I apologized. There is indeed a way to set utf8 for subjects.

var attr = [
        {name: 'countryName', value: 'TW' valueTagClass: 12},
        {name: 'organizationName', value: 'ass.tw', valueTagClass: 12},
        {shortName: 'ST', value: 'Chinese 大安區', valueTagClass: 12},
        {shortName: 'CN', value: 'Chinese 中文', valueTagClass: 12},
        {shortName: 'OU', value: 'Chinese 中文部門', valueTagClass: 12},
        {shortName: 'CN', value: 'Chinese 中文', valueTagClass: 12}
];

The key is set "valueTagClass" with a value 12 which indicate UTF8. Then you can put UTF8 character in value and produce well formed certs.

However this didn't fix all the problem. I soon realized that node-forge didn't decode x509 pem correctly with utf8 subject. So I fix it be add a few line in my fork. I'm afraid that my commit doesn't meet the contribute guide. So I din't create a poll from my commit. But feel free to take it.

Cojad@0f6d5d3

+1

Great @Cojad, your change also fixes UTF8 characters in the issuer... this was exactly what i has looking for

I'm glad that someone find my patch useful. :)

+1
I ran into the same problem. We are located in Germany an have an "Umlaut" (äöü) in our cityname. When I tried to sign a csr with a ca that contained an "ü" within the localityName, none of the resulting certs were considered valid.

Another solution I have found is to use the valueTagClass field on the subject, when the value is 12(there is a table on asn1.js file) you should decode to fix the problems.

Still actual, right?

@davidlehn @dlongley any chances that patch created by @Cojad will be picked up by you? Or is there any other solution? I still run into decoding problem and I would like not to fork library.

Does someone have the time to make a PR with that patch and add some tests and maybe a README example?

@davidlehn I added PR, could you take a look? It's important in my current project and I don't want to fork your repo

3 years later. I think we can close the issue now. Thanks everyone!

In ASN.1 there is no valueTagClass with value 12.
Seems, valueTagClass field is wrongly used in general.
12 is value from Type enum and represent UTF8.

// seems, should be something like that
// but it won't work in current version
{ name: 'organizationName', value: 'ass.tw', valueType: asn1.Type.UTF8 }