TLS/mechanisms

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TLS and its support mechanisms

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a web security policy mechanism. HSTS is realized through HTTP header by which a web server declares that complying user agents (web browsers) should interact with it by using only secure HTTPS connections. [33] HSTS header is bound to a DNS name or domain by which the server was accessed. For example if server serves content for two domains and it is HTTPS enabled only for one domain, the browser won’t enforce HSTS for the latter. HSTS reduces the risk of active man-in-the-middle attacks such as SSL stripping, and impersonation attacks with untrusted certificate. HSTS also helps to avoid unintentional mistakes such as insecure links to a secure web site (missing HTTPS links [34]), and mistyped HTTPS URLs. After the web browser receives a HSTS header in a correctly [35] prepared SSL session it will automatically use secure HTTPS links for accessing the server. This prevents unencrypted HTTP access (SSL striping, mistyped HTTPS URLs, etc.) when the server is accessed later by the client. When a server (that previously emitted a HSTS header) starts using an untrusted certificate, complying user agents must show an error message and block the server connection. Thus impersonation MITM attack with untrusted certificates cannot occur. For the initial setup HSTS header needs a trusted secure connection over HTTPS. This limitation can be addressed by compiling a list of STS enabled sites directly into a browser. [36]

HSTS Header Directives

HSTS header can be parametrized by two directives:* max-age=<number-of-seconds>

  • includeSubdomains

max-age is a required directive. This directive indicates the number of seconds during which the user agent should enforce the HSTS policy (after the reception of the STS header field from a server). includeSubdomains is an optional directive. This directive indicates that the HSTS policy applies to this HSTS host as well as any subdomains of the host’s domain name.

HSTS Client Support

HSTS is supported [37] by these web browsers:* Firefox version >= v4.0

  • Chrome version >= 4.0
  • Android Browser >=4.4
  • Opera version >= 12.0
  • Opera mobile >= 16.0
  • Safari >= 7.0
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer >= 11 (with update provided 09. June 2015)
  • Microsoft Edge >= 12

HSTS Considerations

Before enabling HSTS it is recommended to consider following:* Is it required to serve content or services over HTTP?

  • Enabling includeSubdomains and SSL certificate management.
  • Proper value of max-age.

It is recommended to serve all content using HTTPS, but there are exceptions to this rule as well. Consider running a private PKI [38]. CRLs and OCSP responses are published typically by HTTP protocol. If HSTS is enabled on the site where OCSP and CRLs are published the browser might fail fetching CRL or validating OCSP response. Similar reasoning goes for includeSubdomains. One needs to be sure that HTTPS can be enforced for all subdomains. Moreover the administrators are advised to watch for expiration of the SSL certificate and handle the renewal process with caution. If a SSL certificate is renewed after expiration or misses a (HSTS enabled) domain name, the connection to site will break (without providing override mechanism to the end user). Finally HSTS should be tested with lower max-age values and deployed with higher max-age values.

Testing HSTS

HSTS can be tested either using locally or through the Internet. For local testing it is possible to utilize Chrome Web browser UI by typing chrome://net-internals/#hsts [39] in the address bar. Testing over the Internet can be conducted by Qualys SSL Labs test https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/. Strict Transport Security (HSTS) information is located in the Protocol Details section.

References

HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP)

Much like HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP) is a Trust-On-First-Use (TOFU) mechanism. It protects HTTPS websites from impersonation using certificates issued by compromised certificate authorities. The data for Pinning is supplied by an HTTP-Header sent by the WebServer.

HPKP Header Directives

HPKP provides two different types of headers:* Public-Key-Pins

  • Public-Key-Pins-Report-Only

HPKP header can be parametrized by following directives:* pin-sha256="<YOUR_PUBLICKEY_HASH⇒"

pin-sha256 is a required directive. It can and should be used several (at least two) times for specifying the public keys of your domain-certificates or CA-certificates. Operators can pin any one or more of the public keys in the certificate-chain, and indeed must pin to issuers not in the chain (as, for example, a backup-pin). Pinning to an intermediate issuer, or even to a trust anchor or root, still significantly reduces the number of issuers who can issue end-entity certificates for the Known Pinned Host, while still giving that host flexibility to change keys without a disruption of service. OpenSSL can be used to convert the public-key of an X509-certificate as follows: 

