revised SSL patches - Mailing list pgsql-patches

From Bear Giles
Subject revised SSL patches
Date
Msg-id 200205200639.AAA11201@eris.coyotesong.com
Whole thread Raw
List pgsql-patches
Attached are a revised set of SSL patches.  Many of these patches
are motivated by security concerns, it's not just bug fixes.  The key
differences (from stock 7.2.1) are:

*) almost all code that directly uses the OpenSSL library is in two
   new files,

     src/interfaces/libpq/fe-ssl.c
     src/backend/postmaster/be-ssl.c

   in the long run, it would be nice to merge these two files.

*) the legacy code to read and write network data have been
   encapsulated into read_SSL() and write_SSL().  These functions
   should probably be renamed - they handle both SSL and non-SSL
   cases.

   the remaining code should eliminate the problems identified
   earlier, albeit not very cleanly.

*) both front- and back-ends will send a SSL shutdown via the
   new close_SSL() function.  This is necessary for sessions to
   work properly.

   (Sessions are not yet fully supported, but by cleanly closing
   the SSL connection instead of just sending a TCP FIN packet
   other SSL tools will be much happier.)

*) The client certificate and key are now expected in a subdirectory
   of the user's home directory.  Specifically,

    - the directory .postgresql must be owned by the user, and
      allow no access by 'group' or 'other.'

    - the file .postgresql/postgresql.crt must be a regular file
      owned by the user.

    - the file .postgresql/postgresql.key must be a regular file
      owned by the user, and allow no access by 'group' or 'other'.

   At the current time encrypted private keys are not supported.
   There should also be a way to support multiple client certs/keys.

*) the front-end performs minimal validation of the back-end cert.
   Self-signed certs are permitted, but the common name *must*
   match the hostname used by the front-end.  (The cert itself
   should always use a fully qualified domain name (FDQN) in its
   common name field.)

   This means that

      psql -h eris db

   will fail, but

      psql -h eris.example.com db

   will succeed.  At the current time this must be an exact match;
   future patches may support any FQDN that resolves to the address
   returned by getpeername(2).

   Another common "problem" is expiring certs.  For now, it may be
   a good idea to use a very-long-lived self-signed cert.

   As a compile-time option, the front-end can specify a file
   containing valid root certificates, but it is not yet required.

*) the back-end performs minimal validation of the client cert.
   It allows self-signed certs.  It checks for expiration.  It
   supports a compile-time option specifying a file containing
   valid root certificates.

*) both front- and back-ends default to TLSv1, not SSLv3/SSLv2.

*) both front- and back-ends support DSA keys.  DSA keys are
   moderately more expensive on startup, but many people consider
   them preferable than RSA keys.  (E.g., SSH2 prefers DSA keys.)

*) if /dev/urandom exists, both client and server will read 16k
   of randomization data from it.

*) the server can read empheral DH parameters from the files

     $DataDir/dh512.pem
     $DataDir/dh1024.pem
     $DataDir/dh2048.pem
     $DataDir/dh4096.pem

   if none are provided, the server will default to hardcoded
   parameter files provided by the OpenSSL project.

Remaining tasks:

*) the select() clauses need to be revisited - the SSL abstraction
   layer may need to absorb more of the current code to avoid rare
   deadlock conditions.  This also touches on a true solution to
   the pg_eof() problem.

*) the SIGPIPE signal handler may need to be revisited.

*) support encrypted private keys.

*) sessions are not yet fully supported.  (SSL sessions can span
   multiple "connections," and allow the client and server to avoid
   costly renegotiations.)

*) makecert - a script that creates back-end certs.

*) pgkeygen - a tool that creates front-end certs.

*) the whole protocol issue, SASL, etc.

Bear

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