second byte of the file, before the password was
looked at. Windows writes a .p12 in BER: the PFX, its ContentInfo and
the [0] around the AuthenticatedSafe all use the indefinite length form
(0x80 … 00 00), and the AuthenticatedSafe itself is an OCTET STRING
split into segments. der.rs took definite lengths only, so every one of
those files was turned away. OpenSSL writes definite DER, which is why
the fixtures never showed it.

A Tlv now carries the rules it was read with, and its children are read
the same way: Tlv::parse is the strict DER reader it always was,
Tlv::parse_ber also takes the indefinite form, and Tlv::octets joins the
segments of a constructed OCTET STRING, borrowing when there is nothing
to join. Both are depth-bounded. pkcs12 reads the envelope with the BER
reader; x509 and cms keep the strict one, so nothing that is verified
over its own bytes changes.

The MAC decides what is allowed here: it covers the contents of the
authSafe OCTET STRING, the segments joined, which is what the writer
MACed. So the file is never normalised to DER — that would change the
octets the MAC was computed over and turn a right password into a wrong
one.

The test builds the Windows shape out of the OpenSSL fixtures, twice:
the outer wrappers in BER with the MacData intact, which is what proves
the MAC is taken over the right octets, and then the AuthenticatedSafe
re-encoded as well, with the MacData dropped (RFC 7292 §4 makes it
optional), for a file that is BER the whole way down.


Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_013Q5dhMC58jk1ePNW37xe1b

Co-authored-by: Fernando Areán <soporte@codebit.es>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-09 09:15:32 -04:00
..
src sign: read the .p12 files Windows writes (BER, not DER) (#453) 2026-10-09 09:15:32 -04:00
tests sign: read the .p12 files Windows writes (BER, not DER) (#453) 2026-10-09 09:15:32 -04:00
Cargo.toml M9: sign with the Windows certificate store (#179) (#304) 2026-10-08 13:02:52 -04:00
README.md M9: sign with the Windows certificate store (#179) (#304) 2026-10-08 13:02:52 -04:00

README.md

pdfcraft-sign

Layer L4: digital signatures (execution plan M9; ISO 32000-2 §12.8; PAdES, ETSI EN 319 142).

let id = pkcs12::open(&std::fs::read("me.p12")?, "password")?;          // a digital ID
let signed = sign(&doc, &id, &SignOptions { page: 0, rect: Some(r), date, ..Default::default() })?;
for s in signatures(&doc, &bytes, &trust) {                                // list + validate
    println!("{}: {} — {:?}", s.field, s.summary(), s.details);
}
  • Formats, on RustCrypto primitives: a small DER reader and writer (der), X.509 certificates (x509), CMS SignedData (cms), and PKCS #12 digital ID files (pkcs12): PBES2 (PBKDF2 + AES/3DES), the legacy SHA-1 3DES/RC2 schemes, and MAC checks. Writing uses OpenSSL 3's defaults (AES-256-CBC, HMAC-SHA-256).
  • Keys: RSA, ECDSA P-256 and P-384. Verification uses RustCrypto everywhere. RSA private-key operations (signing, key generation) use aws-lc-rs on native targets and are refused in the browser (ADR-0009: the rsa crate's Marvin advisory, RUSTSEC-2023-0071, has no fix, so rsa is only used to verify). ECDSA signs with deterministic nonces (RFC 6979).
  • Signing: PAdES B-B (ETSI.CAdES.detached, signing-certificate-v2, SHA-256/384, no SHA-1). An existing unsigned field or a new one (visible with Acrobat's name-and-details appearance, or invisible); certification with DocMDP P=1/2/3. The document is written incrementally with a zero-filled /Contents and fixed-width /ByteRange, which are then patched in place. Encrypted documents are refused for now.
  • Timestamps (PAdES B-T): the timestamp module builds and parses RFC 3161 requests, responses and TSTInfo tokens (size-capped, imprint- and signature-checked). sign_with_timestamp attaches the TSA's token as an unsigned attribute over the signature value; the transport is the caller's (TimestampAuthority — this crate never opens a socket). Validation verifies embedded tokens; when the TSA chains to the trust store it reports the trusted time in SignatureInfo::timestamp_time, which then anchors certificate-validity and revocation checks. An untrusted TSA's time is reported as an unverified timestamp and never used as the validation time (the signer's claimed time is). timestamp::respond is the TSA-side signer behind the deterministic test authority.
  • Document timestamps and LTV: timestamp_document appends a standalone RFC 3161 document timestamp (/ETSI.RFC3161) covering the whole file; validation discovers and verifies these dictionaries (imprint over the signed bytes, token signature, TSA cert validity). dss::embed merges revocation evidence into the catalog's /DSS with /VRI entries keyed per signature (uppercase-hex SHA-1 of /Contents), deduplicating byte-identical blobs — sign → DSS → timestamp makes a B-LTA file, and the change classifier treats the store as a permitted change. revocation parses and verifies RFC 5280 CRLs and RFC 6960 OCSP responses (responder identity, OCSP-signing EKU for delegated responders, CertID hash matching, validity windows); validation checks embedded evidence against the signer's chain and a verified revocation invalidates the signature.

Not yet: revocation fetching (AIA/CRLDP extraction and a fetcher), timestamp-server configuration, FieldMDP locks, certificate security, smart cards and PKCS #11 tokens. macOS Keychain and Windows Current User Personal (My) store identities sign through ExternalKey without exporting private keys. Windows CNG supports RSA PKCS #1 v1.5 and ECDSA P-256/P-384; the store integration is tested with software-backed keys.

  • Validation: /ByteRange and the CMS are read from the file's own bytes; the digest, the signature value and the signer's chain (against a TrustStore) are checked. Later revisions are diffed against the signed one, and the changes are classified (signing, form fill, comments, metadata, page content, document structure) under the DocMDP permissions. The verdict follows Acrobat: valid, unknown (intact but the identity isn't trusted) or invalid.

Oracles: poppler's pdfsig reports our signatures valid; OpenSSL reads our .p12 files and verifies our CMS; tests/data/openssl-signed.pdf is a signature OpenSSL made, which we validate.