$ openssl x509 -in <certificate.cer> -pubkey -noout |
 openssl rsa -pubin -outform der |
 openssl dgst -sha256 -binary |
 openssl enc -base64
writing RSA key
pG3WsstDsfMkRdF3hBClXRKYxxKUJIOu8DwabG8MFrU=

This piped usage of OpenSSL first gets the Public-Key of <certificate.cer>, converts it do DER (binary) format, calculates an SHA256 Hash and finally encodes it Base64. The output (including the ending Equal-Sign) is exactly whats needed for the pin-sha256="<YOUR_PUBLICKEY_HASH⇒" parameter. To generate the hash for a prepared backup-key just create a certificate-signing-request and replace openssl x509 by openssl req -in <backup-cert.csr> -pubkey -noout as first OpenSSL command. Instead of using OpenSSL even web-services like https://report-uri.io/home/pkp_hash/ can be used to get a suggestion for the possible Public-Key-Hashes for a given website. max-age is a required directive (when using the Public-Key-Pins header). This directive specifies the number of seconds during which the user agent should regard the host (from whom the message was received) as a "Known Pinned Host". includeSubdomains is an optional directive. This directive indicates that the same pinning applies to this host as well as any subdomains of the host’s domain name. Be careful - you need to use a multi-domain/wildcard-certificate or use the same pub/private-keypair in all subdomain-certificates or need to pin to CA-certificates signing all your subdomain-certificates. report-uri is an optional directive. The presence of a report-uri directive indicates to the web-browser that in the event of pin-validation failure, it should post a report to the report-uri (HTTP-Post is done using JSON, Syntax see {RFC-7469 Section 3} [40]). There are WebServices like https://report-uri.io/ out there which can be used to easily collect and visualize these reports.

HPKP Client Support

HPKP is supported [41] by these web browsers:* Firefox version >= 35

  • Chrome version between version 38 and 72
  • Android Browser >= 44
  • Opera version >= 25

Currently (20. Dec 2018) there is no HPKP support in: Apple Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge. HPKP Support has been removed from Google Chrome and Chromium from version 72 onwards.

HPKP Considerations

Before enabling HPKP it is recommended to consider following:* Which Public-Keys to use for Pinning (Certificate + Backup-Certificate, CAs, Intermediate-CAs)

  • Proper value of max-age. Start testing with a short Period, increase Period after deployment.
  • Be careful when using includeSubdomains, are all your subdomains covered by the defined Public-Key-Hashes?

The administrators are advised to watch for expiration of the SSL certificate and handle the renewal process with caution. If a SSL certificate is renewed without keeping the public-key (reusing the CSR) for an HPKP enabled domain name, the connection to site will break (without providing override mechanism to the end user).

Testing HPKP

HPKP can be tested either using locally or through the Internet. There is a handy bash-script which uses OpenSSL for doing several SSL/TLS-Tests available at https://testssl.sh/ 

$ wget -q https://testssl.sh/testssl.sh
$ wget -q https://testssl.sh/mapping-rfc.txt
$ chmod 755 ./testssl.sh
$ ./testssl.sh https://example.com
# Sample Output, just HSTS and HPKP Section (Full report is quite long!):
Strict Transport Security    182 days=15724800 s, includeSubDomains
Public Key Pinning # of keys: 2, 90 days=7776000 s, just this domain
           matching host key: pG3WsstDsfMkRdF3hBClXRKYxxKUJIOu8DwabG8MFrU

For local testing it is possible to utilize Google Chrome web-browser, just open the Chrome net-internals-URL: chrome://net-internals/#hsts. For Mozilla Firefox there is an plug-in provided by the "Secure Information Technology Center Austria" available: https://demo.a-sit.at/firefox-plugin-highlighting-safety-information/ Testing over the Internet can be conducted by Qualys SSL Labs test https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/. Public Key Pinning (HPKP) information is located in the Protocol Details section. There is also a fast online HPKP-only check at https://report-uri.io/home/pkp_analyse.

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