Understanding the 'trust' Command (with examples)

The ’trust’ command is a crucial tool used for managing digital trust policies and anchors, ensuring secure and verified communication and service interactions. By operating on the trust policy store, it allows administrators and users to manage certificates, trust policies, and anchors, which are fundamental for authenticating and securing communications in computer systems. This command aids in listing, adding, removing, and extracting trust policies and certificates, thus playing an essential role in maintaining security integrity.

Use case 1: List trust policy store items

Code:

trust list

Motivation: To effectively manage certificates and trust policies, it’s essential to have visibility into what is currently stored. The trust list command provides an overview of all items in the trust policy store, ensuring administrators can audit, verify, and manage trust settings appropriately.

Explanation:

• trust: The core command for operating the trust policy.
• list: The subcommand used to retrieve and display all current trust store items.

Example Output:

pki/id_rsa.pub
ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
certificate_authority/Acme_Inc_CA.pem

This is a simplified representation where you might find public keys, certificates, and Certificate Authority (CA) information listed out clearly.

Use case 2: List information about specific items in the trust policy store

Code:

trust list --filter=blocklist|ca-anchors|certificates|trust-policy

Motivation: Filtering enables users to narrow down the search to specific types of items in the trust policy store. By doing so, it is easier to focus on relevant data, such as filtering for blocklist items that require immediate attention or ensuring correct CA anchors are registered.

Explanation:

• trust: The command for trust operations.
• list: Activates the listing of items.
• --filter=blocklist|ca-anchors|certificates|trust-policy: This flag allows users to specify the kind of items to list, whether they are blocklisted entities, certificate authority anchors, general certificates, or trust policies.

Example Output:

Filtered by ca-anchors:
  ca-certificates.crt
  trusted-roots.pem

Use case 3: Store a specific trust anchor in the trust policy store

Code:

trust anchor path/to/certificate.crt

Motivation: Adding a new trust anchor to the store is fundamental whenever a new, trusted certificate authority comes into play. This is necessary to recognize and trust certificates issued by new CAs.

Explanation:

• trust: The main command.
• anchor: Subcommand to add a certificate to the trust policy store.
• path/to/certificate.crt: The file path of the certificate that will be added as a trust anchor.

Example Output:

Added certificate: path/to/certificate.crt

Use case 4: Remove a specific anchor from the trust policy store

Code:

trust anchor --remove path/to/certificate.crt

Motivation: Occasionally, a certificate authority is compromised, or it is no longer deemed trustworthy. In such cases, removing the relevant trust anchor becomes necessary to maintain the security of trusted systems.

Explanation:

• trust: Command for trust-related actions.
• anchor: Focuses the command operation on trust anchors.
• --remove: Argument to specify that an item should be deleted.
• path/to/certificate.crt: Path to the file of the trust anchor to be removed.

Example Output:

Removed certificate: path/to/certificate.crt

Use case 5: Extract trust policy from the shared trust policy store

Code:

trust extract --format=x509-directory --filter=ca-anchors path/to/directory

Motivation: For backup purposes or for deploying a consistent trust policy across multiple systems, extracting the trust data into a directory can be beneficial.

Explanation:

• trust: The primary command for trust operations.
• extract: Subcommand to export trust data.
• --format=x509-directory: Specifies the extraction format; in this case, into an x509 structured directory.
• --filter=ca-anchors: Filter to extract particular certificate authority anchors.
• path/to/directory: Destination directory path for the extracted data.

Example Output:

Extracted to directory: path/to/directory

Use case 6: Display help for a subcommand

Code:

trust subcommand --help

Motivation: As with any powerful tool, understanding its functionalities is key. Accessing help for a particular subcommand ensures users can educate themselves on specific aspects and uses of the tool.

Explanation:

• trust: The primary command for trust management.
• subcommand: Placeholder for any specific subcommand within trust (e.g., list, anchor).
• --help: Trigger to display help and guidance for the subcommand syntax and usage.

Example Output:

Usage: trust <command> [OPTIONS]
Commands:
  list       List trust policy store items
  anchor     Manage trust anchors
  extract    Extract trust policies

Conclusion

The ‘trust’ command is a versatile tool crucial for managing digital trust policies. Through various subcommands, it allows system administrators and users to list, add, remove, and extract trust policies and anchors, enhancing the security and integrity of communications systems.