I was working on a sample TLS client/server program to perform certificate validation.
For a self signed certificate validation, these are the steps i followed.
#server side:
Generated a server key file serverkey.key
Generated a CSR certificate servercert.csr from the key file.
Digitally signed(using openssl x509 utility) the servercert.csr using a
generated rootCA.key and rootCA.cert. server certificate file servercert.cert
is generated.
Loaded the certificate file(servercert.cert) and key file(serverkey.key) using
SSL_CTX_use_certificate_file and SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey openssl apis.
#client side:
Loaded the server ca-file --> rootCA.cert (which was manually copied to the
client) using the SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations api.
Using the SSL_get_verify_result() api validated the certificate that server
sends in the Certificate message.
The question that i have is that if i use a trusted CA(like godaddy) to sign a server CSR certificate, will the CA be providing its public key file (something similar to rootCA.cert) as well which was used for signing ?
By which i can load the same to the trusted list at client side using SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations api.
My intention is to keep the code unchanged regardless of being a self signed certificate or a valid CA provided certificate.
When (any) x509 certificate is generated, these things happen:
Private key is generated
Public key (associated with the private key mentioned above) is embedded in the new certificate (becomes an integral part of it)
The new certificate is signed using private key of the issuer (read: CA)
In order to verify the certificate integrity (to check if nobody tampered with it) - you need to verify the signature (created using issuer's private key - see 3)). To be able to do it you need to obtain (somehow) the issuer's public key. This key is embedded in the issuer's certificate (see 2)). Usually the trusted CAs' certificates are stored in so called trusted certificate store. In case of OpenSSL you specify this "store" by using SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations function (and a few other simmilar functions - consult OpenSSL documentation).
To summarize:
In your case the location pointed by SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations should contain your CA's certificate(s) - all of them - the whole certificate chain up to the self-signed root certificate. You can obtain all of the certificates in the chain from your CA (in your case GoDaddy).
I hope that helps.
If I can clarify anything more please ask.
Related
I want to generate a digital certificate for signature and authentication to sign a document, but I couldn't find any validated authority in my country that delivers digital certificates. In such a case, is there any way (website) to generate this type of certificates?
Thanks
You can create self signed certificate as described for example here How to generate a self-signed SSL certificate using OpenSSL?. Downside is that the Adobe Reader shows the signature invalid as by default it is not trusted.
You can also buy the "Document Signing Certificate" from any trust service provider. You will get USB crypto token with that. In this case Adobe Reader will show the signature valid.
I am trying to make REST calls to server from a client.
Server Side
I am using Flask as web server. I have generated the certificate(cert.pem) and public key(key.pem) using the following command.
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -out cert.pem -keyout key.pem -days 365
Following is the server side code.
from flask import Flask
from flask_restful import Resource, Api
app = Flask(__name__)
api = Api(app)
class HelloWorld(Resource):
def get(self):
return {'hello': 'world'}
#app.route('/someroute/<arg1>,<arg2>', methods=['GET'])
def fn1(arg1,arg2):
res = fn2(arg1, arg2)
return str(res)
def fn2(un,pwd):
#Do something and return a number
return num
if __name__ == '__main__':
context = ('cert.pem', 'key.pem')
app.run(host="ip", port=port1, debug=True, ssl_context=context)
Client Side
I have a flask application from which I need to make REST calls to the above server. Following is the code I am using to do so.
import requests
# Below is the part of a function which gets called upon hitting a route in Flask.
ret = requests.get("https://<ip>:<port1>/<someroute>/arg1,arg2", verify=True)
print ret.text
This is throwing the following error.
requests.exceptions.SSLError: [Errno 1] _ssl.c:510: error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
This error is expected as the certificate is not known to the client. Everything is working perfectly fine if I skip the certificate verification (verify=False).
How do I make the client trust this unknown server SSL certificate? I have seen solutions where I need to use Nginx on the client side. Can we not do some changes on flask(client side) itself to make it trust my server? If yes, what is that exact change I should be making in Flask? Also, suggest if urllib is better than requests.
UPDATE 1
I have another query here. From above, I understood that requests.get verifies the certificate every time we make a REST call (Please correct me if I am wrong). But, this looks like an extra load. Can we not have an encrypted connected established in the beginning and exchange the data by encrypting it with a private key? So, how to implement the beginning part - Send private key by encrypting it with the public key to the server and then start exchanging data by encrypting the data with the private key.
OC (original comment):
Server Side
I am using Flask as web server. I have generated the certificate(cert.pem) and public key(key.pem) using the following command.
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -out cert.pem -keyout key.pem -days 36
If you read man req it says,
-out filename
This specifies the output filename to write to or standard output by default.
-keyout filename
This gives the filename to write the newly created private key to. If this option is not specified then the filename present in the configuration file is used.
Here, cert.pem could be referred to as the public certificate and key.pem really is your private key (Keep it safe and well, private). FTFY.
OC (original comment):
This error is expected as the certificate is not known to the client. Everything is working perfectly fine if I skip the certificate verification (verify=False).
