structured-pkix — X.509, PKIX paths and revocation evidence in Rust

Parse X.509 certificates and check or build certification paths while borrowing the original DER input. Read names, extensions and validity times, and retain the exact bytes covered by each certificate signature. Signature verification is supplied through path::Verify, so applications choose their crypto provider.

no_std + alloc by default · Rust 1.92+ · No issuer fetching or implicit I/O

Install

These snippets target the coordinated 0.2 API family. They require that version to be published on crates.io; check the version badge above before installing. For the older 0.1 release, use its versioned API guide.

[dependencies]
structured-asn1 = "0.2"
structured-pkix = "0.2"

structured-asn1 supplies the parser and shared resource account used below. Both crates share a coordinated version. Optional std and explicit alloc features are available; the default build already uses no_std + alloc.

Quick start

This function reads a complete DER certificate supplied by your application. The storage budget below is 1 MiB and the work budget is one million units; choose limits appropriate for your workload.

use std::sync::Arc;
use structured_asn1::Parser;
use structured_asn1::memory::{Memory, MemoryAccount};
use structured_pkix::Certificate;

fn inspect_certificate(der: &[u8]) -> Result<(), structured_pkix::Error> {
    let memory = Memory::new(Arc::new(MemoryAccount::new(
        1024 * 1024,
        1_000_000,
    )));
    let parser = Parser::der(memory);
    let certificate = Certificate::read(&parser, der, 0)?;

    assert_eq!(certificate.as_bytes(), der);
    let original_tbs = certificate.signed_bytes();
    assert!(!original_tbs.is_empty());
    // Give original_tbs, the signature and issuer key to your crypto provider.
    Ok(())
}

Keep the parser and input alive while using the borrowed certificate. For a certificate embedded in a larger ASN.1 structure, use Certificate::read_element with its parent reader to preserve the envelope's shared limits and offsets.

Parsing and path validation

Parsing exposes certificate facts; it does not establish application trust. For certification-path processing, supply the certificates, trust anchors, validation interval, resource limits and a path::Verify implementation. See the path API and certificate API.

Applications own trust decisions, external data acquisition and the accounting of work inside their injected verification and recognizer callbacks. Merely passing an execution account does not bound arbitrary external callback code.

Scoped execution for retained inputs

Supplied-path validation accepts ValidationContext<..., E> with E: structured_asn1::memory::Work. Implement Verify<E> and Recognizer<E> for that same execution type and pass the current reader's execution(). The default type remains Memory; an implementation of Verify<Memory> alone does not implement verification under a reader-local ceiling. Path construction with Context continues to use its documented Memory execution contract.

Name queries, lazy extension readers and CRL/OCSP operations also accept Work. When retained certificate data is read during another operation, the shared reader bridge preserves original source offsets, encoding and depth, checks the original source ceilings, and charges the current root operation. Storage stays on its original account until its allocation is freed; a new query does not inherit credit from an earlier parse. Callback implementations must use the provided execution before their own data-dependent work and allocations.

ScopedReader<'source, 'operation> separates input views from the current decoding budget. Parsed OIDs, names, extension values and static path facts can retain their original source lifetime after a temporary operation ends; the reader cursor and scoped scratch cannot escape that operation. The existing Reader<'a> name denotes the equal-lifetime case. Extension::reader_scoped and the shared lazy decoders use this same parser kernel, without copying or reparsing input, cloning a budget owner, or weakening source/query admission.

ScopedResponse::evaluate_with_target uses the same OCSP evaluation as evaluate, while retaining the original target and evaluation label. Its TargetReading::evidence() returns a target-bound result only when evaluation produced evidence. ScopedResponse::issuing_key() retains the actual issuing key and inherited parameters for issuer/delegate authentication; configured responder trust returns None because that branch does not authenticate an issuer key. These facts do not replace caller trust, freshness or revocation policy. CRL absence and coverage evidence likewise expose their original target and evaluation label.

