I'm working on a Server and Client based app which require two way SSL authentication. (Client authenticates server and Server authenticate client both using SSL Certificates.)
I'm quite new to Netty and have few doubts regarding this.
Is two way authentication possible using Netty?
Can it be simply achievable by adding another SslHandler to the pipelinefactories of both server and client?
If the above is true, how can I grab the required SslHandler at the ChannelConnected() method to do the SslHandshake? And Is it possible to invoke the second handshake at the ChannelConected() method by calling the pipeline back again?
Are there any examples I could refer to regarding this?
I really appreciate any help regarding this, answers or a push in right direction.
Is two way authentication possible using Netty?
Yes
Can it be simply achievable by adding another SslHandler to the pipelinefactories of both server and client?
Yes
If the above is true, how can I grab the required SslHandler at the ChannelConnected() method to do the SslHandshake?
You need the setup the keystore and the truststore correctly when creating your SSLContext.
And Is it possible to invoke the second handshake at the ChannelConected() method by calling the pipeline back again?
From memory, client and server authentication is done in the 1st handshake.
On the client, install the client's private key in the keystore and the server's public key in the truststore.
On the server, install the server's private key in the keystore and the client's public key in the truststore.
Are there any examples I could refer to regarding this?
Here's an example I did for websockets. It only shows you how to setup the server keystore. You will have to add a truststore as the 2nd parameter of serverContext.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), null, null);
Here's a similar example in Scala with trust store setup.
Here's a good java guide on how to setup SSLContext.
Hope this helps.
Two way authentication requires that both server and client have certificates that the other trusts. The client needs to generate a private key, store it in his keystore, and get it signed by somebody that the server's truststore trusts.
It isn't just a matter of what code you write.
SSL is a presentation layer protocol and the SSL handshake happens right after the socket connection is established and the before the application layer gets a usable socket connection. No matter what application you are using, if you have the SSL protocol layer in place then you can work over SSL.
Two way authentication is just a matter of configuration as mentioned by #EJP above. If both the parties can establish and validate each other trust chain then the handshake succeeds. Refer the netty configuration manual for configuring SSL truststores.
Related
this question might sound I bit dummy but I have researched many questions/answers here and can't find the answer for my case.
Currently I am using RestTemplate library to make HTTP requests for my java library that I am currently working on. In order to have successful HTTP call to HTTPS URLs i needed to add a SSL configuration for my HTTP client. Something like this:
clientBuilder
.disableCookieManagement()
.setDefaultRequestConfig(requestConfig)
.setSSLSocketFactory(new SSLConnectionSocketFactory(SSLContexts.custom()
.loadTrustMaterial(null, new TrustSelfSignedStrategy())
.build()));
So this library is supposed to be shipped to the user as a jar executable application and I know that using self-signed SSL certificates is not a good idea for general usage since there might have web servers that do not acknowledge it. I read that If I get a signed SSL certificate then I should save the proper keys on Keystore and also use Trustore to acknowledge the server's certificate. I do not think I can just pass Keystore and Trustore to the client who executes my java library, so my question here is, does Java has a built-in SSL certificate, so I could somehow just do some configuration on HTTP client and the built-in certificates would be used. As far as I know, node.js offers something like that.
Could anyone just give me a explanation of how this works for java spring-boot?
There are two separate certificate verifications that could be happening. To connect to a server using https, you need to receive the server's certificate and validate it using a truststore.
In addition, it is possible for you to have a client certificate, and to pass that to the server so it can authenticate your client. Unless you have been told you need to do that, you don't. Unless the server has been specifically configured to do it, it isn't possible. If it is what you need to do, you need to obtain a client certificate, install it into a keystore and use that keystore in your client.
So for normal https, you do not need a keystore.
Whether you need "TrustSelfSignedStrategy" depends on the server.
If the server has a valid signed SSL certificate, you do not need to do anything special, RestTemplate will just work.
If the server has a self-signed certificate, you need to either configure the client to accept any self-signed certificate, or load the server's certificate into a truststore so the client knows to accept that specific certificate.
On the server side, it is possible to specify whether you want to send a client-certificate request to the connecting clients:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/SSLEngine.html#setWantClientAuth(boolean)
For completeness, you can also specify whether you want to negotiation to continue if the client does not provide a certificate:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/SSLEngine.html#setNeedClientAuth(boolean)
My specific question is: given a client application written in java, is it possible to somehow know whether a server requested a client certificate during the negotiation (i.e. the server your application is connecting to was configured with setWantClientAuth(true))?
You can install a KeyManager that does nothing but delegate to the default and set a flag if it was called.
Or if you're directly using SSLSocket or SSLEngine after the handshake you can check .getSession().getLocalCertificates()/getLocalPrincipal(). Thanks to #dave_thompson_085 for that.
I want to implement client - server application which require client authentication using some other data than certificates (for example using password). Everywhere I looked for something like that, I found only 2-way (mutual) SSL authentication with client and server certificates, which I don't want.
Is there some APIs for customizing ssl handshake and adding client authentication? Is it possible to build application like this using JSSE package or some other Java technologies?
Any kind of advice or guidelines about this would be very helpful becouse I'm new in this topic.
