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Freja eID is an electronic identification (eID) solution for citizens and organisations which can be used for identity assertion, authentication and signing. The essential part of Freja eID service is a smartphone application used for login and signing to all the services that are connected to the user´s eID. The second part is a web portal – My Pages – where the user can control how their eID is to be used and has a full record of user history.
In terms of relying parties, Freja eID offers great flexibility in terms of addressing end users. For example, the identity assurance level of end users registered with Freja eID can vary. If the user has followed an entry-level registration flow, their identity will be assured to level 2 within the scheme, also known as Freja eID Basic. At this level a user will have confirmed an email address and/or a mobile phone number, perfectly enough to allow, for example, login authentication in situations where an absolute identity is not of significance for the relying party - knowing that the end user accessing a relying party's service is the same one that accessed the service a week ago without the hassle of teaching the end user an additional password is perfectly enough for many web-based services.
However, if the end user opted for an extended registration process, their identity will be assured to level 3 within the scheme, also known as Freja eID+. The extended registration process involves, amongst other controls, vetting physical ID documents of the end user and face enrolment with Freja eID. Freja eID+ users can be referred to through their social security number (SSN). In Sweden, this would equate to having established a "personnummer" for the end user. Also, Freja eID+ users can be involved in interactions with web parties that involve login, but also legally binding signatures and identity assertion. If you want to find out more about identity assertion levels, please have a look at the Tillitsnivåer för elektronisk legitimation published by the Swedish e-Identification board.
This document contains instructions for enabling Relying Party (RP) applications to use services offered by Freja eID. It is of a technical nature - if you are not a software architect or developer, it is probably the wrong document to read.
Freja eID offers three services to RPs: Identity Assertion Service, Authentication service and Signing service. Our recommendation is to read the sections of interest to you in their entirety at least once. On later occasions, use the links to quickly navigate to the section of interest.
Document Versions
Version | Date | Comment |
---|---|---|
1.0 | 2017-04-26 | This document is a preliminary version. The content of this document is still under review and subject to change. |
2.0 | 2017-05-29 | Included Authentication Services. Changed examples to use signing certificate under Freja eID TEST root. |
2.1 | 2017-06-23 | Adjusted error codes to comply with conventions within other services. |
2.2 | 2017-06-30 | Adjusted error codes for validation errors. Instead of generic error 1000 and list of specific errors, specific error is returned directly. |
2.3 | 2017-08-03 | Opaque data must be max128 characters long. Adjusted identity assertion error codes. |
2.4 | 2017-08-10 | Changed the URL for posting the response for identity assertion. |
2.5 | 2017-09-13 | Changed the JWS header value from x5c to x5t. |
2.6 | 2017-11-01 | Added support for requesting additional user attributes when initiating the authentication. |
3.0 | 2018-01-19 | Changed the endpoint URLs for all Authentication Services methods. Adjusted error codes in Authentication Services. Included Signature Services. |
4.0 | 2018-03-29 | Included Integrator Relying Party Management. Included Custom Identifier Management and updated the support for requesting additional user attributes when initiating the authentication accordingly. Added support for cancelling an authentication or a signing request. Added example requests for all methods in all the services. Updated the custom URL scheme for automatic launch of Freja eID app. |
4.1 | Added support for returning two more user attributes in the Authentication Services - SSN (personal identity number) and integratorSpecificUserId (a unique user identifier, specific for a particular Integrator RP) |
Abbreviations
CA | Certificate Authority |
CSR | Certificate signing request |
eID | Electronic identification |
JSON | JavaScript Object Notation |
JWS | JSON Web Signature |
PKCS | Portable Symmetric Key Container |
PKI | Public Key Infrastructure |
REST | Representational State Transfer |
RP | Relying Party |
RSA (cryptosystem) | Rivest–Shamir–Adleman |
SSL/TLS | Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security |
SSN | Social security number (''perssonnummer'' in Sweden) |
Getting started IN PROGRESS
About Freja eID environments
Freja eID system offers two environments:
- Test or Demo Environment, which is designed for testing purposes, it is intended to be used by Relying Parties during the process of integration with Freja eiD to test the integrated services.
- Production Environment, which is where the Freja eID services are actually available for business use and where the real-time staging of integrated services is executed.
Note that the Test Environment tries to resemble the Production Environment in all segments.
Before you begin
Test environment checklist
There are several technical requirements that must be in place before the integration with Freja eID can start. Before proceeding, you need to:
- Obtain an SSL/TLS client certificate providing you access to the Freja eID Test Environment. For more information, refer to the Certificates section.
- Import Freja eID Test root certificate as trusted into the trust store of your application.
- Using Freja eID mobile application, register one or more users with the Freja eID Test infrastructure.