GeneralName identity

The source API adds GeneralName::matches(other, &Memory) for retained queries and general_name::matches(&Reader, left, right, offset, field) for producing parses. Both share DNS, SMTP mailbox, Directory Name and URI comparison rules. DNS compares the whole name without ASCII case; mailbox local parts preserve case and decode equivalent SMTP quoting, while hosts ignore ASCII case. Directory strings use the existing Name preparation; URI comparison uses shared syntax and recognized-scheme normalization. Original values are never rewritten.

The producing variant retains cumulative local and aggregate work limits through Unicode preparation, sorting, deferred BER traversal and scratch allocations. Its error preserves the supplied source location. Retained queries return an unlocated ErrorCode because a borrowed GeneralName has no universal source span. Resource refusal is never a mismatch. Decode untrusted values successfully before comparison; duplicate reporting and malformed recovery belong to the caller.

Other, X.400 and EDI values support encoded identity only, rather than their type-specific semantic rules. IP addresses/masks compare exactly, without subnet containment. Exact CRL distribution-point/issuer comparisons remain exact; semantic CRL queries reuse the GeneralName core. These additions are not in crates.io 0.1.4.

Check an already supplied chain

The source version adds path::validate and ValidationContext; these APIs are not available in the initial crates.io 0.1.0 release. Pass a borrowed leaf-first chain and one explicit Anchor, excluding the anchor's certificate from the chain. Validation checks exactly those certificates; path::build additionally searches candidate issuers. Both entry points use the same static processing core.

Validation::Accepted returns the target's effective WorkingKey, the number of non-self-issued intermediate CAs, and the accepted authority/user policy OIDs. Inherited key parameters refer to the original anchor or certificate bytes. The shared transition preserves the algorithm-specific PSS absence rule: an id-RSASSA-PSS key with omitted parameters is unrestricted and does not inherit its parent's PSS restrictions (RFC 4055 §3.3). This source correction is not in registry version 0.1.2. Providers still validate the original SPKI syntax under the selected key algorithm. The policy container owns its allocation and retains its capacity charge after validation returns; the contained OIDs still borrow the original input. into_policies() transfers that storage without copying or reserving it again.

Validation::Rejected reports a completed semantic failure and its leaf-first certificate position. Name-constraint and path-length failures also identify the constraining certificate or anchor; path-length errors retain the original limit. Malformed relevant extensions retain their decoder code, field and offset. Provider No and Unsupported are separate reasons. Resource and callback failures remain errors; local work, depth, policy-graph or deadline limits yield Incomplete, without accepted facts.

Certificate-policy processing follows RFC 9618 with shared graph nodes and multiple parent edges rather than duplicated path histories. The local policy bound counts retained nodes, parent edges and expected OIDs; the shared memory account separately admits actual capacity and processing work. Mapping output preserves authority-side policy identifiers.

Accepted static facts do not settle revocation, application purpose, algorithm permissions, key strength or trust-anchor selection. Applications supply these decisions and account their injected providers. The API example is included in the source documentation for path::validate.

Policy qualifier validation

The source version also exposes policy::qualifier_understood(&reader, kind, &value) for CPS and UserNotice DER payloads. It shares certificate-policy validation, retaining the producing reader's current execution account, local work/depth ceilings and document offsets, including inside BER envelopes. false means unknown or malformed selected syntax; a resource refusal is an error. Callers decide independently whether an unknown qualifier is allowed. It does not fetch CPS URIs or select application policy. The initial crates.io 0.1.0 release does not include this API.

