The Web eID application performs cryptographic digital signing and authentication operations with electronic ID smart cards for the Web eID browser extension (it is the native messaging host for the extension). Also works standalone without the extension in command-line mode.

More information about the Web eID project is available on the project website.

Overview of the Web eID system architecture is available in the system architecture document.

Command-line mode is described first as it is easily accessible for testing. Input-output mode that the application uses for communication with the browser extension is described below.

Command-line mode is useful both for testing and for using the application outside of the Web eID browser extension context.

Usage:

web-eid [options] command arguments

Options:

  -h, --help               Displays help.
  -c, --command-line-mode  Command-line mode, read commands from command line
                           arguments instead of standard input.

Arguments:

  command                  The command to execute in command-line mode, any of
                           'get-signing-certificate', 'authenticate', 'sign'.
  arguments                Arguments to the given command as a JSON-encoded
                           string.

The authentication command creates the Web eID authentication token and signs it with the authentication key.

The authentication command requires the challenge nonce and origin URL as JSON-encoded command-line arguments:

web-eid -c authenticate '{"challengeNonce": "12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234", "origin": "https://ria.ee"}'

The result will be written to standard output as a JSON-encoded message that either contains the authentication token or an error code. Successful output example:

{
    "unverifiedCertificate": "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",
    "algorithm": "ES384",
    "signature": "j8KBTYCXZ8OLuL6eoitRlSmiqw6oIsIJmDm6SttGYvEaJUkBS5kLeCeaokQm5u5viLEJy9iUDONEVlcnLgHIlOZUoEozPNw+AzjI9n7n/D25koYrzmGvMsHX1AKbwqAc",
    "format": "web-eid:1.0",
    "appVersion": "https://web-eid.eu/web-eid-app/releases/2.0.0+0"
}

Error example:

{"error": {"code": "ERR_WEBEID_NATIVE_FATAL", "message": "Invalid origin"}}

The full specification of the format is available in the Web eID system architecture document.

The get signing certificate command retrieves the digital signing certificate.

For security reasons, the authentication certificate can only be accessed through the "authenticate" command and there is no support for signing of raw hash values with the authentication key.

Pass the origin URL as JSON-encoded command-line argument to the get-signing-certificate command to retrieve the digital signing certificate:

web-eid -c get-signing-certificate '{"origin": "https://ria.ee"}'

The result will be written to standard output as a JSON-encoded message that either contains the requested Base64-encoded certificate and supported signature algorithms, or an error object with a symbolic error code. Successful output example:

{"certificate":"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","supportedSignatureAlgorithms":[{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA-224","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA-256","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA-384","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA-512","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA3-224","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA3-256","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA3-384","paddingScheme":"NONE"},{"cryptoAlgorithm":"ECC","hashFunction":"SHA3-512","paddingScheme":"NONE"}]}

The supportedSignatureAlgorithms field contains an array of objects that specify the signature algorithms that the card supports. Each object has three members:

• cryptoAlgorithm, the cryptographic algorithm, ECC for elliptic curve cryptography or RSA for the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman algorithm;
• hashFunction, the cryptographic hash function, any of the SHA-2 or SHA-3 standard algorithms, see Allowed hash functions below in section Sign;
• paddingScheme, the padding scheme used, for example PKCS1.5 for PKCS#1 v1.5 padding.

The signing command signs the provided document hash with the signing key.

The signing command requires the Base64-encoded document hash, hash function, origin URL and previously retrieved Base64-encoded user signing certificate as JSON-encoded command-line arguments:

web-eid -c sign '{"hash": "MTIzNDU2Nzg5MDEyMzQ1Njc4OTAxMjM0NTY3ODkwMTIzNDU2Nzg5MDEyMzQ1Njc4", "hashFunction": "SHA-384", "origin": "https://ria.ee", "certificate": "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"}'

Allowed hash function values are SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, SHA3-224, SHA3-256, SHA3-384, SHA3-512, and the hash function has to be supported by the card (see the hashFunction member of supportedSignatureAlgorithms array elements in the get-signing-certificate command output). The document hash length has to match the hash function output length and the hash function has to be supported by the electronic ID signing implementation.