How do I make the client trust this unknown server SSL certificate? I have seen solutions where I need to use Nginx on the client side. Can we not do some changes on flask(client side) itself to make it trust my server? If yes, what is that exact change I should be making in Flask? Also, suggest if urllib is better than requests.
I'll answer this backwards, but first a little background. I found these links really useful to understand - on a high level - how the SSL/TLS handshake happens and how authentication is carried out
IBM: An overview of the SSL or TLS handshake
IBM: How SSL and TLS provide authentication
Now, coming back to your question,
requests > urllib (Personal opinion, but requests does have a good support and is mature - not implying that urllib isn't)
It looks like you want to do server authentication only, for that your client needs the server's public certificate. From How SSL and TLS provide authentication:
The certificates required are as follows, where CA X issues the certificate to the SSL or TLS client, and CA Y issues the certificate to the SSL or TLS server:
For server authentication only, the SSL or TLS server needs:
The personal certificate issued to the server by CA Y
The server's private key
and the SSL or TLS client needs:
The CA certificate for CA Y
Use it in requests.get referring this from requests, which says,
You can pass verify the path to a CA_BUNDLE file or directory with certificates of trusted CAs:
requests.get('https://github.com', verify='/path/to/certfile')
Once you do that and have good certificates, it should work.
NOTE: The openssl command in the OC does not show any subject for the key/cert pair, this would still fail cert verification, refer documentation that shows how to generate self-signed certs. There's a requirement to provide SANs (SubjectAltNames) so providing just a CommonName (CN) in the subject won't future proof your process.
EDIT:
The CA talk in the IBM document can be confusing, but since this is a self-signed cert, you don't have to worry about this, just think of it as your Flask server being the SSL/TLS server, and any client of that server can do server verification using server's public key.
OC (original comment):
From above, I understood that requests.get verifies the certificate every time we make a REST call (Please correct me if I am wrong). But, this looks like an extra load.
That's true. It would perform verification each time. To avoid that you can use requests.Session() as mentioned in requests SSL Cert Verification
OC (original comment):
Can we not have an encrypted connected established in the beginning and exchange the data by encrypting it with a private key? So, how to implement the beginning part - Send private key by encrypting it with the public key to the server and then start exchanging data by encrypting the data with the private key.
This is explained really well in the IBM docs listed
I am trying to implement a (simplified) RSA-like verification process in my (Java) application.
The client sends a request (data + private key signature) and the server either rejects his request or processes it - depending on the signature validity.
But I don't understand how the verification server knows which public key to use for signature decryption. Indeed, no public key - nor public key ID - seem to be sent to the verification server.
Does it actually test all authorized public keys ? Or is the public key stored from a previous communication exchange ?
The figure has several errors and some omissions, because it is probably a simplification:
the hash is digitally signed, not encrypted, and the signature is verified, not decrypted. The underlying cryptographic operation is not equivalent.
the signed data should include the certificate and the certification chain
if you use a known format like CMS, pkcs#7 or XMLDsig the hash to sign usually includes also a reference to the signing certificate and content-type to avoid tampering
To validate a signed document you verify the signature using the public key of the attached certificate but it is mandatory to check that the signing certificate is trusted verifying that the certificate itself or the issuing Certification Authority is present in the client's trustore.
The signature includes the certification chain because usually the truststore does not contain the intermediate CAs. The certificates of the truststore are exchanged previously
Additionaly the verification process should check that the certificate is not expired and not revoked
Note that the verification process is the same for all digital certificates in a public key infrastructure, not just RSA
As the figure you attached with the question suggests, the client sends its certificate along with the signature, the certificate contains the public key, the server checks for certificate validity and uses it to check the signature.
I have a CA pairkey and I need to sign a client pairkey for client authentication. I am using keytool for this. Based on this I have created a .p12 pairkey for my client. Then I create a CSR and then I sign it to have a .cer file.
My problem is that I want to "update" the cert in the p12 with this signed certificate. Basically, I need to import the keypair into the Personal Certificates for client authentication, but Windows will accept the p12 (which is not signed) and not the .cer (since it has no private key).
How can I update the p12 with the new signed public cert? Thanks.
NOTE: I prefer not to have any intermediate cert and I don't want to use OpenSSL, I need to use keytool
EDIT - By the way, when I try to import the signed certificate into the .p12 I get a keytool error: java.lang.Exception: Failed to establish chain from reply
EDIT - This link and this link seem to address my problem, but it is using OpenSSL and other tools, not keytool.
From ADFS and ADFS 2.0 perspective is it possible to register Service Provider metadata that is using certificate (public key) that is not issued by signing authority ? I mean on self signing certificate.
Yes - you can use a self-signed certificate for the SP and that certificate is reflected in the SP metadata.
So you can generate it with the Java keytool etc.
Also ensure that you generate the certificate for a reasonable period - at least a year otherwise you will have to co0ntinually update the metadata on the ADFS side.
It should not be as described in following document -
Certificate Requirements for Federation Servers in section Determining your CA strategy
"ADFS does not require that certificates be issued by a CA. However, the SSL certificate (the certificate that is also used by default as the service communications certificate) must be trusted by the ADFS clients. We recommend that you not use self-signed certificates for these certificate types."