Production environment checklist
In order to use Freja eID in a production environment, you must fulfil the following:
- Sign a contract allowing your organisation to access the production Freja eID Authentication service.
- Provide Freja eID with a logo suitable to represent your organisation in the mobile application, as well as a display name, a URL and a short description. Please note that:
- The logo must be delivered in one of the vector file formats: AI (Adobe Illustrator Artwork), EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) or editable PDF (Portable Document Format). The preferable format is AI (filename extension is .ai).
- The display name is restricted to the maximum length of 20 characters and the description should not exceed 75 characters. The URL can be up to 100 characters long.
- Obtain an SSL/TLS client certificate providing you access to the Freja eID Production Environment. For more information, refer to the Certificates section.
- Import Freja eID Production root certificate as trusted into the trust store of your application.
Certificates in Freja eID
Freja eID system requires usage of SSL/TLS certificates for communication with Relying Party applications. The following certificates are used:
- Freja eID's server certificate:
- Freja eID Test root certificate
- Freja eID Production root certificate
- Relying Party's client certificate:
- Test client certificate
- Production client certificate
Additionaly, JWS certificates are used to digitally sign the results of authentication and signature requests.
Server certificate
Freja eID server certificate is used so that RPs can autheticate Freja eID as trusted in their environment. Freja eID's server certificate should be imported in the trust store of the RP's application. There are two server certificates which you need to use:
- Freja eID Test root certificate, when you want to start the integration in the Test Environment
- Freja eID Production root certificate, when you want to execute your integration in the Production Environment
Below are Freja eID's Test and Production root certificates, PEM encoded:
Test root certificate | Production root certificate |
Client certificate
As mentioned before, to access and use Freja eID services, you need to obtain a client SSL/TLS certificate. Two client certificates are needed, one for access to the Testing Environment and one for access to the Production Environment. Client certificate autheticates your application when it tries to communicate with Freja eID services. Additionally, Freja eID uses your Client certificate to identify you in its system when you try to send an authentication or sigining request.
The following section provides you with instructions on how to generate an SSL/TLS key and a certificate signing request (CSR), which you can then send to Freja eID partner support to provide you with the ready-made client certificate. It also documents how to create a PKCS#12 file.
For this purpose, we used OpenSSL, an open-source criptography and SSL/TLS toolkit. For more information about OpenSSL, please refer to their official website. Of course, you can use any other CSR generator.
What is an SSL/TLS key and what is it used for?
The SSL/TLS key is a part of the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that is generally used in case of SSL/TLS certificates. A Public Key Infrastructure assumes asymmetric encryption, where two types of keys are used: a Private Key and a Public Key (included in an SSL/TLS certificate). The private key is based on the RSA algorithm and is used for authentication and the establishment of an SSL/TLS session. Since encrypted data transmission takes too much time in case of asymmetric encryption, this kind of encryption is only used for a secure exchange of the symmetric key, which is used for actual transmitted data encryption and decryption.
What is a certificate signing request (CSR)?
A certificate signing request (also CSR or certification request) is a block of encoded text that is given to a certificate authority (CA) when applying for an SSL/TLS certificate. It is usually generated on the server where the certificate will be installed on and contains information that will be included in the certificate, such as the organisation name, common name (domain name), locality and country. It also contains the public key that will be included in the certificate. The private key is usually created at the same time as the CSR, thus making a key pair. A CSR is generally encoded using ASN.1, according to the PKCS #10 specification.
Distinguished name
SSL/TLS certificates contain identifying information, such as the qualified domain name used for DNS lookups of your server (also called Common Name), your organisation or company name and location information. This information is called the certificate's Distinguished Name. When generating a CSR on your server, you are asked to enter the Distinuguished Name, which uniquely identifies your server.
This is an example list of required fields for the Distinguished Name (i.e. Subject) used when generating a CSR request for a Freja eID Relying Party named "ACME AB":
DN field | Name | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|---|
CN | Common Name | (Optional) Function qualifier, if required. | Document signing service |
OU | Organisational Unit | (Optional) Internal organisational qualifier, if required. | Production |
O | Organisation Name | Legal name of the organisation, as registered with the company register of the country it operates in. | ACME AB |
OI | Organisational identifier | Organisational number, as registered with the company register of the country it operates in. | 556677-8888 |
C | Country | The two-letter ISO abbreviation of the country the company operates in. | SE |
The following characters cannot be used in the Organization Name
or the Organizational Unit
: < >~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / \ ( ) ?.,&
Client certificate generation - Step-by-step guide
Launch Open SSL (preferably on the production server) and generate your private key with the genrsa command (see below). Command arguments are the location and file name where you wish to store your key and the key strength (with minimum value of 2048 bits). You will also be prompted to choose a secure passphrase for the key.
openssl genrsa -F4 -aes256 -out <PATH_TO_YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY>.key 2048
Security recommendations
As the security relies on the integrity and security of this private key, it is the best practice to generate the key on the production system itself and also to make sure that this key is protected duly against unauthorised attacks by limiting access to thekeyfileitself. Once the PKCS#12 file has been generated, the key file can be removed or stored securely offline for backup purposes.
