Re: World's smallest well-formed certificate

Hi Sean.  I can get OpenSSL to not barf in 99 bytes...

$ echo "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MGEwVwIAMAMGAQAwCTEHMAUGAQATADAeFw0xNjA1MTgwMDAwMDBaFw0xNzA1MTgw
MDAwMDBaMAkxBzAFBgEAEwAwGDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAMHADAEAgACADADBgEA
AwEA
-----END CERTIFICATE-----" | openssl x509 -text -noout
Certificate:
     Data:
         Version: 1 (0x0)
         Serial Number: 0 (0x0)
     Signature Algorithm: 0.0
         Issuer: 0.0=
         Validity
             Not Before: May 18 00:00:00 2016 GMT
             Not After : May 18 00:00:00 2017 GMT
         Subject: 0.0=
         Subject Public Key Info:
             Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption
                 Public-Key: (0 bit)
                 Modulus: 0
                 Exponent: 0
     Signature Algorithm: 0.0


I see what you mean about barfing on a "malformed" public key.  This was 
my first attempt...

$ echo "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MFEwRwIAMAMGAQAwCTEHMAUGAQATADAeFw0xNjA1MTgwMDAwMDBaFw0xNzA1MTgw
MDAwMDBaMAkxBzAFBgEAEwAwCDADBgEAAwEAMAMGAQADAQA=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----" | openssl x509 -text -noout
Certificate:
     Data:
         Version: 1 (0x0)
         Serial Number: 0 (0x0)
     Signature Algorithm: 0.0
         Issuer: 0.0=
         Validity
             Not Before: May 18 00:00:00 2016 GMT
             Not After : May 18 00:00:00 2017 GMT
         Subject: 0.0=
         Subject Public Key Info:
             Public Key Algorithm: 0.0
             Unable to load Public Key
3073144508:error:0609E09C:digital envelope 
routines:PKEY_SET_TYPE:unsupported algorithm:p_lib.c:231:
3073144508:error:0B07706F:x509 certificate 
routines:X509_PUBKEY_get:unsupported algorithm:x_pubkey.c:148:
     Signature Algorithm: 0.0

P.S. OpenSSL barfs on an RDN Attribute of type NULL, so I used a 
zero-length PrintableString instead.

On 18/05/16 08:29, Sean Leonard wrote:
> I'm working on a problem that involves the DER encoding of the smallest
> well-formed (yet pathological) certificate. How many octets can the
> world's smallest well-formed certificate be?
>
> A Certificate is a SEQUENCE of TBSCertificate, AlgorithmIdentifier, and
> BIT STRING (the signature). The world's smallest certificate would be
> version = 1 (therefore omitted), a serial number of 0, a hypothetical
> signature (AlgorithmIdentifier) that has the world's smallest object
> identifier (0.0) and no parameters, an issuer Name (distinguished name)
> that has one RDN that has one Attribute whose type is the world's
> smallest object identifier (0.0) and whose value is the ASN.1's smallest
> value (NULL), with proper validity times, the same or similar smallest
> subject Name, a well-formed SubjectPublicKeyInfo, and none of the
> optional fields: issuerUniqueID, subjectUniqueID, and extensions.
>
> By "well-formed", I mean that an ASN.1 '88 parser (i.e., one that does
> not enforce information object classes) will parse it (including the BIT
> STRING contents) and not barf. Such a certificate could not possibly be
> "valid", since the signature block would not be a real digital signature.
>
> Sean
>
> (PS For those who want to know "why", it's because I am trying to test
> some assumptions about how small a certificate can be.)

-- 
Rob Stradling
Senior Research & Development Scientist
COMODO - Creating Trust Online

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