dep-curl/docs/cmdline-opts/httpsig-headers.md
Sameeh Jubran a55731050e
httpsig: add RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures support
Add support for signing outgoing HTTP requests per RFC 9421 using
Ed25519 or HMAC-SHA256 algorithms.

New libcurl options:
 - CURLOPT_HTTPSIG: signing algorithm ("ed25519" or "hmac-sha256")
 - CURLOPT_HTTPSIG_KEY: path to hex-encoded key file
 - CURLOPT_HTTPSIG_KEYID: key identifier for Signature-Input
 - CURLOPT_HTTPSIG_HEADERS: space-separated components to sign

New CLI flags: --httpsig, --httpsig-key, --httpsig-keyid,
--httpsig-headers

The crypto layer follows the sha256.c multi-backend pattern with
implementations for OpenSSL (EVP_DigestSign) and wolfSSL
(wc_ed25519_sign_msg). HMAC-SHA256 uses the existing Curl_hmacit()
infrastructure which works on all backends.

Verified by test 5000 to 5021

Assisted-by: Daniel Stenberg
Signed-off-by: Sameeh Jubran <sameeh@wolfssl.com>
Closes #22386
Closes #21239
2026-07-25 16:25:37 +02:00

1.4 KiB

c SPDX-License-Identifier Long Protocols Arg Help Category Added Multi Experimental See-also Example
Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al. curl httpsig-headers HTTP <components> Components to sign for HTTP Message Signatures auth http 8.22.0 single yes
httpsig-algo
httpsig-key
httpsig-keyid
--httpsig-algo ed25519 --httpsig-key key.hex --httpsig-keyid "my-key" --httpsig-headers "method authority content-type:" $URL

--httpsig-headers

Space-separated list of components to include in the RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signature. Derived components are given as bare names: method, authority, path, and query. HTTP header fields are given with a trailing colon, for example content-type: and content-digest:.

If not specified, the default set is method authority path (plus query when a query string is present in the URL).

Signing request headers

Header components are taken from -H / --header options only. Headers curl adds by default (such as User-Agent) are not signed unless you set them explicitly, for example:

curl --httpsig-algo ed25519 \
  --httpsig-key k.hex \
  --httpsig-keyid mykey \
  -H "User-Agent: MyApp/1.0" \
  --httpsig-headers \
  "method authority path user-agent:" \
  $URL

Each component may appear only once. Duplicate identifiers in --httpsig-headers cause curl to exit with an error.