We are setting up replication between RavenDB instances running in server mode. The instances are in different availability zones so we need a secure connection between the servers. According this this post SSL is not supported in server mode but
should be easy to add
Is there an extensibility point in the API where SSL support can be plugged in?
The API doesn't have any place for this currently, but I'm sure it would be a welcome contribution if you were so inclined to write this and submit a pull request. The underlying server is just a System.Net.HttpListener, which can be wired for ssl.
Your entry point would be at Raven.Database.Server.HttpServer.StartListening()
You would want the SSL certificate to be as easy to configure as the hostname or port. The cert itself should probably be pulled in from the Windows certificate store.
Related
I've been investigating the possibility of migrating to using Let's Encrypt to maintain the SSL certificates we have in place for the various resources we use for our operations. We have the following resources using SSL certificates:
Main website (www.example.com / example.com) - Hosted and maintained by a 3rd party who also maintains the SSL certificate
Client portal website (client.example.com) - IIS site hosted and maintained by us on a server located in a remote data center
FTP server (ftp.example.com) - WS_FTP Server hosted and maintained by us on a server located in a remote data center
Hardware firewall (firewall.example.com) - Local security appliance for our internal network
Remote Desktop Gateway (rd.example.com) - RDP server hosted and maintained by us on a server located locally
As indicated above, the SSL certificate for the main website (www) is maintained by the 3rd-party host, so I don't generally mess with that one. However, as you can tell, the DNS records for each of these endpoints point to a variety of different IP addresses. This is where my inexperience with the overall process of issuing and deploying SSL certificates has me a bit confused.
First of all, since I don't manage or maintain the main website, I'm currently manually generating the CSR's for each of the endpoints from the server/service that provides the endpoint - one from the IIS server, a different one from the RDP server, another from the WS_FTP server, and one from the hardware firewall. The manual process, while not excessively time-consuming, still requires me to go through several steps with different server systems requiring different processes.
I've considered using one of Let's Encrypt's free wildcard SSL certificates to cover all four of these endpoints (*.example.com), but I don't want to "interfere" with what our main website host is doing on that end. I realize the actual certificate itself is presented by the server to which the client is connecting, so it shouldn't matter (right?), but I'd probably still be more comfortable with individual SSL certificates for each of the subdomain endpoints.
So, I've been working on building an application using the Certes ACME client library in an attempt to automatically handle the entire SSL process from CSR to deployment. However, I've run into a few snags:
The firewall is secured against connections on port 80, so I wouldn't be able to serve up the HTTP-01 validation file for that subdomain (fw.example.com) on the device itself. The same is true for the FTP server's subdomain (ftp.example.com).
My DNS is hosted with a provider that does not currently offer an API (they say they're working on one), so I can't automate the process of the DNS-01 validation by writing the TXT record to the zone file.
I found the TLS-ALPN-01 validation method, but I'm not sure whether or not this is appropriate for the use case I'm trying to implement. According to the description of this method from Let's encrypt (emphasis mine):
This challenge is not suitable for most people. It is best suited to authors of TLS-terminating reverse proxies that want to perform host-based validation like HTTP-01, but want to do it entirely at the TLS layer in order to separate concerns. Right now that mainly means large hosting providers, but mainstream web servers like Apache and Nginx could someday implement this (and Caddy already does).
Pros:
It works if port 80 is unavailable to you.
It can be performed purely at the TLS layer.
Cons:
It’s not supported by Apache, Nginx, or Certbot, and probably won’t be soon.
Like HTTP-01, if you have multiple servers they need to all answer with the same content.
This method cannot be used to validate wildcard domains.
So, based on my research so far and my environment, my three biggest questions are these:
Would the TLS-ALPN-01 validation method be an effective - or even available - option for generating the individual SSL certificates for each subdomain? Since the firewall and FTP server cannot currently serve up the appropriate files on port 80, I don't see any way to use the HTTP-01 validation for these subdomains. Not being able to use an API to automate a DNS-01 validation would make that method generally more trouble than it's worth. While I could probably do the HTTP-01 validation for the client portal - and maybe the RDP server (I haven't gotten that far in my research yet) - I'd still be left with handling the other two subdomains manually.
