5. PIV Key Management Requirements

This section is normative. It defines the processes and components required for managing a PIV Card’s lifecycle and provides the requirements and specifications related to key management.

PIV Cards consistent with this specification SHALL have two or more asymmetric private keys. To manage the public keys associated with the asymmetric private keys, departments and agencies SHALL issue and manage X.509 public key certificates as specified in this section.

5.1 Architecture

CAs that issue certificates to support PIV private keys SHALL participate in the hierarchical PKI for the Common Policy managed by the Federal PKI Management Authority.

CA certificates SHALL conform to [COMMON].

5.2 PKI Certificate

All certificates issued to support PIV private keys (i.e., PIV authentication, card authentication, digital signature, and key management certificates) SHALL be issued in accordance with [COMMON]. CAs and registration authorities can either be operated by departments and agencies or be outsourced to PKI service providers. For a list of PKI service providers that have been approved to operate under [COMMON], see https://www.idmanagement.gov.

Details of the cryptographic properties of PIV keys are found in Section 4.2.2 and its subsections.

5.2.1 X.509 Certificate Contents

The required contents of X.509 certificates associated with PIV private keys are based on [PROF]. The relationship is described below:

• Certificates that contain the public key associated with a PIV authentication private key SHALL conform to the PIV Authentication Certificate Profile in [PROF] and SHALL specify the id-fpki-common-authentication policy of [COMMON] in the certificate policies extension (Section 4.2.2.1).
• Certificates that contain the public key associated with an asymmetric card authentication private key SHALL conform to the Card Authentication Certificate Profile in [PROF] and SHALL specify the id-fpki-common-cardAuth policy of [COMMON] in the certificate policies extension (Section 4.2.2.2).
• Certificates that contain the public key associated with a digital signature private key SHALL conform to the End Entity Signature Certificate Profile in [PROF] and SHALL specify the id-fpki-common-hardware policy of [COMMON] in the certificate policies extension (Section 4.2.2.4), except as provided below.
• Certificates containing the public key associated with a key management private key SHALL conform to the Key Management Certificate Profile in [PROF] and SHALL specify the id-fpki-common-policy or id-fpki-common-hardware policy of [COMMON] in the certificate policies extension (Section 4.2.2.5), except as provided below.
• Requirements for algorithms and key sizes for each type of PIV asymmetric key are given in [SP 800-78].
• Departments and agencies that operate their own PKI that is cross-certified with the Federal Bridge CA or Federal Common Policy CA MAY specify and assert certificate policies that have been mapped to the respective aforementioned policies in [COMMON] in lieu of or in addition to those policies. This allowance is considered deprecated and will be removed in subsequent revisions of this Standard.

The expiration date of the PIV authentication and card authentication certificates SHALL NOT be after the expiration date of the PIV Card. The expiration date of the PIV Card is printed on the card in Zone 14F (see Section 4.1.4) and is contained in the CHUID data object (see Section 4.2.1). If the card is revoked, the PIV authentication and card authentication certificates SHALL be revoked in cases where the card cannot be collected and destroyed. However, a PIV authentication or card authentication certificate MAY be revoked and subsequently replaced without revoking the PIV Card. The presence of a valid, unexpired, and unrevoked authentication certificate on a card is sufficient proof that the card was issued and is not revoked.

5.3 X.509 Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Contents

CAs that issue certificates corresponding to PIV private keys SHALL issue CRLs as specified in [COMMON]. The contents of X.509 CRLs SHALL conform to CRL Profile in [PROF].

5.4 Legacy PKIs (Removed)

The content of this section has been removed. Details for certificates issued to support PIV private keys are specified in Section 5.2.

5.5 PKI Repository and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) Responders

CAs that issue certificates corresponding to PIV private keys (i.e., PIV authentication, card authentication, digital signature, or key management certificates) SHALL

• maintain a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) accessible service that publishes the CRLs for the PIV certificates that it issues, as specified in [PROF];
• maintain an HTTP-accessible service that publishes any CA certificates issued to it, as specified in [PROF]; and
• operate Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP, specified in [RFC 6960]) services for the PIV certificates that it issues, as specified in [PROF].

PIV authentication, card authentication, digital signature, and key management certificates SHALL

• contain the crlDistributionPoints extension needed to locate CRLs, and
• contain the authorityInfoAccess extension needed to locate the authoritative OCSP responder.

Departments and agencies SHALL notify CAs when certificates need to be revoked.

5.5.1 Certificate and CRL Distribution

This Standard requires the distribution of CA certificates and CRLs using HTTP. Specific requirements are found in [PROF].

Certificates that contain the FASC-N or card UUID in the SAN extension, such as PIV authentication certificates and card authentication certificates, SHALL NOT be distributed publicly (e.g., via HTTP accessible from the public internet). Individual departments and agencies can decide whether digital signature and key management certificates can be distributed publicly by the CA.

5.5.2 OCSP Status Responders

OCSP status responders SHALL be implemented as a certificate status mechanism. The OCSP status responders SHALL be updated at least as frequently as CRLs are issued.