Next, generate the CSR using the key generated in the step 1 with the following command and put it in a file.
openssl req -new -subj "/C=SE,2.5.4.97=556677-8888,OU=Production,O=ACME AB,CN=Document signing service" -key <PATH_TO_YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY>.key -out <PATH_TO_YOUR_CSR>.csr
Compress the file with ZIP/gZIP and email it to partnersupport@frejaeid.com. After the certificate is issued by the Freja eID Support, you will receive a ZIP file with your new certificate, along with required Freja eID CA certificates.
Filename Description Distinguished Name Issuer Freja eID Production Root.cer Freja eID's offline root certificate CN = Freja eID Root CA v1
OU = Production
O = Verisec Freja eID AB
2.5.4.97 = 559110-4806
C = SE
CN = Freja eID Root CA v1
OU = Production
O = Verisec Freja eID AB
2.5.4.97 = 559110-4806
C = SE
Freja eID Production Issuing CA.cer Freja eID's Issuing Certificate Authority CN = Freja eID Issuing CA v1
OU = Production
O = Verisec Freja eID AB
2.5.4.97 = 559110-4806
C = SE
CN = Freja eID Root CA v1
OU = Production
O = Verisec Freja eID AB
2.5.4.97 = 559110-4806
C = SE
Freja eID Production Certificates.pem Freja eID certificate chain. Contains booth root and CA certificates <YOUR CERTIFICATE>.cer Your relying party issued certificate CN = Document signing service
OU = Production
O = ACME AB
2.5.4.97 = 556677-8888
C = SE
CN = Freja eID Issuing CA v1
OU = Production
O = Verisec Freja eID AB
2.5.4.97 = 559110-4806
C = SE
Generate the PKCS#12 keystore file with the following command and choose a secure passphrase:
openssl pkcs12 -aes256 -CAfile "Freja eID Production Certificates.pem" -export -in <YOUR CERTIFICATE>.cer -inkey <YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY>.key -out <YOUR_KEYSTORE>.pfx
Security recommendations
As the security relies on the integrity and security of this keystore, create it on the production system and protect it the production system itself and also make sure that this key is protected duly against unauthorised attacks by limiting access to the keystore file itself.
Verify connectivity against production with the following command:
openssl s_client -verify_return_error -CAfile "Freja eID Production Certificates.pem" -export -in <YOUR CERTIFICATE>.cer -inkey <YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY>.key -connect services.prod.frejaeid.com
Reminder
Once connectivity has been verified, files from the ZIP file should be deleted to avoid misunderstandings.
JWS certificate
Freja eID uses JWS to validate end users' signatures. Signatures created by the end users are PKI-based and therefore non-repudiable. Upon completion of the signature by the end user, the Relying Party receives a JWS structure containing the data that was presented to the user, as well as evidence that the Freja eID infrastructure has validated the signature.
JSON Web Signature (JWS) represents digitally signed content using JSON data structures and BASE64URL encoding. JWS has the following structure:
- JOSE Header
- JWS Payload
- JWS Signature
There are two different serializations for JWSs: a compact, URL-safe serialization called the JWS Compact Serialization and a JSON serialization called the JWS JSON Serialization. In both serializations, the JWS Protected Header, JWS Payload, and JWS Signature are BASE64URL encoded.
In Freja eID, the JWS Compact Serialization is used and a JWS is represented as the concatenation:
BASE64URL(UTF8(JWS Protected Header)) || '.' ||
BASE64URL(JWS Payload) || '.' ||
BASE64URL(JWS Signature)
Example JWS signature:
{"userInfoType":"EMAIL","userInfo":"joe.black@verisec.com","minRegistrationLevel":"BASIC","title":"Sign transaction","confidential":false,"expiry":1517526000000,"dataToSignType":"SIMPLE_UTF8_TEXT","dataToSign":"{\"text\":\"VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRleHQgZm9yIHNpZ24gdHJhbnNhY3Rpb24u\"}","signatureType":"SIMPLE"}
Test JWS certificate | Production JWS certificate |
Samples REMOVE THIS SECTION?