Would I be better off trying to do a wildcard certificate for the subdomains? Other than "simplifying" the process by reducing the number of SSL certificates that need to be issued, is there any inherent benefit to going this route versus using individual certificates for each subdomain? Since the main site is hosted/managed by a 3rd-party and (again) I can't currently use an API to automate a DNS-01 validation, I suppose I would need to use an HTTP-01 validation. Based on my understanding, that means that I would need to get access/permission to create the response file, along with the appropriate directories on that server.
Just to be certain, is there any chance of causing some sort of "conflict" if I were to generate/deploy a wildcard certificate to the subdomains while the main website still used its own SSL certificate for the www? Again, I wouldn't think that to be the case, but I want to do my best to avoid introducing more complexity and/or problems into the situation.
I've responded to your related question on https://community.certifytheweb.com/t/tls-alpn-01-validation/1444/2 but the answer is to use DNS validation and my suggestion is to use Certify DNS (https://docs.certifytheweb.com/docs/dns/providers/certifydns), which is an alternative managed alternative cloud implementation of acme-dns (CNAME delegation of DNS challenge responses.
Certify DNS is compatible with most existing acme-dns clients so it can be used with acme-dns compatible clients as well as with Certify The Web (https://certifytheweb.com)
In a scenario where there are thousands of webservices are there reasons to use also a signed cert for each microservice or it's just going to add overhead? Services communicate via VPC sitting behind a firewall while Public endpoints are behind a nginx public facing a valid CA cert.
Services are on multiple servers on aws.
From my limited experience, I believe that it is overkill. If an attacker has access to listen in or interact with your internal network then there are most likely other issues which you should be contending with.
This article on auth0.com explains the use of SSL only on connections to the external client. I also share this view and believe implementing SSL at an individual service level would get extremely difficult unless you where running some form of proxy such as HAProxy or Nginx on each individual host which is sub-optimal, especially if you're using a form of managed cluster like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm.
My current thoughts are its fine to run SSL just for your edge services, ensure you lock down your AWS network using something like Scout2 and run unencrypted for inter-service communication on your lan.
unless all intranet in the cloud are fully VLAN-configured and isolated, is it possible for other hosts that you don't own that are on the same LAN to steal your password by running a simple tcpdump? if that's the case, we need ssl or other encryption internally on the cloud too.
Context
I developed an application deployed in a Glassfish 3.1. This application is accessed only by https and sometimes it must connect to third-party webservices located out the customers networks. The customer have other applications inside his network; mine is only a new one "service".
Topology approximation
Big-ip F5 is the ssl end point. The customer have in this device the valid certificate
IIS redirects by domain to the respective service
glassfish is the machine with the application (over, of course, a glassfish 3.1)
How it works
When a user try to connect to _https://somedomain the request arrives to the F5 where the SSL encryption ends; now we have a request to _http://somedomain. In the next step F5 redirects this request to the IIS and this, finally, redirects to glassfish. This petitions are successfully processed.
Points of interest
I've full control over glassfish server and S.O. of the vm where it is located. Not other applications are or will be deployed on this server; it's a dedicated server for the app and some services it needs. The Glassfish runs on a VM with a Debian distribution as S.O. This VM is provided by a VM Server but I don't know the brand, model, etc. The glassfish have the default http listeners configuration.
I don't have any more information about network and other devices and i can't access to
any configuration file of any other device. I can't modify any part of the network for my own but maybe ask, suggest or advice for a change. Network's behavior should not change.
Actually users reach the application without problem.
The used certificate is a simple domain certificate trusted by Verysign
The customer have no idea of how to solve this.
The problem
All the third party WS the application must access have an unique https access and, in some cases, the authentication required is mutual (two-way) and here we find the problem. When the application wants to connect to WS with mutual ssl authentication it sends the glassfish local keystore configuration targeted certificate. Customer wants, if possible, use the same cert for incoming and outcoming secure connections. This cert is in the F5 and i can't add to the glassfish keystore because if I do this I would be breaking Verysign contract requirements. I've been looking for a solution at google, here(stackoverflow), jita,... but only incoming traffic solutions I've found. I understand that maybe a SSL proxy is required but I haven't found any example or alternative solution for the outcoming ssl connections.
What I'm asking for
I'm not english speaker (isn't obvious?) and maybe i doesn't use the correct terms in my search terms. I can understand that this context can be a nightmare and hard to solve but I will stand... The first think I need is to know if exists a solution (or solutions) for this problem and if it (or they!) exist where or how can I find it/them. I've prepared different alternatives to negotiate with the customer but I need to known the true. I've spent tones of hours on this.
