1IPSEC_ECDSASIGKEY(8) Executable programs IPSEC_ECDSASIGKEY(8)
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6 ipsec_ecdsasigkey - generate ECDSA signature key
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9 ipsec ecdsasigkey [--verbose] [--seeddev device] [--seed numbits]
10 [--nssdir nssdir] [--password nsspassword] [--hostname hostname]
11 [curvename]
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14 ecdsasigkey generates an ECDSA public/private key pair, suitable for
15 digital signatures, on a named curve specified with curvename.
16 Currently it only accepts secp256r1, secp384r1, and secp521r1.
17 The public exponent is forced to the value 3, which has important speed
19 advantages for signature checking. Beware that the resulting keys have
20 known weaknesses as encryption keys and should not be used for that
21 purpose.
22 The --verbose option makes ecdsasigkey give a running commentary on
24 standard error. By default, it works in silence until it is ready to
25 generate output.
26 The --seeddev option specifies a source for random bits used to seed
28 the crypto library's RNG. The default is /dev/random (see random(4)).
29 FreeS/WAN and Openswan without NSS support used this option to specify
30 the random source used to directly create keys. Libreswan only uses it
31 to seed the NSS crypto libraries RNG. Under Linux with hardware random
32 support, special devices might show up as /dev/*rng* devices. However,
33 these should never be accessed directly using this option, as hardware
34 failures could lead to extremely non-random values (streams of zeroes
35 have been observed in the wild)
36 The --seedbits option specifies how many seed bits are pulled from the
38 random device to seed the NSS PRNG. The default of 480bit comes from
39 FIPS requirements. Seed bits are rounded up to a multiple of 8.
40 The use of a different random device or a reduction of seedbits from
42 the default value is prevented when the system is running in FIPS mode.
43 The --nssdir option specifies the directory to use for the nss
45 database. This is the directory where the NSS certificate, key and
46 security modules databases reside. The default value is
47 /var/lib/ipsec/nss.
48 The --password option specifies the nss cryptographic module
50 authentication password if the NSS module has been configured to
51 require it. A password is required by hardware tokens and also by the
52 internal software token module when configured to run in FIPS mode. If
53 the argument is /etc/ipsec.d/nsspassword, the password comes from that
54 file; otherwise argument is the password.
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57 ipsec ecdsasigkey --verbose 4096
58 generates a 4096-bit signature key and stores this key in the NSS
59 database. The public key can then be extracted and edited into the
60 ipsec.conf (see ipsec_showhostkey(8)).
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63 /dev/random, /dev/urandom
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66 random(4), rngd(8), ipsec_showhostkey(8), Applied Cryptography, 2nd.
67 ed., by Bruce Schneier, Wiley 1996, RFCs 2537, 2313, GNU MP, the GNU
68 multiple precision arithmetic library, edition 2.0.2, by Torbj Granlund
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71 Originally written for the Linux FreeS/WAN project
72 <https://www.freeswan.org> by Henry Spencer. Updated for the Libreswan
73 Project by Paul Wouters.
74 The --round and --noopt options were obsoleted as these were only used
76 with the old non-library crypto code
77 The --random device is only used for seeding the crypto library, not
79 for direct random to generate keys
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82 ecdsasigkey's run time is difficult to predict, since /dev/random
83 output can be arbitrarily delayed if the system's entropy pool is low
84 on randomness, and the time taken by the search for primes is also
85 somewhat unpredictable. Specifically, embedded systems and most virtual
86 machines are low on entropy. In such a situation, consider generating
87 the ECDSA key on another machine, and copying ipsec.secrets and the
88 /var/lib/ipsec/nss directory tree to the embedded platform. Note that
89 NSS embeds the full path in the DB files, so the path on proxy machine
90 must be identical to the path on the destination machine.
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93 Paul Wouters
94 placeholder to suppress warning
95libreswan 09/05/2023 IPSEC_ECDSASIGKEY(8)