There are several examples where the data has been signed using RSA keys and certificates below. In all cases, the private key corresponding to the following certificate chain has been used:
Certificate | Details |
---|---|
End-entity (for signing key) | Subject: CN=Documentation and Demo, OU=Test, O=Verisec Freja eID AB, OID.2.5.4.97=559110-4806, L=Stockholm, C=SE
Base64 encoding: MIIEDTCCAvWgAwIBAgIUaKpKqy2TcGQeNQfUIZZD9jEzk5MwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQAwgYMxCzA JBgNVBAYTAlNFMRIwEAYDVQQHEwlTdG9ja2hvbG0xFDASBgNVBGETCzU1OTExMC00ODA2MR0wGw YDVQQKExRWZXJpc2VjIEZyZWphIGVJRCBBQjENMAsGA1UECxMEVGVzdDEcMBoGA1UEAxMTUlNBI FRFU1QgSXNzdWluZyBDQTAeFw0xNzA1MTcyMTE5MjNaFw0yMDA1MTcyMTE5MjNaMIGGMQswCQYD VQQGEwJTRTESMBAGA1UEBxMJU3RvY2tob2xtMRQwEgYDVQRhEws1NTkxMTAtNDgwNjEdMBsGA1U EChMUVmVyaXNlYyBGcmVqYSBlSUQgQUIxDTALBgNVBAsTBFRlc3QxHzAdBgNVBAMTFkRvY3VtZW 50YXRpb24gYW5kIERlbW8wggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQDBwTeuSLvrd Ot8PJ3dfnlDS+tyTV5P35sm/UusrasPya0XUV3ctj8RxD2skLHYMZ10X87EvXBUw4FEKJ9YlwTO A3UjZ3jXYX9TZlU/r0kZsvf4RBZO8MOje00oRRdx0go4L6SsTcoBQhgimkxBMcCY1aHqGDWMH61 DWxbepa/4Df6xuFegnMQp421mR2FFvRUi74HBCn35oVHZhYviWo7aTyPVFWd2wLN8GiV+jwunHU Tdq61+f9pqhPJ0CM6VL9oAIl0D0LbDHbMUd4XuV1hB9wM5jKZaGQ3388rWs+9a83/BJjb1Wa5qD 9tICuIl8y/asOcQEuvX7fT7xyPwduvLAgMBAAGjdDByMA4GA1UdDwEB/wQEAwIGwDAMBgNVHRMB Af8EAjAAMB8GA1UdIwQYMBaAFGp8ig+dcA4c2l8toDwmX4joFb+cMBIGA1UdIAQLMAkwBwYFKgM EBQowHQYDVR0OBBYEFHgMFxByq68FGuntjoOa+TTXw/7/MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAA4IBAQCV9g 0ZuHBWOIdqiLDss/kTr0Obaeap4DEF5uuuxqo2LKn0k1qGHh66uLdxS0i1nWyLZjphPi5l8CxxM uhw0VZ90u4cguTYsUXy/s1dp12e48m7bVOz/SnghU8ag+2pAO1esSn3LJ0nOMlKe32IMuGLUXPR ELG151DEam/3yWKeCtEkthPisDLUKHKoc9v6EQEo+IVkGluSWPaIpvdbJpISzW3c0m9Qzu+GqWj A1ac/BzdHql0UyTIoXB6u2VVbuIAkTLVLeFWlnL6dOD4XoChN9LStqYKn4iovO+DA+AtQt8Q+4B /8hQnMyNby0Zyn5BJw4dqDWCju5PIFct8IvYuu |
Intermediate | Subject: CN=RSA TEST Issuing CA, OU=Test, O=Verisec Freja eID AB, OID.2.5.4.97=559 110-4806, L=Stockholm, C=SE |
Root | Subject: CN=RSA Test Root CA, OU=Freja eID, O=Verisec AB, C=SE |
All JWS headers are, therefore, identical and equal to the following:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Header | "alg":"RS256" |
Base64 encoding of header | eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsIng1dCI6InNIODBvb0F1Rzg5a1MxM2xfUl9Pdk1MM1daQSJ9 |
General information about Freja eID RESTful APIs
Authentication and Signature services are exposed through a RESTful API. This section presents information common to both services. Firstly, the following applies to HTTP response codes.
HTTP response code | Interpretation |
---|---|
200 OK | Success, additional information is available in the body. |
204 No Content | Success, no additional information is available in the body. |
400 Bad Request | The request is malformed. For example, the body cannot be parsed. |
404 Not Found | Requested resource does not exist. |
410 Gone | Requested resource is no longer available. For example, an obsolete API version. |
422 Unprocessable Entity | Validation or processing errors. Additional information is available in the body. If the input is corrected, the request can be resubmitted. |
500 Internal server error | The request, although probably OK, could not be processed due to an internal server error. Repeating the request is not recommended, the application should return a sensible error message to the end user. |
General information on error handling
Where errors need to be conveyed (for example, in the case of HTTP 422 code for a RESTful API), the following structure is returned in the body. Note that the code and error message are always present in a case of error.
{ "code": "Integer with error code value", "message": "Error description" }