There are a couple of solutions.
1)pay verisign more money for a second "license/cert". They will be happy to take your money for the "privilege". :)
2)Create a different virtual server listening on 443 which points to a pool that has your client's server address as the pool member. Then on the virtual server, attach a serverssl profile that is configured to use the same cert you are using for the incoming connections. Then the F5 would authenticate with the same cert along with your app server would not need a client cert installed. Also, if they need to initiate a session to you, you would have to setup a virtual server with a clientssl profile that uses the same cert and requires a client cert to connect.
If your destinations may not be static addresses, then an irule(s) would have to be created to deal with that. Can be handled in 10 or later code with a DNS call in the irule and setting a node for the session to go.
I'm running a Rails app on Heroku's Cedar stack.
I need to access a remote Windows Server (over the internet, not in a LAN) to query a SQL Server database.
First, I used TinyTDS to access the DB but configuring it on Heroku is really painful.
Secondly, I had made a dynamic web page on the IIS remote server and I was making http get requests to retrieve data. But it's not secure.
I need a good and secure solution (ssh tunnel?).
Any help appreciated.
There's nothing wrong with using HTTP requests to interface between the two. If you want encryption, just use HTTPS. If it's just for internal use then you don't need to buy an SSL certificate, you can generate one yourself.
I've got a local application (which I didn't write, and can't change) that talks to a remote web service. It uses HTTPS, and I'd like to see what's in the traffic.
Is there any way I can do this? I'd prefer a Windows system, but I'm happy to set up a proxy on Linux if this makes things easier.
What I'm considering:
Redirecting the web site by hacking my hosts file (or setting up alternate DNS).
Installing an HTTPS server on that site, with a self-signed (but trusted) certificate.
Apparently, WireShark can see what's in HTTPS if you feed it the private key. I've never tried this.
Somehow, proxy this traffic to the real server (i.e. it's a full-blown man-in-the-middle "attack").
Does this sound sensible? Can WireShark really see what's in HTTPS traffic? Can anyone point me at a suitable proxy (and configuration for same)?
Does Fiddler do what you want?
What is Fiddler?
Fiddler is a Web Debugging Proxy which
logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your
computer and the Internet. Fiddler
allows you to inspect all HTTP(S)
traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle"
with incoming or outgoing data.
Fiddler includes a powerful
event-based scripting subsystem, and
can be extended using any .NET
language.
Fiddler is freeware and can debug
traffic from virtually any
application, including Internet
Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and
thousands more.
Wireshark can definitely display TLS/SSL encrypted streams as plaintext. However, you will definitely need the private key of the server to do so. The private key must be added to Wireshark as an SSL option under preferences. Note that this only works if you can follow the SSL stream from the start. It will not work if an SSL connection is reused.
For Internet Explorer this (SSL session reuse) can be avoided by clearing the SSL state using the Internet Options dialog. Other environments may require restarting a browser or even rebooting a system (to avoid SSL session reuse).
The other key constraint is that an RSA cipher must be used. Wireshark can not decode TLS/SSL stream that use DFH (Diffie-Hellman).
Assuming you can satisfy the constraints above, the "Follow SSL Stream" right-click command works rather well.
You need to setup a proxy for your local application and if it doesnt honour proxy settings, put a transparent proxy and route all https traffic into it before going outside. Something like this can be the "man" in the middle: http://crypto.stanford.edu/ssl-mitm
Also, here's brief instructions on how to archive this with wireshark: http://predev.wikidot.com/decrypt-ssl-traffic
You should also consider Charles. From the product description at the time of this answer:
Charles is an HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP and SSL / HTTPS traffic between their machine and the Internet. This includes requests, responses and the HTTP headers (which contain the cookies and caching information).
For using https proxy to monitor, it depends on the type of handshake. If you local application does not check the server's certificate by CA's signature which you can not fake, and the server does not check your local application's certificate ( or if you have one to setup on https proxy) then you can set up a https proxy to monitor the https traffic. Otherwise, I think it is impossible to monitor traffic with https proxy.
Another way you can try is to add instrumentation probe at the routines of your client program where it send and receive messages from its https library. It needs some reverse engineering work, but should work for you for all situations.
I would recommend WireShark, it is the best tool to follow on different pieces of traffic. Although, I am not sure what can you see with SSL turned on. Maybe, if you supply it with a certificate?