Which certificate to use to connect to a secured IIS7 website? - wcf

I have binded my IIS7 with a third party 'Server certificate' (Not issued by my server).
I have deployed a secured WCF service on this server with Transport security.
When i try to consume this service, it only accepts those client certificates which are issued by my server (made using makecert). The third party client certificates just don't work here.
To my knowledge it should accept them as they are issued by the same CA!!
Any idea on how to make it work?

Seeing your configuration would help, anyway it seems that the WCF service (not IIS itself) is not configured to use your third party certificate, thus requesting your clients to have a client-side certificate issued by your server.
Take a look at this guide, it helped me a lot when I had to deal with this:
Link

Related

Wcf with ssl and client certificate : request svc succes wcf call returns 403.16

Configuration:
Iis web app with require ssl and accept client certificates.
Web app contains wcf service.
Requesting a page from web app works as wel as requesting the wcf svc
Calling wcf from wcf client give 406.13 with same client certificate send.
Same setup works on development and several other production servers.
Checked cert store trusted root for illegal certificates. ( issued by <> issued to )
Applied reg setting schannel (from MS solutions).
How is this possible that browser requests do not fail but wcf requests do?
Must be something iis or windows related as same code works on other machines.
Any way to get more info why it thinks the client certificate is not trusted.
P.s. the wcf service method is never entered ( as my own tracing shows nothing)
Maybe this SO answer might be of some help. CAPI2 event log is the place where you should find more information why WCF considers the client certificate not trusted. Enable it both on the client side and also on the server side.

Self signed client certificate does not reach server application

I have the following setup:
A self signed certificate for development purposes
An OWIN hosted Web API, deployed on a local Azure Service Fabric Cluster as a ASF service. The Web API uses HTTPS facilitated with the dev certificate in question.
A simple .net client application that calls the Web API. In that application the ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback method is set so it always returns true (since the CA is not trusted)
Both the client application and the Web API are on the same local development machine. The certificate is installed in that same machine on the "machine store"
Now I am able to make calls to the web api using Fiddler by providing the required client certificate. However when I try to do the same via .net code (be it RestSharp or WebRequest) the client certificate is not present in the RequestContext object on the server side. This result in an Unauthorized response. I do not think the problem is with the client code, the certificate is loaded correctly and assigned to the http client or request. Fiddler shows encrypted tunneling to the server. However the client certificate does not seem to be present at the server side.
I am at a complete loss regarding what am I missing that could cause this behavior. Any help will be deeply appreciated.
Install the certificate into the 'Local Machine/Trusted People'.
The server needs to already trust the certificate before it asks. The CertificateRequest message that it sends lists the acceptable CAs that can sign the client certificate. If the client certificate's signer isn't in that message, it can't send it.
How you accomplish that in your environment is left as an exercise for the reader. In general now that SSL certificates are available free there is little reason to indulge in the time costs and administrative inconveniences of self-signed certificates. IMHO there wasn't even if you were paying for a CA signature.
I had a problem when a service called another service over HTTPS and it couldn't setup a secure connection. My problem was that since the service is running as NETWORK SERVICE, it couldn't find the certificate, because it was looking in the localmachine/my certificate store.
When I was running from my web browser it was working fine because then, my browser found the certificate in the currectuser/my certificate store.
Add the certificate to the machine/my store and see if it helps.

When we create SSL enabled Service, do we have to hand out certificates to each client?

One of my teammate just enabled SSL on one of the service that we are using and I had to install a Certificate that he gave me to each of the client machines who intend to consume that service. Now, I am not very well-versed when it comes to SSL security and that raised a question in my mind that
WHENEVER we create a SSl enabled service, do we have to hand out certificate to all the clients
Is there any kind of configuration using which we create an SSL enabled service without having to hand out certificate to all the clients?
IF it is possible then how secured that service be than the service which requires each client to install certificate on the machine?
Also, is there any easy to understand article on WCF SSL security?
Que : WHENEVER we create a SSl enabled service, do we have to hand out certificate to all the clients
Ans : No. For SSL enabled service one do not need to handout certificates to clients.
SSL certificate on server (in this case service) side gives confidence to clients that they are talking to legitimate server.
Clients needs certificates only in case of when service needs its clients to prove their identity using client certificate. With client certificate server (service) gets confidence that its sending data to legitimate clients.
Que : Is there any kind of configuration using which we create an SSL enabled service without having to hand out certificate to all the clients?
Ans : Certainly there is way with which you can make service enabled without requiring client certificate. Check SSL Settings option for website where service is hosted.
Que: IF it is possible then how secured that service be than the service which requires each client to install certificate on the machine?
Ans : Obliviously using SSL certificate doesn't stop any clients from consuming it. Any client who knows service endpoint can consume it. Client certificate is one way to authenticate clients. Only those clients who has valid client certificate will be able to consume service.
Que: Also, is there any easy to understand article on WCF SSL security?
Ans : Check out this link : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff650862.aspx Its WCF regarding security as whole and not just SSL security.

WCF Trasnport security with certificate client credentials using NetTcpBinding throws error on distributed system

I want to enable transport security for my Self-Hosted WCF service that uses NetTcpBinding with Certificate as client credential type. The client for this service is a WebAPI. I created certificates using makecert and everything works fine in a single PC. But when I distribute the API and the service to different PCs, I get Certificate errors like "Cannot find Server certificate in Trusted People Store" on the client side even though the certificate is present in the store.
Can someone help me where I have gone wrong?
Store your own certificate in a resources file and read that in , then set the client credential to the certificate you just read.

WCF - Is a service certificate needed to authenticate clients?

I think there's a gap in my mental model of WCF authentication, hoping someone can help me fill it in.
So, I'm creating a WCF service and would like to have clients authenticate using certificates, and message-level security. I'd like the service to validate these using chain trust so that I don't need each client cert installed on the service. For now, I'm not interested in having the service authenticate to the client.
Here's my understanding of what's needed to do this:
The client needs a certificate signed by a CA that's trusted on the service side.
The service needs a CRL installed for that CA.
The service config should have message security turned on, specify clientCredentialType="Certificate", and chain trust for client certificate validation.
The client config should have message security turned on, specify clientCredentialType="Certificate", and an endpoint behavior that tells how to find the client certificate in the store.
The client makes a request to the service, sending its certificate. The service sees that the client's cert is signed by its trusted CA and lets the request through.
Now, all of the walkthroughs of this process I've found also include a step of creating a certificate for the service. None of them explain what this is for, which is throwing me. Why is a service certificate needed if I just want to authenticate the clients?
You are right. In theory no server certificate is required, in practice wcf enforce you to use one. The good news is that you should use a dummy certificate for the server and also set ProtectionLevel to SignOnly. I suggest to read this article which talks on a similar scenario and mostly relevant.