A Free-to-Use CA For Code Signing
Fulcio is a free-to-use certificate authority for issuing code signing certificates for an OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity, such as email address.
Fulcio only issues short-lived certificates that are valid for 10 minutes.
Fulcio is in General Availability, offering a 99.5 Availability SLO, and follows semver rules for API stability.
For uptime data on the Fulcio public instance, see https://status.sigstore.dev.
Fulcio's certificate chain can be obtained from the TrustBundle API, for example for the public instance
(https://fulcio.sigstore.dev). To verify the public instance,
you must verify the chain using Sigstore's TUF root from the
sigstore/root-signing repository).
To do this, install and use go-tuf's CLI tools:
$ go install github.com/theupdateframework/go-tuf/cmd/tuf-client@latest
Then, obtain trusted root keys for Sigstore. You will use the 5th iteration of Sigstore's TUF root to start the root of trust, due to a backwards incompatible change.
curl -o sigstore-root.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sigstore/root-signing/main/ceremony/2022-10-18/repository/5.root.json
Initialize the TUF client with the previously obtained root and the remote repository, https://tuf-repo-cdn.sigstore.dev,
and get the current Fulcio root certificate fulcio_v1.crt.pem and intermediate certificate fulcio_intermediate_v1.crt.pem.
$ tuf-client init https://tuf-repo-cdn.sigstore.dev sigstore-root.json
$ tuf-client get https://tuf-repo-cdn.sigstore.dev fulcio_v1.crt.pem
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
$ tuf-client get https://tuf-repo-cdn.sigstore.dev fulcio_intermediate_v1.crt.pem
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
You can also verify signed releases (fulcio-<os>.sig) using the artifact signing key:
tuf-client get https://tuf-repo-cdn.sigstore.dev artifact.pub > artifact.pub
curl -o fulcio-release.sig -L https://github.com/sigstore/fulcio/releases/download/<version>/fulcio-<os>.sig
base64 -d fulcio-release.sig > fulcio-release.sig.decoded
curl -o fulcio-release -L https://github.com/sigstore/fulcio/releases/download/<version>/fulcio-<os>
openssl dgst -sha256 -verify artifact.pub -signature fulcio-release.sig.decoded fulcio-release
The API is defined here. The API can be accessed over HTTP or gRPC.
Fulcio will publish issued certificates to a Certificate Transparency log (CT log).
The log is hosted at https://ctfe.sigstore.dev/test. Each year, the log will be updated
to a new log ID, for example https://ctfe.sigstore.dev/2022.
The log provides an API documented in RFC 6962.
We encourage auditors to monitor this log for both integrity and specific identities. For example, auditors can monitor for when a certificate is issued for certain email addresses, which will detect misconfiguration or potential compromise of the user's identity.
Please report any vulnerabilities following sigstore's security process.
Fulcio is developed as part of the sigstore project.
We also use a slack channel! Click here for the invite link.
In addition to this README file, the docs folder contains the additional documentation:
- certificate-specification.md. This file includes the requirements for root, intermediate, and issued certificates. The document applies to all instances of Fulcio, including the production instance and all private instances.
- ctlog.md. Certificate transparency log information, including information on signed certificate timestamps and a sharding strategy for the CT log.
- how-certifcate-issuing-works.md. This document walks through the process of issuing a code signing certificate.
- hsm-support.md. Using Fulcio with a pkcs11 capable device such as SoftHSM.
- oid-info.md. Sigstore OID information.
- security-model.md. Fulcio’s security model and a discussion of short-lived certificates.
- setup.md. Setting up a local Fulcio instance
If you are making changes to any of these subjects, make sure you also edit the appropriate file listed above.