The user signing certificate for the certificate field can be retrieved with the get-signing-certificate command as described above:

web-eid -c get-signing-certificate '{...other arguments as above...}'

The result will be written to standard output as a JSON-encoded message that either contains the Base64-encoded signature and the signature algorithm used (see the description of the supportedSignatureAlgorithms field above in section Get certificate), or an error code. Successful output example:

{
    "signatureAlgorithm": {"hashFunction": "SHA-384", "paddingScheme": "NONE", "cryptoAlgorithm": "ECC"},
    "signature": "oIw20YRlryXgAhGbHEKBCzQetVAE/S2VjqEQ1h+Kc9Scujcl37oOCmAgoHmEkG4Fpmp/z2waGw8ciJ1yXNpgzIaLhtyytFnFmcwR3zp6OKZTqHuEvTEAxZkxC6gLCxJh"
}

All commands require the mandatory origin field in arguments that must contain the URL of the the website origin, i.e. the URL serving the web application. origin URL must be in the form of <scheme> "://" <hostname> [ ":" <port> ] as defined in MDN Web Docs, where scheme must be https. Note that the origin URL must not end with a slash /.

All commands support an optional lang parameter that, if provided, must contain a two-letter ISO 639-1 language code. If translations exist for the given language, then the user interface will be displayed in this language. Currently, English, Estonian, Finnish, Croatian and Russian translations are included.

The following example will display the user interface in Estonian:

web-eid -c get-signing-certificate '{"lang": "et", "origin": "https://ria.ee"}'

See also section Adding and updating translations below.

Input-output mode is intended for communicating with the Web eID browser extension. Start the application without options and arguments to activate the input-output mode:

web-eid

Input-output mode supports the same commands, arguments and output as command-line mode. The command and arguments should be written as a JSON-encoded message to the application standard input:

{
  "command": "authenticate",
  "arguments": { "nonce": "...", "origin": "...", "origin-cert": "..." }
}

The message should start with message length prefix in native-endian byte order in accordance with the WebExtensions native messaging specification.

The application exits after writing the result to the standard output.

To notify the browser extension that it is ready to receive commands, the application initiates communication by sending its version to standard output in input-output mode with the following message (actual version number varies):

{ "version": "1.0.0" }

There is a Python script in tests/input-output-mode/test.py that demonstrates how to use input-output mode, it can be run with:

python tests/input-output-mode/test.py

To enable logging,

• in Linux, run the following command in the console:

  echo 'logging=true' > ~/.config/RIA/web-eid.conf
  

• in macOS, run the following commands in the console:

  defaults write \
    "$HOME/Library/Containers/eu.web-eid.web-eid/Data/Library/Preferences/eu.web-eid.web-eid.plist" \
    logging true
  defaults write "$HOME/Library/Containers/eu.web-eid.web-eid-safari/Data/Library/Preferences/eu.web-eid.web-eid-safari.plist" \
    logging true
  

• in Windows, add the following registry key:

  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\RIA\web-eid]
  "logging"="true"
  

The application writes logs to

• ~/.local/share/RIA/web-eid/web-eid.log in Linux
• ~/Library/Containers/eu.web-eid.web-eid/Data/Library/Application\ Support/RIA/web-eid/web-eid.log in macOS
• ~/Library/Containers/eu.web-eid.web-eid-safari/Data/Library/Application\ Support/RIA/web-eid-safari/web-eid-safari.log of Safari in macOS
• C:/Users/<USER>/AppData/Local/RIA/web-eid/web-eid.log in Windows.

The Web eID native application is built with the Qt framework. It consists of

• the Qt application bootstrapping code that starts the Qt event loop (in src/app and src/controller/application.{cpp,hpp}),
• a controller component that is responsible for creating other component objects and coordinating communication between them and the user (in src/controller/controller.{cpp,hpp}),
• command handlers that implement the actual PKI operations (authenticate, get signing certificate, sign) using the libelectronic-id library (in src/controller/command-handlers),
• thread management code, including the card reader and smart card event monitoring thread (in src/controller/threads),
• a dynamic user interface dialog built with Qt Widgets (interface in src/controller/ui.hpp, implementation in src/ui).
• Code is compatible with Qt5 and Qt6 versions.

The controller has an event-driven internal design that supports unexpected events like card or reader removal or insertion during all operations. Communication with the smart card and card monitoring run in separate threads to assure responsive, non-blocking operations.

