# Install libksba with Homebrew

X.509 and CMS library. Version 1.8.0 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:libksba
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install libksba
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:libksba
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.8.0
- **Source summary:** X.509 and CMS library
- **Homepage:** <https://www.gnupg.org/related_software/libksba/>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- ksba-config (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.8.0
## Project history and usage

Libksba is GnuPG's X.509 and CMS library. It gives C applications a shared interface for parsing and handling X.509 certificates, CMS/PKCS#7 messages, certificate revocation lists, and PKCS#10 certificate requests.

### Project history

GnuPG's Libksba page describes the library as a way to hide the many protocol details and dialects of X.509 certificates, CMS data, and related objects behind one C API. The README explains that KSBA is pronounced Kasbah, ships as a standard shared library, and deliberately does not rely on another cryptographic library.

The reference manual edition 1.0.6 was last updated on 2009-01-09 for KSBA 1.0.6, showing that Libksba had already stabilized as a documented component of the GnuPG library set by the late 2000s. GnuPG download metadata lists Libksba 1.8.0 on 2026-05-13.

### Adoption history

Libksba's adoption is mostly through GnuPG and GnuPG-adjacent packaging. The README says GnuPG's dirmngr module makes extensive use of Libksba's OCSP feature, while GnuPG documentation and related manuals identify gpgsm as the X.509/CMS counterpart to gpg for S/MIME workflows.

It appears in Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Alpine, Arch, MacPorts, Nix, and openSUSE because GnuPG stacks are base security infrastructure on Unix-like systems. Users rarely install it for its own UI; they inherit it through certificate, S/MIME, and CMS support.

### How it is used

Developers use Libksba when they need C-level access to X.509 certificate structures, CMS messages, CRLs, PKCS#10 requests, and related parsing/serialization inside GnuPG-style applications. Packagers see ksba-config as the small build-helper executable attached to the library.

### Why package nerds care

Libksba is significant because it is a quiet security plumbing package: not the cryptographic primitive library, not the mail client, and not the gpg command, but the X.509/CMS parser layer that lets GnuPG's S/MIME side exist as a separately packaged dependency.

### Timeline

- 2001: README copyright range begins with 2001 for g10 Code GmbH.
- 2009-01-09: KSBA Reference Manual edition 1.0.6 last updated for library version 1.0.6.
- 2020-11-19: GnuPG Libksba web page source date.
- 2026-05-13: GnuPG download page lists Libksba 1.8.0.

### Related projects

- Related projects include GnuPG, gpgsm, dirmngr, GPGME, Gpg4win, S/MIME, X.509, CMS/PKCS#7, CRLs, OCSP, and PKCS#10 tooling.

### Sources

- <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libksba>
- <https://github.com/gpg/libksba>
- <https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/ksba>
- <https://www.gnupg.org/download/index.html>
- <https://www.gnupg.org/software/libksba/index.html>


## Security Notes

No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for libksba. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.



## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/libksba.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/libksba.yml)


## Sources

- Nucleus package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation