One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions 6.0.1 - Administration Guide

Configuring a hardware security module (HSM) or smart card to integrate with external indexer

It is possible to use a hardware security module (HSM) or a smart card to store the decryption keys required for decrypting audit trails. An HSM or a smart card is a tamper-resistant physical, software, or cloud solution that can securely store digital keys used for authentication.

The main steps of configuring a hardware security module (HSM) or smart card to integrate with an external indexer are as follows:

1. Set up and test the environment.

2. Encrypt the PKCS#11 PIN.

To see examples of how to configure various HSM or smart card solutions that you wish to integrate with your external indexer(s), consult the following sections:

• Configuring SoftHSM

• Configuring AWS CloudHSM

• Configuring a smart card

Setting up and testing the environment

To access an HSM or smart card with the external indexer, a PKCS#11 shared library plugin must be used. In most cases, these libraries also need a background daemon or environment variables set. The PKCS#11 library must be accessible to the external indexer with a proper environment.

To set up the environment and test it, complete the following steps.

1. Load the environment for the indexer commands:

   source /etc/indexer/external-indexer.env

2. Test your environment.

   • Option #1: Use the pkcs11-tool to test your environment:

     1. List the available slots.

        pkcs11-tool --modul <path-to-pkcs11-library> -L

     2. List the objects in a slot.

        pkcs11-tool --modul <path-to-pkcs11-library> -l --slot <id> -O

   • Option #2: Use the indexerworker with the log level set to dump to see the available keys:

     indexerworker -l -v 7 --pkcs11-lib <path-to-pkcs11-library> --pkcs11-slot-id <id> --pkcs11-pin <pin>

3. Assuming that the environment is ready, the external indexer must be configured to use the PKCS#11 library. To do so, edit /etc/indexer/indexerworker.cfg as follows:

   ...
   "settings": {
     "pkcs11": {
            "custom_password": false
            "slots": [
              {
                "library": "<path-to-pkcs11-library>",
                "slot_id": <slot-number>,
                "pin": "<your-encrypted-PIN>"
              }
            ]
      }
   }
   ...

Encrypting a PKCS#11 PIN

The PKCS#11 PIN(s) must be protected by additional encryption. The indexerconfigcrypter tool must be used to encrypt the PIN(s).

To encrypt the PIN(s)

1. Encrypt the PIN.

   The PINs can be encrypted with a custom passphrase or a default one is used if no custom passphrase is provided. A custom passphrase is more secure, but interaction is needed to start or restart the external-indexer service. Using a custom passphrase is supported on hosts running CentOS 7 or later.

   Issue either of the following commands:

   • Using a default password (CentOS 6 or 7): indexerconfigcrypter --input <your-PIN>

   • Using a custom password (CentOS 7 or later): indexerconfigcrypter --input <your-PIN> --password

   It is possible to configure multiple slots. In that case, the PINs must be encrypted using the same passphrase.

2. Update the "pkcs11" object in the indexerworker.cfg file.

   The encrypted PINs must be stored in the "pin" field of the configuration file (in the example, a SoftHSM is used):

   ...
      "pkcs11": {
          "custom_password": true
          "slots": [
            {
              "library": "/usr/lib/softhsm/libsofthsm.so",
              "slot_id": 0,
              "pin": "<your-encrypted-PIN>"
            }
          ]
      }
   ...

Starting and restarting the external-indexer service when using a custom password for PKCS#11 PIN encryption

When you choose to encrypt the PKCS#11 PIN(s) using a custom password, on starting or restarting the external-indexer service, you are asked to enter your password using a special tool.

To provide your password using the required tool

1. Start the external-indexer service:

   systemctl start external-indexer

2. The external-indexer service prompts you to provide a password using the systemd-ask-password tool. Issue:

   systemd-tty-ask-password-agent

3. Provide the password at the prompt. You can use multiple agents to enter the password.

4. Once the external indexer(s) have been started or restarted, make sure that all the indexers have started up successfully.

   For example, on CentOS 7, you can use:

   systemctl status external-indexer