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Configuring 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 and ciphers in ThriftAuthenticationService

Do the following to enable SSL protocols and ciphers in the ThriftAuthenticationService.

  1. Add the following configurations in the <CARBON_SERVER>/repository/conf/identity/thrift-authentication.xml file as sub-elements of the root <Server> element.

        <SSLEnabledProtocols>TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2</SSLEnabledProtocols>
    <Ciphers>TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSVF</Ciphers>

    Tip

    Tip: You can also add the following additional 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.

Disabling weak ciphers

A cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption. When you set the sslprotocol of your server to TLS, the TLS and the default ciphers get enabled without considering the strength of the ciphers. 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. The Logjam attack is also called the Man-in-the-Middle attack. It downgrades your connection's encryption to a less-secured level (e.g., 512 bit) that can be decrypted with sufficient processing power.

To prevent these types of security attacks, it is encouraged to disable the weak ciphers. You can enable only the ciphers that you want the server to support in a comma-separated list in the ciphers attribute. Also, if you do not add this cipher attribute or keep it blank, the browser will support all the SSL ciphers by JSSE. This will enable the weak ciphers.

Disable weak ciphers in Carbon server

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. Therefore, to disable the weak ciphers, you must ensure that only the ciphers you want your server to support are entered for the ciphers attribute in a 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. Go to the deployment.toml file in the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf directory.

  2. Take a backup of the deployment.toml file and stop the Carbon 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: ciphers=",".

[transport.https.sslHostConfig.properties]
ciphers="TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSVF"
See the list of supported cipher suites.

  1. Start the server.

  2. 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 listed here, the BEAST attack status will be shown as vulnerable. Note that this is a client-side vulnerability caused by the TLSv1 protocol. You can make the BEAST status protected by removing TLSv1, which will make clients with TLSv1 unusable. Therefore, it is recommended tofixed this from the client side.

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

Tip

To use AES-256, the Java JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy files need to be installed. Download them from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html .

From Java 7, you must set the jdk.certpath.disabledAlgorithms property in the <JAVA_HOME>/jre/lib/security/java.security file to jdk.certpath.disabledAlgorithms=MD2, DSA, RSA keySize < 2048 . It rejects all algorithms that have key sizes less than 2048 for MD2, DSA and RSA.

Note : This tip is not applicable when you are disabling weak ciphers in WSO2 Identity Server

Changing the server name in HTTP response headers

By default, WSO2 Identity Server pass "WSO2 Carbon Server" as the server value in HTTP headers when sending HTTP responses. This means that information about the WSO2 product 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 Carbon Server"

[transport.http.properties]
server="WSO2 Carbon Server"

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

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