i want to encrypt messages in a WCF scenario where the binding is tcp.NetBinding and the security is bound on transport.
I found out, that if i dont encrypt the messages, i dont have to make client credentialhandling between client and server.
But if i want to encryt, it seems that there has to be some kind of
client-authentication (Windows credentials, Certificate ...).
The WCF server wont start with credentials are set to Null and encryption is on.
Is it possible to encrypt messages between the client and the server without authenticating the client?
Thanks a lot
Yes, the scenario is called Transport Security with an Anonymous Client:
This Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) scenario uses transport
security (HTTPS) to ensure confidentiality and integrity. The server
must be authenticated with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate,
and the clients must trust the server's certificate. The client is not
authenticated by any mechanism and is, therefore, anonymous.
The bare bones binding is setup as follows:
var binding = new NetTcpBinding();
binding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.Transport;
binding.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = TcpClientCredentialType.None;
Also in this particular scenario, the security is provided by TLS over TCP to ensure confidentiality and integrity. Again all that is required is to have the client trust the certificate provided by the server. The client is not authenticated by the server and is therefore known as an anonymous client.
Related
I'm configuring a WCF service in the intranet between a client and a server.
I've set it up for wsHttpBinding with TransportWithMessageCredentia without certificate authentication.
Am I correct that service now use ssl/tls and encrypts the messages?
Is this secure or do I need to use certificates too?
Yes, we should bind a certificate to the particular port, so as to secure the communication.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/http/add-sslcert
If hosting the service in IIS, we are supposed to add an https binding to the site binding module.
The certificate is used to provide integrity, confidentially, and authentication while SOAP message security provides client authentication.
Therefore, please consider the below configuration.
WSHttpBinding binding = new WSHttpBinding();
binding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.TransportWithMessageCredential;
binding.Security.Message.ClientCredentialType = MessageCredentialType.UserName;
the service base address is https style and authenticates the client with a pair of username/password.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.servicemodel.securitymode?view=netframework-4.8#System_ServiceModel_SecurityMode_TransportWithMessageCredential
Feel free to let me know if there is anything I can help with.
What is the difference between Client Cert and Service Cert props in the security tab of WCF-BasicHttp, WCF-WebHttp adatpers based recv and send ports and how they are used by BizTalk for SSL authentication?
The documentations are not that specific.
How to Configure a WCF-WSHttp Send Port
Seems reasonably clear in that article to me
The Client Certificate is the one you hold the private key for and is used for signing your messages so the recipient can verify who you are.
certificate for authenticating this send port to services
The Service Certificate is the public key of the service you are connecting too. This way it can verify that you are connecting to who you think you are connecting too.
certificate for authenticating the service to which this send port sends messages
This is not required "The default is an empty string." however it is a security feature that prevents someone successfully being able to spoof the web service and intercepting your payload if they manage to poison the DNS entry.
I would like to know the difference between TransportWithMessageCredential Vs Message in terms of WCF security.
What I know is:
Transport security: Is used to provide point-to-point security between the two endpoints.
Message security: It provides end-to-end security. Because message security directly encrypts and signs the message, having intermediaries does not break the security.
If we use TransportWithMessageCredential mode, is the SOAP message (Header and Body) encrypted?
My concern is that I want to have the application data to be encrypted between WCF server and my WinForms client.
If we use TransportWithMessageCredentials mode , Is SOAP message(
Header and Body) encrypted?
Yes, since with TransportWithMessageCredential security mode it is transport security which is providing confidentiality and integrity protection for the messages that are transmitted over the wire. Transport security also provides service authentication in this case. For example, with HTTP, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is used for encrypting and signing the contents of the packets sent over Secure HTTP (HTTPS).
With TransportWithMessageCredential security mode, client authentication is provided by means of SOAP message security where the client credential is put directly in the message.
When the SOAP message leaves the client for the service it is encrypted. However, as with transport security it provides point-to-point (not end-to-end) security between the two endpoints (service and client). So if there are intermediary systems between the client and the service, each intermediate point must forward the message over a new secure connection.
Update Per Comments
you said "When the SOAP message leaves the client for the service it
is encrypted' Then it should be end -end security. why it is only
point -to-point.
Transport security is point-to-point because a message is encrypted when it leaves one endpoint and remains so until it reaches the other endpoint of the secure transport where the message is then decrypted. In deployments where the client and server are talking directly to each other, then this provides encryption the whole way through. However, if your service endpoint is going to forward that message onto the intended recipient, then your message is no longer guaranteed to be encrypted from that point onward.