Distinguished-name selectors

The source version adds name::Selector, Name::rfc4514 and Name::rfc4514_readable; these APIs are not in the initial crates.io 0.1.0 release. Selector::parse(text, &memory) accepts strict RFC 4514 syntax and owns its accounted storage. matches_name(&name, &execution) compares directly with a borrowed certificate Name; matches(&other, &execution) compares two selectors using the same identity rules. RDN sequence order matters; attribute order within an RDN does not. Escapes decode once, without implicit whitespace trimming or a whole-Name encode/reparse bridge. Pseudonym follows its case-exact equality rule: normalization and insignificant space handling still apply, while Alice and alice remain different.

rfc4514 uses registered descriptors or exact numeric OIDs and complete original #BER values for reversibility. The readable formatter emits full text for registered standard descriptors with RFC 4514 escaping and retains BER for unknown/nontext values. It never calls the bounded display helpers. Readable output is metadata, not a canonical identity string; the ASN.1 string tag may change when interpreting that text. Malformed string payloads retained by Name also round-trip through #BER; that preservation does not make them valid textual assertions.

Unknown numeric attribute types are preserved. A textual assertion requiring unavailable equality semantics returns UnsupportedNameSyntax, separately from malformed syntax, a completed mismatch or resource refusal. Numeric OIDs have arbitrary-width arcs. Constructed/indefinite BER values retain their original encoding; string segments are interpreted through the common iterative walker. ASCII singleton comparisons need no projection allocation; Unicode preparation and multivalued sorting use accounted execution scratch. Owned selectors and formatted strings keep their capacity charge independently of the input/parser.

CRL, delta CRL and OCSP evidence

The source version adds crl and ocsp; these modules are not in crates.io 0.1.2. They process caller-supplied DER without fetching, a clock, implicit trust discovery, or a built-in cryptographic backend. The original signed ranges, certificate identities and evidence sources remain borrowed throughout.

For CRLs, read CertificateList, authenticate its exact TBS with the actual issuer certificate and effective WorkingKey, then call evaluate for the target and caller-supplied UTC facts. Authentication alone establishes neither applicability nor freshness. Evaluation keeps distribution-point/category/reason scope, complete-list entry processing, unsupported critical demands, conflicts and update-window facts separate. Indirect entries carry their certificate issuer state. URI distribution points use scheme-aware identity rules.

bind_delta checks the original authenticated sources, effective signing keys, authority identifiers, issuing-distribution-point scope and arbitrary-width CRL numbers. A bound pair evaluates entries delta-first; removeFromCRL does not fall back to the base. A current delta may update a stale base, but future, invalid or uncertain base times cannot establish absence. An unpaired delta never establishes standalone absence.

Only usable, conflict-free absence or delta removal can create AbsenceEvidence. Coverage unions its reason masks while retaining exact contributing sources. It rejects different targets, evaluation moments and execution accounts. This growing collection belongs to one request; its owned capacity remains charged until drop. Complete reason coverage is still not a whole-certificate trust verdict. The caller supplies authenticated issuer paths and their trust-anchor provenance. Cached CRLs permit the exact nextUpdate boundary; newly obtained replacements require a strictly later expiry. Missing expiry remains explicit.

For OCSP, read the response envelope and move successful ResponseBytes into into_basic(&execution). Deferred parsing keeps the original reader's offsets, depth and cumulative work ceiling. Unsigned error responses remain distinct from a signed BasicResponse. authenticate_signature checks the actual signer, ResponderID and exact ResponseData with injected Digest and path::Verify. Digest providers resolve an algorithm to a handle and fixed output width, then compare original input bytes with the expected digest. Incorrect widths are rejected before hashing. Protocol-imposed SHA-1 for byKey identity is separate from the CertID's original algorithm identifier.

Bind a signed response to its issuer using bind_issuer, or to completed direct delegation facts using check_delegate and bind_delegate. Direct delegation uses the common supplied-path processor and requires explicit OCSP signing purpose and permitted key usage. It checks current validity even with noCheck; without noCheck the responder's revocation remains unresolved. The local issuer anchor does not resume constraints from the caller's original root path. trust_for_issuer is a separate, explicit assertion of caller-configured responder trust, never a choice made from response content.

