Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 8.1

Chapter 4. Security

GnuTLS-3.5.14

Introduction to GnuTLS

The GnuTLS package contains libraries and userspace tools which provide a secure layer over a reliable transport layer. Currently the GnuTLS library implements the proposed standards by the IETF's TLS working group. Quoting from the TLS protocol specification:

“The TLS protocol provides communications privacy over the Internet. The protocol allows client/server applications to communicate in a way that is designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery.”

GnuTLS provides support for TLS 1.2, TLS 1.1, TLS 1.0, and SSL 3.0 protocols, TLS extensions, including server name and max record size. Additionally, the library supports authentication using the SRP protocol, X.509 certificates and OpenPGP keys, along with support for the TLS Pre-Shared-Keys (PSK) extension, the Inner Application (TLS/IA) extension and X.509 and OpenPGP certificate handling.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-8.1 platform.

Package Information

GnuTLS Dependencies

Required

Nettle-3.3

Recommended

Certificate Authority Certificates, libunistring-0.9.7, libtasn1-4.12, and p11-kit-0.23.8

Optional

Doxygen-1.8.13, GTK-Doc-1.26, Guile-2.2.2, libidn-1.33 or libidn2, Net-tools-CVS_20101030 (used during the test suite), texlive-20170524 or install-tl-unx, Unbound-1.6.5 (to build the DANE library), Valgrind-3.13.0 (used during the test suite), autogen, cmocka and datefudge (used during the test suite if the DANE library is built), and Trousers (Trusted Platform Module support)

[Note]

Note

Note that if you do not install libtasn1-4.12, an older version shipped in the GnuTLS tarball will be used instead.

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/gnutls

Installation of GnuTLS

Install GnuTLS by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr \
            --with-default-trust-store-pkcs11="pkcs11:" &&
make

To test the results, issue: make check. If a prior version of GnuTLS (or the same version but without all of the recommended dependencies) has been installed, some tests may fail. If /usr/lib/libgnutls.so and the target of that symlink are moved or renamed so that they cannot be found, all tests should pass and the install procedure will restore libgnutls.so and the versioned library it points to.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

If you passed --enable-gtk-doc to the configure script, the API will automatically be installed. Otherwise, if desired, you can still install the API documentation to the /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/gnutls directory using the following command as the root user: 

make -C doc/reference install-data-local

Command Explanations

--with-default-trust-store-pkcs11="pkcs11:": This switch tells gnutls to use the PKCS #11 trust store as the default trust. Omit this switch if p11-kit-0.23.8 is not installed.

--with-default-trust-store-file=/etc/ssl/ca-bundle.crt: This switch tells configure where to find the legacy CA certificate bundle and to use it instead of PKCS #11 module by default. Use this if p11-kit-0.23.8 is not installed.

--enable-gtk-doc: Use this parameter if GTK-Doc is installed and you wish to rebuild and install the API documentation.

--enable-openssl-compatibility: Use this switch if you wish to build the OpenSSL compatibility library.

--without-p11-kit: use this switch if you have not installed p11-kit.

--with-included-unistring: uses the bundled version of libunistring, instead of the system one. Use this switch if you have not installed libunistring-0.9.7.

Contents

Installed Programs: certtool, danetool, gnutls-cli, gnutls-cli-debug, gnutls-serv, ocsptool, p11tool, psktool, and srptool
Installed Libraries: libgnutls.so, libgnutls-dane.so, libgnutlsxx.so, libgnutls-openssl.so, and /usr/lib/guile/2.0/guile-gnutls-v-2.so
Installed Directories: /usr/{include,share/gtk-doc/html,share/guile/site/2.0}/gnutls

Short Descriptions

certtool

is used to generate X.509 certificates, certificate requests, and private keys.

danetool

is a tool used to generate and check DNS resource records for the DANE protocol.

gnutls-cli

is a simple client program to set up a TLS connection to some other computer.

gnutls-cli-debug

is a simple client program to set up a TLS connection to some other computer and produces very verbose progress results.

gnutls-serv

is a simple server program that listens to incoming TLS connections.

ocsptool

is a program that can parse and print information about OCSP requests/responses, generate requests and verify responses.

p11tool

is a program that allows handling data from PKCS #11 smart cards and security modules.

psktool

is a simple program that generates random keys for use with TLS-PSK.

srptool

is a simple program that emulates the programs in the Stanford SRP (Secure Remote Password) libraries using GnuTLS.

libgnutls.so

contains the core API functions and X.509 certificate API functions.

Last updated on 2017-08-20 15:06:11 -0700