You can use HTTP Basic Authentication. So you set up your server just under HTTP and authenticate via password/username. To write your own protocol....there has to be done to much....
I have a requirement to open a tcp socket and authenticate using SSLv3 or TLSv1 IP protocol using X.509 digital certificate.
What does this handshake process involve exactly? I know the each message should be encrypted and signed with my private key. What else?
After successful I've to send POST HTTP requests over the socket.
The server may decide to close this socket if inactive after some time. I need to be able to re-open, authenticate and send requests again.
The certificate given to me is in PKCS12 format with the following information.
Certificate Identification
,Certificate Public Key
,Certificate Private Key
,Certification Authority Chain
I'm fairly new to SSL can someone please provide pointers to how to go about implementing this in java or spring integration.
A good start is to see the javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection javadocs: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17476_01/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/HttpsURLConnection.html
Also you gonna need to use the keytool command to import the certificate into a keystore.
You don't need to know about the handshake, it is all done for you. Read the JSSE Reference as suggested to see what you +do+ have to worry about.
Regarding TLS/SSL details, for client-certificate authentication, compared with the "normal" hanshake, the server sends an extra CertificateRequest TLS message to the client, which responds with its certificate in a subsequent Certificate TLS message (later on, the client sends a CertificateVerify TLS message where it signs the other messages with its private key, so as to prove to the server that it does indeed have the private key for the public key in the certificate it sent.) Note that, once the handshake has finished, the messages are not encrypted with your private key, but with ephemeral keys shared with the server (agreeing on those keys confidentially is part of the handshake too).
In practice, you need a certificate and its private key, contained in the PKCS#12 file (for example) and to configure the client to send it when connecting to the server (the server will ask for it according to its configuration).
It's easier to assume you'll only need one certificate and won't have to make a choice between a number of certificates, otherwise, you need to set up your own X509TrustManager within the SSLContext.
If all your connections are likely to use this certificate, you may use the default settings, which HttpsURLConnection (and the default SSLSocketFactory) will pick up.
This can be done by:
setting the javax.net.ssl.keyStore, javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType and javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword system properties on the command line with your settings. I would recommend against that because someone else on the machine could potentially see the command line and your settings by listing the processes (depending on the configuration of the machine),
setting those system properties within your application,
initialising an SSLContext and setting it as the default one via SSLContext.setDefault(..) (Java 6).
Note that .p12 (PKCS#12) files are a supported keystore out of the box, so you don't need to do any conversion with keytool, just use PKCS12 as the store type.
If you need these settings or, you may initialise an SSLContext, create an SSLSocketFactory from it and then configure the instance of HttpsURLConnection (if that's what you're using) with setSSLSocketFactory.
(You may be able to use tools like jSSLutils to help build the SSLContext.)
The scenario is around calling an external SSL SOAP web service from within Mirth. The web service is requires an SSL/TLS connection along with a client certificate.
The intention is to use the built-in SOAP Sender Destination to call the remote secure web service, and somehow include that client certificate.
I understand that you first need to install that client certificate into the Java runtime. This may be within the Java runtime's certificate store or the Jetty certstore.
The platform:
Windows 2003 SP2
Mirth 1.8
Java jre1.5.0_09
Question: what configuration steps (Mirth, JRE certificate stores, etc.) would you suggest to successfully have a Mirth SOAP Sender include a client certificate (*.cer) when calling a web service secured by SSL?
The Java runtime, or more specifically, the Sun JSSE provider, will present a client certificate if some system properties are set. You can read details in the JSSE Reference Guide, but the important properties are javax.net.ssl.keyStore and javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword.
There are a few drawbacks to this approach. First, setting the key store password as a system property makes it accessible to any code running in that process—although this can be controlled if a SecurityManager is installed. Second, these settings will be used for any SSL sockets created through the "default" SSLContext. If you need different credentials for different endpoints, you'll need a Mirth-specific solution.
No starting point was specified in the question, but if starting from scratch, the easiest approach is to create a new Java Key Store ("JKS" format) and generate a new key pair and a CSR. After sending the CSR to the CA and getting a certificate back, import it into the same key store. That key store is ready to use.
If a certificate is already available, it is likely to be in a stored with its corresponding private key in PKCS #12 format (.p12 or .pfx file). These can be used directly by a Java application, but the javax.net.ssl.keyStoreType property will need to be set to "PKCS12"
Mirth 1.8 cannot send a client cert when calling a SOAP web service.
I'm late a bit here for this but actually there is a possibility that it could. By sending a few config parameters to the JVM you could get the underlying SOAP engine to switch to HTTPs and provide the proper certificate.
refer to this question for details on which parameters to set for configuring the VM
Java HTTPS client certificate authentication
you will notice there are quite a few things to take care of. Normally HTTPs and client authentication should "just work" once you configured your certificates appropriately. BUT there are some servers out there that are not so friendly to B2B style clients so you have to watch out.
Using JDK 6_21 and a few tweaks with the certificate I was able to get one of them servers to behave but it was long and painful on our side for something that takes about 15 minutes to configure properly on the server.
here is another question that address this very issue (client side authentication towards unfriendly servers).
Client SSL authentication causing 403.7 error from IIS