How to Generate PKI Files

[中文]

ESP-AT provides python script AtPKI.py to convert SSL server certificates, SSL client certificates, MQTT certificates, and WPA2 certificates files (including CA, cert, and private key files) into bin files.

Certificate Bin Files Format

In addition to converting the certificate file into a bin file, the script AtPKI.py adds some additional information to the bin file.

When converting a single certificate file, the script will add 12 bytes in little-endian format to the header and 4 bytes aligned at the end.

Field

Description

magic code (2 bytes)

0xF1 0xF1

list size (2 bytes)

the number of certificate files

length (4 bytes)

remaining file size = total file size - magic code size - list size - length size

type (1 bytes)
ca: 0x01
certificate: 0x02
key: 0x03

ID (1 bytes)

used to match certificate files

content len (2 bytes)

the size of the certificate file converted to the bin file

Taking the client_cert.bin generated in the Generate Certificate Bin Files section as an example, the 12 bytes in little-endian format at the beginning of the file are:

Field

Description

magic code (2 bytes)

0xF1 0xF1

list size (2 bytes)

0x02 0x00

length (4 bytes)

0x20 0x09 0x00 0x00

type (1 bytes)

0x02

ID (1 bytes)

0x00

content len (2 bytes)

0x8C 0x04

When converting multiple certificate files, the script AtPKI.py inserts 4 bytes at the beginning of every file except the first one. The 4 bytes in little-endian format at the beginning of the file are:

Field

Description

type (1 bytes)
ca: 0x01
certificate: 0x02
key: 0x03

ID (1 bytes)

used to match certificate files

content len (2 bytes)

the size of the certificate file converted to the bin file

Taking the client_cert.bin generated in the Generate Certificate Bin Files section as an example, the 4 bytes in little-endian format at the beginning of the file are:

Field

Description

type (1 bytes)

certificate: 0x02

ID (1 bytes)

0x01

content len (2 bytes)

0x8C 0x04

Generate Certificate Bin Files

Select one of the following ways to generate certificate bin files.

Script Generation

The path of AtPKI.py is tools/AtPKI.py. You can get help information of the script through the -h option. You can also generate bin files directly through the following commands.

python <SCRIPT_PATH> generate_bin [-b OUTPUT_BIN_NAME] <PKI_LIST> <source_file>

  • SCRIPT_PATH: the path the script. If you’re in “tools” folder of ESP-AT project, SCRIPT_PATH is AtPKI.py.

  • OUTPUT_BIN_NAME: the target file which you want to save the generated bin (absolute address or relative address of the target file); if -b OUTPUT_BIN_NAME is omitted, it will generate PKI.bin in the current directory.

  • PKI_LIST: must be equal to one of ca, cert, key.

  • source_file: the certificate source file which you want to convert (absolute address or relative address of the source file).

Taking the SSL client certificate files of ESP-AT as an example, you can execute the following command to generate client_cert.bin in the tools directory:

python AtPKI.py generate_bin -b ./client_cert.bin  cert ../components/customized_partitions/raw_data/client_cert/client_cert_00.crt cert ../components/customized_partitions/raw_data/client_cert/client_cert_01.crt

Generation During Compilation

The storage path of certificate files in ESP-AT is components/customized_partitions/raw_data.

Taking the SSL client certificate files of ESP-AT as an example. If you want to generate your own SSL client certificates files, you must replace the CA certificate in the client_ca directory with your own CA certificate, the cert certificate in the client_cert directory with your own cert certificate, and the private key in the client_ key directory with your own private key.

If you have multiple sets of certificate files, please place them in the corresponding directory according to your certificate chain. It is recommended that you end the file name with a number to ensure the parsing order of the certificate files.

After replacement, You can refer to Compile ESP-AT Project to compile the ESP-AT project.

Download or Update Certificate Bin Files

The script AtPKI.py is only responsible for converting the certificate files to bin files. You can download bin files to the corresponding flash partition in one of the following ways:

Download with Tools

  • Windows

    Please download Flash Download Tools for Windows.

    For more details about the Tools, please see readme.pdf or the doc folder in the zip folder.

  • Linux or macOS

    Please use esptool.py.

    You can execute the following command in the root directory of ESP-AT to download bin files.

    esptool.py --chip auto --port PORTNAME --baud 921600 --before default_reset --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 40m --flash_size 4MB ADDRESS FILEDIRECTORY

    Replace PORTNAME with your port name. Replace ADDRESS with the the download address. Replace FILEDIRECTORY with the file directory of the bin.

Update with Commands

  • AT+SYSFLASH

    Taking ESP32 module as an example, you can execute the following command to upgrade the client_cert partition. Please refer to AT+SYSFLASH for more details.

    1. Query user partitions in flash

    Command:

    AT+SYSFLASH?

    Response:

    +SYSFLASH:"ble_data",64,1,0x21000,0x3000
+SYSFLASH:"server_cert",64,2,0x24000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"server_key",64,3,0x26000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"server_ca",64,4,0x28000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"client_cert",64,5,0x2a000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"client_key",64,6,0x2c000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"client_ca",64,7,0x2e000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"factory_param",64,8,0x30000,0x1000
+SYSFLASH:"wpa2_cert",64,9,0x31000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"wpa2_key",64,10,0x33000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"wpa2_ca",64,11,0x35000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"mqtt_cert",64,12,0x37000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"mqtt_key",64,13,0x39000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"mqtt_ca",64,14,0x3b000,0x2000
+SYSFLASH:"fatfs",1,129,0x70000,0x90000

OK

    1. Erase client_cert sector

    Command:

    AT+SYSFLASH=0,"client_cert"

    Response:

    OK

    1. Update client_cert sector

    Command:

    AT+SYSFLASH=1,"client_cert",0,2344

    Response:

    >

    If the operator is write, wrap return > after the write command, then you can send the data that you want to write. The length should be parameter <length>. When the write operation is completed, the system will prompt the following information.

    OK

  • AT+CIUPDATE

    For example, you can execute the following command to upgrade the client_ca partition. Please refer to AT+CIUPDATE for more details.

    Important

    If you want to update the client_ca partition in this way, you must implement your own OTA device, please refer to How to Implement OTA Upgrade.

    AT+CIUPDATE=1,"v2.2.0.0","client_ca"

Note

You must ensure that the download address is correct, otherwise the ESP-AT firmware may not work. The simplest way to view the download address is to execute the command AT+SYSFLASH?.

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