Message security directly encrypts and signs the message so that only the intended recipient can decrypt and read the actual contents of the message. Therefore security is guaranteed between sender and recipient and not just between endpoints. Therefore, message security provides end-to-end security.
Can i conclude TransportWithMessageCredential provide security point
-to-point and message Level security provide End-to-End Security. then Why WCF security Guide is suggesting to use
TransportWithMessageCredential with UserName When we are using WCF
with Windows form client in internet.
Yes, that is correct. TransportWithMessageCredential security provides point-to-point and Message security provides end-to-end security. The WCF Security Guide is suggesting to set the client credential to UserName because this will be used to authenticate the client. In the UserName case, we have the username and password pair being put directly in the SOAP message. Unless the client provides some sort of credential such as a UserName or Certificate to authenticate themselves to the service you will have an anonymous client. An anonymous client means that anyone can access your service since the client is not being authenticated.
If message body is not encrypted with TransportWithMessageCredential
then why Microsoft says TransportWithMessageCredential is a
combination of both Transport and Message security
As with my original answer: The SOAP messages are encrypted and signed by the transport layer (e.g. HTTPS). TransportWithMessageCredential is a combination of both transport and message security since transport security encrypts and signs the messages as well as authenticates the service to the client and message security is used to authenticate the client to the service.
I have client server application which using WCF service with Transport security mode and NetTCP binding. I heard like Transport security is best for local intranet, not for internet. Now my scenario is I need to access WCF service over internet (from another country), but dont want to use Message security (cause it need to purchase and install certificate on server and each client). I want to use Transport security and also encrypt my data, so no one can hack it from internet.
So please someone guide me how can I encrypt my data with Transport security ?
Thanks
Transport is just SSL, so after the initial setup on the host and client sides, there's really nothing special to it. SSL will encrypt all the bytes starting at byte 0 and only the host that distributed the public key portion of the SSL cert will be able to decrypt the transmission since it and only it should have the private key part of the certificate.
SSL does present some potential problems if you have a load balancer or proxy fronting your service - i.e. if the proxy or LB server didn't begin the SSL transmission, it won't know what to do with the inbound message. But SSL encryption can be offloaded to a LB or proxy, so there are ways around that.
Here's a link to a stackoverflow question about SSL over WCF
Enable SSL for my WCF service
I'm trying to understand more why I shouldn't use WCF transport security over the internet. From the answer here I'm told the chain of hops may not be secure. But isn't transport security just like https (which is widely used on the internet)? Or maybe I should ask, what is the difference between wcf transport and https?
If I need to explain myself clearer, please comment.
Thanks
Transport security is indeed very similar to HTTPS (and identical in many cases). What it provides you is an encrypted tunnel between your client and the server. Providing there's a direct connection from your client to your server, it's perfectly fine (providing that your client verifies that it got the right server certificate). If your client is talking to another intermediate server, on which you rely to pass the message to your server - then that intermediate server would get unencrypted data.
An example :
You have a company that processes payments. Because of some regulations, you need servers in each country, and those in turn pass the requests to your main server in the US.
You want to make sure that even if the local hosting company tries to find out what details are being passed, they can't.
That is what Message Security provides you - you trust only the client and your main servers, so you want only them to be able to encrypt and decrypt.
With Transport Security, there would be two transitions - the client will encrypt, and the intermediate server will decrypt. Then it will encrypt again, and your main servers will decrypt. As you can see, there is an intermediate phase where the data is plain in RAM in the intermediate server.
This MSDN article describes it very well, and where to use each :
MSDN
Look at another answer on the link you gave. It explains that the case where transport security not sufficient is when the client doesn't check server certificate. I quoted the answer below:
Yes it is 100% secure when the clients (which most clients do) validate the server certificate.
The multiple hop scenario mentioned here is complete bogus. This is only true when the same message travels through various applications. Like for example several application brokers. If these brokers do not communicate securely then the message can be read by intermediate network sniffers.
In other words, client/server communication over the internet is 100% secure even when there are a million routers in between but it is only secure when the client validates the server certificate as the client could connect to a man-in-the-middle host that could impersonate the server with a false certificate. If the client does not validate the certificate the message could be compromised.
I'm trying to understand more why I shouldn't use WCF transport security over the internet
You should not because (Quoting from here).
Transport Security
Transport security is used to provide point-to-point security between the two endpoints (service and client). If there are intermediary systems between client and the service, each intermediate point must forward the message over a new SSL connection.
Message Security
When using message security, the user credentials and claims are encapsulated in every message using the WS-Security specification to secure messages. This option gives the most flexibility from an authentication perspective. You can use any type of security credentials you want, largely independent of transport, as long as both the client and service agree.