ScopedResponse::evaluate retains the selected target assertion, unique or ambiguous identity, intended-signer binding, nonce binding, critical-extension support and update window. Good is the responder's assertion, not automatic acceptance. Unknown hashes, missing assertions, duplicate identities, unsupported critical extensions, provider errors and resource refusals remain distinct. Unimplemented optional noncritical extensions remain opaque. New requester nonces require 32–128 bytes; RequestNonce::from_sent also represents actual legacy 1–128 byte wire requests without treating an invalid size as absent.

Both CRL entry and OCSP revocation dates expose UTC-qualified time::Relation facts (Before, At, After, Uncertain) against a lossless Reading. Applications decide historical-status policy, source age when no expiry exists, replay/request history, delegated responder revocation and final acceptance. They also bound the internals of injected providers. Resource errors retain original document offsets and are never converted to absence or a positive status. Tests exercise actual P-256 signatures and SHA-1 identities through an independent test provider; that provider is not shipped as a runtime backend.

UTC time and leap seconds

UTC arithmetic uses temporal::LeapTable, a borrowed application-supplied table with explicit coverage. The library neither embeds leap-second announcements nor obtains them from a clock or network. Inserted seconds remain distinct from their neighbours; deleted seconds and results outside known coverage produce typed uncertainty. Applications own the authenticity and freshness of these facts. Parsing preserves subnanosecond precision so rounding through a leap boundary uses the same table as elapsed-time arithmetic.

Certificate Time::instant() preserves the UTC label; Time::seconds() is only its POSIX projection and maps an inserted second to the preceding ordinary second's label. Use the lossless label for comparisons. Strict DER GeneralizedTime accepts inserted-second labels; UTCTime retains its separate 00–59 seconds grammar. An accepted label does not authenticate its occurrence.

The source version also accepts lossless validation endpoints through Interval::at_instant and Interval::between_instants, preserving leap labels and nanoseconds. Existing integer-second constructors remain available; from_instant/to_instant expose complete labels, while from/to are POSIX whole-second projections.

Deferred decoding and resource accounting

Algorithm parsing remains strict through algorithm::read and read_implicit. For diagnostic inspection, read_inspection and read_implicit_inspection return an AlgorithmReading with original OID, parameter bytes/range and a located parameter-syntax fault. A malformed reading cannot expose a validated identifier: require identifier() to return Some before handing it to a cryptographic provider. Provider/profile acceptance is a further check. Constructed NULL is malformed under X.690 §8.8; retaining it is inspection, not acceptance of another BER spelling.

AlgorithmReading::same_written_in funds comparisons through the producing reader. Malformed parameters keep opaque encoded identity; two validated primitive NULL values can ignore BER length spelling. No algorithm defaults are inferred. Resource/processing refusals and ambiguous schema remain errors, never recovered document faults or successful mismatches.

general_name::read reads names carried by other schemas using the parent reader. Extension values, policy qualifiers and qualified-statement decoders retain the document's parsing budget, depth and original offsets. Their accessors take the current execution Memory explicitly: a new request pays for deferred scans, scratch and returned storage. Previously retained storage keeps its original account. Parser session ceilings remain cumulative across these requests; selecting a new execution domain does not reset them.

Extension lookup and typed decoders return Result<Option<…>>: absence is distinct from malformed content and resource refusal. Qualified-statement lookup and policy/key-purpose membership also take the current Memory and can fail. InfoAccess::locations_for yields borrowed Result items; after one resource error it ends permanently. Raw slices and ordinary iteration borrow stored values without copying; callers account their own traversal.

Extensions::criticals(&Memory) admits every visited metadata entry, including noncritical entries, and yields Result items with the same single-error termination. AlgorithmIdentifier::matches(other, &Memory) admits deferred OID and parameter comparisons; a resource refusal stays distinct from a mismatch. DER ordering and GeneralizedTime decoding take the producing Reader, preserving both its original cumulative ceiling and its current execution account. Mailbox validation uses allocation-free ASCII SMTP syntax without normalizing the borrowed spelling.

License and source

Published on crates.io as part of signature-primitives. Licensed under Apache-2.0; third-party data notices remain with their source data.