smimesign/ietf-cms

CMS

CMS (Cryptographic Message Syntax) is a syntax for signing, digesting, and encrypting arbitrary messages. It evolved from PKCS#7 and is the basis for higher level protocols such as S/MIME. This package implements the SignedData CMS content-type, allowing users to digitally sign data as well as verify data signed by others.

Signing and Verifying Data

High level APIs are provided for signing a message with a certificate and key:

msg := []byte("some data")
cert, _ := x509.ParseCertificate(someCertificateData)
key, _ := x509.ParseECPrivateKey(somePrivateKeyData)

der, _ := cms.Sign(msg, []*x509.Certificate{cert}, key)

////
/// At another time, in another place...
//

sd, _ := ParseSignedData(der)
if _, err := sd.Verify(x509.VerifyOptions{}); err != nil {
  panic(err)
}

By default, CMS SignedData includes the original message. High level APIs are also available for creating and verifying detached signatures:

msg := []byte("some data")
cert, _ := x509.ParseCertificate(someCertificateData)
key, _ := x509.ParseECPrivateKey(somePrivateKeyData)

der, _ := cms.SignDetached(msg, cert, key)

////
/// At another time, in another place...
//

sd, _ := ParseSignedData(der)
if _, err := sd.VerifyDetached(msg, x509.VerifyOptions{}); err != nil {
  panic(err)
}

Timestamping

Because certificates expire and can be revoked, it is may be helpful to attach certified timestamps to signatures, proving that they existed at a given time. RFC3161 timestamps can be added to signatures like so:

signedData, _ := NewSignedData([]byte("Hello, world!"))
signedData.Sign(identity.Chain(), identity.PrivateKey)
signedData.AddTimestamps("http://timestamp.digicert.com")

derEncoded, _ := signedData.ToDER()
io.Copy(os.Stdout, bytes.NewReader(derEncoded))

Verification functions implicitly verify timestamps as well. Without a timestamp, verification will fail if the certificate is no longer valid.