Python Own Certificate Authority (ownca)

OwnCA makes easy handle Certificate Authority (CA) and manage certificates for hosts, servers or clients.

An example of high level usage:

>>> from ownca import CertificateAuthority
>>> ca = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/CA', common_name='MyCorp CA')
>>> example_com = ca.issue_certificate('www.example.com', dns_names=['www.example.com', 'w3.example.com')

Basically in this three lines steps:

  1. Imported the ownca Certificate Authority library

  2. Created a new CA named as Corp CA that uses /opt/CA as CA storage for certificates, keys etc.

  3. Create a signed certificates by Corp CA server www.mycorp.com, the files are also stored in /opt/CA/certs//www.example.com.

    >>> example_com.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(CN=www.example.com)>, ...)>

Usage

Creating a Certificate Authority

The creation of a Certificate Authority (CA) is done by class CertificateAuthority.

Code example:

>>> from ownca import CertificateAuthority
>>> ca_corp = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/corp_CA', common_name='Corp CA')

It will create the CA files in in /opt/CA.

Available methods

The Certificate Authority has built in methods such as

See CertificateAuthority for more details.

Code Example:

>>> ca_corp.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(CN=Corp CA)>, ...)>
>>> ca_corp.cert_bytes
b'-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIC2TCCAcGgAwIBAgIUXn4msF6ONA8lWcehVqd1xxdRvYkwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEL\nBQAwEjEQMA4GA1UEAwwHQ29ycCBDQTAeFw0yMDA0MjcxODA0MjBaFw0yMjA4MDEx\nODA0MjBaMBIxEDAOBgNVBAMMB0NvcnAgQ0EwggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IB\nDwAwggEKAoIBAQC8JqeBHwVnmJkeOKLwqMcil/nY4QBLDsAg4LKhhzFAB/SvJ16F\norqip2jLuRhpxrPNUYa9p8+ZPZziAL7ir68csnJI+UlLU7XV3+TghiaHVsd4lVz7\nHBRhMLQcFQvnEyC5sfm84fptetlL4HN8jJUda/M26kxlHidJRCL221R9g+/RI113\n73tBX7iZSAcBTv/sOndEjVquYipOQXIZwRJ4ZXZ29K4UdoW+9iMCvhtVPCHz4FEl\nPBFn2vuqRg13EcZ6X3/83VJaO5TSh7Qzl87MVmfBtGBWvib5gXxPEY1zOnhojfxc\nEPkffyHauwyORFkpaE00LkrkNjxNEQ5qhCKHAgMBAAGjJzAlMBIGA1UdEQQLMAmC\nB0NvcnAgQ0EwDwYDVR0TAQH/BAUwAwEB/zANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFAAOCAQEAZyMd\n5eu76geBT8yobTyovhPUq63+9BWvmUViNhukZSFX1zKI/8NG1QrAEwG1Rai2yTU/\n07s5XBRwGIcRuFC1tcT7oqAjHYDQw+3RgYYd+isPUo3Mi7SSWQYpJWmk7ICmqYzy\nlS5uk4iZatPWFVwL4XcH9ssgTVTK3kIdG9LKPPz/4KwlBQISxYi5u9pSwCum+gIS\nx2+Vc7jJGCUEP1iMLPuxpOHIns9FusfzPfRfApFQRqZfxBO2Hpewoj1pbb6HckAJ\nVlOyV5KcAunC9UsUtliwN3eFef+U/tNakYtcZjzqn1R5hlLBfaENCwdG4pdvuFw7\na/a5r9CF+SDw0tldZw==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n'

Loading a existent Certificate Authority

In the same way if the /opt/CA exists and the file is there, it will load and it does not overwrite the files.

Code example:

>>> from ownca import CertificateAuthority
>>> ca_corp = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/corp_CA', common_name='Corp CA')
>>> ca_corp.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(CN=Corp CA)>, ...)>
>>> ca_corp.key_bytes
b'-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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\na/a5r9CF+SDw0tldZw==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n'
>>>
>>> load_ca = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/corp_CA', common_name='Corp CA')
>>> load_ca.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(CN=Corp CA)>, ...)>
>>> load_ca.key_bytes
b'-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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\na/a5r9CF+SDw0tldZw==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n'

Multiple Certificate Authorities

Just use different ca_storage and you can have/manage multiple CAs

Code example:

>>> from ownca import CertificateAuthority
>>> ca_corp = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/corp_CA', common_name='Corp CA')
>>> ca_edu = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/edu_CA', common_name='Edu CA')
>>> ca_edu.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(CN=Edu CA)>, ...)>
>>> ca_corp.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(CN=Corp CA)>, ...)>

Issuing certificate

To issue a new certificate, you need use an existent instance of class CertificateAuthority and use the function issue_certificate().

Code example:

>>> from ownca import CertificateAuthority
>>> ca_corp = CertificateAuthority(ca_storage='/opt/corp_CA', common_name='Corp CA')
>>> example_com = ca_corp.issue_certificate("www.example.com", dns_names=["www.example.com", "w3.example.com"], oids={"country_name": "BR", "locality_name": "Uba"})

Available methods

The Certificate Authority has built in methods such as

See HostCertificate for more details.

Checking the certificate

>>> example_com.cert
<Certificate(subject=<Name(C=BR,L=Uba,CN=www.example.com)>, ...)>

Loading host/client certificate

Same as the CA, if you use an existent certificate, it will be loaded and not overwrited.

Example:

>>> load_cert = ca_corp.issue_certificate("www.example.com", dns_names=["www.example.com", "w3.example.com"], oids={"country_name": "BR", "locality_name": "Uba"})
>>> load_cert.cert == example_com.cert
True

The motivation

The ownca was created in 2017 as a group of scripts to manage certificates, in 2018 it was moved to a very simple library (mostly hardcoded actions) and now in 2019 was decide to open and be a library that could help others.

Basically, ownca uses the powerful library http://cryptography.io .

The implementation layer

Indices and tables