Configure Transport Level Security¶

Given below are the various transport-level security configurations that are required for WSO2 Identity Server See the following topics for instructions.

Enabling SSL protocols in the WSO2 IS¶

Follow the instructions given below to enable SSL protocols in the WSO2 Identity Server.

1. Add the following configurations in the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/deployment.toml file.

   [transport.https.sslHostConfig.properties]
   protocols="TLSv1, TLSv1.1, TLSv1.2"

   If you wish to remove TLSv1 or TLSv1.1, you can do so by removing them as values from the protocols property.

2. Restart the server.

Disabling weak ciphers¶

A cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption. When the sslprotocol is set to TLS, only the TLS and default ciphers are enabled by default. However, note that the strength of the ciphers will not be considered when they are enabled.

This is a security risk as weak ciphers, also known as EXPORT ciphers, can make your system vulnerable to attacks such as the Logjam attack on Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

Therefore, to disable the weak ciphers, you must ensure that only the ciphers you want your server to support are entered as the ciphers attribute in the comma-separated list. Also, if you do not add this cipher attribute or keep it blank, all SSL ciphers by JSSE will be supported by your server, thereby enabling the weak ciphers.

1. Navigate to the deployment.toml file in the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf directory.

2. Take a backup of the deployment.toml file and stop the WSO2 IS server.

3. Add the following configuration to the deployment.toml file by adding the list of ciphers that you want your server to support as follows:

   Note

   For a list of cipher suites that are secure and functional in Tomcat for the TLSv1.2 protocols, see the list of ciphers provided in the secure configuration generator, which the Mozilla Foundation provides.

   [transport.https.sslHostConfig.properties]
   ciphers="<cipher-name>,<cipher-name>"

4. Start the server.

5. To verify that the configurations are all set correctly, download and run the TestSSLServer.jar.

       $ java -jar TestSSLServer.jar localhost 9443

   Note

   Note the following when you run TestSSLServer.jar :

   • The "Supported cipher suites" section in the output does not contain any EXPORT ciphers.

   • When you use the supported cipher suites, the BEAST attack status will be shown as vulnerable. This is a client-side vulnerability caused by the TLSv1 protocol. You can protect the BEAST status by removing TLSv1, which will make clients with TLSv1 unusable. Therefore, it is recommended to resolve this on the client side.

From Firefox 39.0 onwards, the browser does not allow access to websites that support DHE with keys less than 1023 bits (not just DHE\_EXPORT). 768/1024 bits are considered too small and vulnerable to attacks if the hacker has enough computing resources.

Enabling SSL protocols and ciphers in ThriftAuthenticationService¶

Follow the instructions given below to enable SSL protocols and ciphers in ThriftAuthenticationService

1. Add the following configurations by adding the supported cipher suites as a comma-separated list in the <CARBON_SERVER>/repository/conf/identity/thrift-authentication.xml file as sub-elements of the root <Server> element.

   Note

   For a list of cipher suites that are secure and functional in Tomcat for the TLSv1.2 protocols, see the list of ciphers provided in the secure configuration generator, which the Mozilla Foundation provides.

   <SSLEnabledProtocols>TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2</SSLEnabledProtocols>
   <Ciphers>Ciphername1, Ciphername2</Ciphers>

   Tip

   You can add the following cipher suites to the <Ciphers> property if JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy is enabled in Java.

   TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384,TLS_DHE_RSA_WIT

   If you wish to remove TLSv1 or TLSv1.1, you can do so by removing them as values from the <SSLEnabledProtocols> property.

2. Restart the server.

Changing the server name in HTTP response headers¶

By default, WSO2 Identity Server pass WSO2 WSO2 IS server as the server value in HTTP headers when sending HTTP responses. This means that information about the WSO2 Identity Server stack will be exposed through HTTP responses. It is recommended to change this by configuring the server name in the deployment.toml file.

1. Open the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/deployment.toml file.

2. Add a new server name by adding the following property under the relevant Tomcat connector configuration.

   [transport.https.properties]
   server="WSO2 WSO2 IS server"
   [transport.http.properties]
   server="WSO2 WSO2 IS server"

See the Security Guidelines for Production Deployment for the full list of security-related recommendations for WSO2 Identity Server