The Web eID extension for Safari is built as a Safari web extension. The source code of the Safari extension is in the src/mac subdirectory.

Safari web extensions are similar to WebExtensions extensions that communicate with a native application, except that the native application is bundled with the extension. The extension can use a combination of JavaScript, CSS, and native code written in Objective-C or Swift. As extensions are built on the standard macOS app model, they are bundled inside an app and distributed through the App Store.

The extension's injected JavaScript script comes from the web-eid-webextension GitHub repository and is shared with other browsers. The web-eid-webextension repository is linked to src/mac/js as a Git submodule.

The injected script, the Safari web extension and the extension's native app live in different sandboxed environments, each with specific limits on what it can access. Like with WebExtensions, communication between the injected script and the web extension happens with message passing. The two runtime environments share a common format for message passing, and each provides an interface for sending and receiving messages.

However, Apple does not provide a dedicated two-way communication channel between the extension and the extension's native app. Therefore a combination of NSNotificationCenter and NSUserDefaults is used for sending and receiving messages between the extension and the extension's native app.

The extension's native component that coordinates launching the app and exchanging messages with it is in safari-extension.mm.

The extension's native app in main.mm is a thin adapter layer on top of the Qt-based Web eID native app libraries and calls the Web eID app API functions directly from Objective-C code. It also manages message exchange with the app extension.

You can examine the files in the .github/workflows/ directory to see how continuous integration build environment has been set up for different operating systems.

Run all commands starting from RUN apt-get update from the following Dockerfile:

https://github.com/mrts/docker-qt-cmake-gtest-valgrind-ubuntu/blob/master/Dockerfile

• Download Visual Studio 2019 community installer from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/ and install Desktop C++ Development

• Install WIX toolset

  dotnet tool install --global wix --version 5.0.0
  wix extension -g add WixToolset.UI.wixext/5.0.0
  wix extension -g add WixToolset.Util.wixext/5.0.0
  wix extension -g add WixToolset.Bal.wixext/5.0.0
  

• Download and install Git for Windows from https://git-scm.com/download/win

• Download and install CMake from https://cmake.org/download/

• Install vcpkg by running the following commands in Powershell:

  git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git C:\vcpkg
  cd C:\vcpkg
  .\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
  .\vcpkg integrate install
  

• Install Google Test and OpenSSL with vcpkg:

  .\vcpkg install --recurse --triplet x64-windows --clean-after-build gtest openssl
  

• Install Qt with the official Qt Online Installer, choose Custom installation > Qt 6.6.3 > MSVC 2019 64-bit.

• Install Homebrew if not already installed:

  /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
  

• Install CMake, Google Test, OpenSSL and Qt with Homebrew:

  brew install cmake web-eid/gtest/gtest openssl qt@6 node
  

• Create symlink to OpenSSL location and setup environment variables required by CMake:

  export OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/usr/local/opt/openssl@1.1
  export QT_DIR=/usr/local/opt/qt6/lib/cmake/Qt6
  

git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:web-eid/web-eid-app.git
cd web-eid-app
./build.sh
./test.sh
./build/src/app/web-eid -c get-signing-certificate '{"origin":"https://ria.ee"}'

Use Powershell to run the following commands to build the project.

• Set the Qt installation directory variable:

  $QT_ROOT = "C:\Qt\6.2.4\msvc2019_64"
  

• Set the vcpkg installation directory variable:

  $VCPKG_ROOT = "C:\vcpkg"
  

• Set the build type variable:

  $BUILD_TYPE = "RelWithDebInfo"
  

• Run CMake:

Optionally, WIX Toolset v3 is required for the installer, and the WIX environment variable should be set for the installed target.

  cmake "-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=${QT_ROOT}" `
      "-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${VCPKG_ROOT}/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" `
      "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=${BUILD_TYPE}" -A x64 -B build -S .

• Run the build and installer build:

  cmake --build build --config ${BUILD_TYPE}
  cmake --build build --config ${BUILD_TYPE} --target installer
  

• Add Qt binary directory to path:

  $env:PATH += ";${QT_ROOT}\bin"
  

• Run tests:

  ctest -V -C ${BUILD_TYPE} --test-dir build
  

You can use the free Qt Linguist application to add and edit translations.

Run the following command to update Qt Linguist TS files:

  lupdate src/ -ts ./src/ui/translations/*.ts