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154 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
154 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
SSL Certificate Verification
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============================
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SSL is TLS
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----------
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SSL is the old name. It is called TLS these days.
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Native SSL
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----------
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If libcurl was built with Schannel or Secure Transport support (the native SSL
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libraries included in Windows and Mac OS X), then this does not apply to
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you. Scroll down for details on how the OS-native engines handle SSL
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certificates. If you're not sure, then run "curl -V" and read the results. If
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the version string says "WinSSL" in it, then it was built with Schannel
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support.
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It is about trust
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-----------------
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This system is about trust. In your local CA cert bundle you have certs from
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*trusted* Certificate Authorities that you then can use to verify that the
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server certificates you see are valid. They're signed by one of the CAs you
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trust.
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Which CAs do you trust? You can decide to trust the same set of companies your
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operating system trusts, or the set one of the known browsers trust. That's
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basically trust via someone else you trust. You should just be aware that
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modern operating systems and browsers are setup to trust *hundreds* of
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companies and recent years several such CAs have been found untrustworthy.
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Certificate Verification
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------------------------
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libcurl performs peer SSL certificate verification by default. This is done
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by using CA cert bundle that the SSL library can use to make sure the peer's
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server certificate is valid.
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If you communicate with HTTPS, FTPS or other TLS-using servers using
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certificates that are signed by CAs present in the bundle, you can be sure
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that the remote server really is the one it claims to be.
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If the remote server uses a self-signed certificate, if you don't install a CA
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cert bundle, if the server uses a certificate signed by a CA that isn't
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included in the bundle you use or if the remote host is an impostor
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impersonating your favorite site, and you want to transfer files from this
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server, do one of the following:
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1. Tell libcurl to *not* verify the peer. With libcurl you disable this with
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`curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, FALSE);`
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With the curl command line tool, you disable this with -k/--insecure.
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2. Get a CA certificate that can verify the remote server and use the proper
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option to point out this CA cert for verification when connecting. For
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libcurl hackers: `curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_CAPATH, capath);`
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With the curl command line tool: --cacert [file]
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3. Add the CA cert for your server to the existing default CA cert bundle.
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The default path of the CA bundle used can be changed by running configure
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with the --with-ca-bundle option pointing out the path of your choice.
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To do this, you need to get the CA cert for your server in PEM format and
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then append that to your CA cert bundle.
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If you use Internet Explorer, this is one way to get extract the CA cert
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for a particular server:
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- View the certificate by double-clicking the padlock
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- Find out where the CA certificate is kept (Certificate>
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Authority Information Access>URL)
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- Get a copy of the crt file using curl
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- Convert it from crt to PEM using the openssl tool:
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openssl x509 -inform DES -in yourdownloaded.crt \
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-out outcert.pem -text
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- Append the 'outcert.pem' to the CA cert bundle or use it stand-alone
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as described below.
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If you use the 'openssl' tool, this is one way to get extract the CA cert
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for a particular server:
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- `openssl s_client -connect xxxxx.com:443 |tee logfile`
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- type "QUIT", followed by the "ENTER" key
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- The certificate will have "BEGIN CERTIFICATE" and "END CERTIFICATE"
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markers.
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- If you want to see the data in the certificate, you can do: "openssl
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x509 -inform PEM -in certfile -text -out certdata" where certfile is
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the cert you extracted from logfile. Look in certdata.
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- If you want to trust the certificate, you can append it to your
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cert bundle or use it stand-alone as described. Just remember that the
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security is no better than the way you obtained the certificate.
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4. If you're using the curl command line tool, you can specify your own CA
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cert path by setting the environment variable `CURL_CA_BUNDLE` to the path
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of your choice.
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If you're using the curl command line tool on Windows, curl will search
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for a CA cert file named "curl-ca-bundle.crt" in these directories and in
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this order:
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1. application's directory
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2. current working directory
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3. Windows System directory (e.g. C:\windows\system32)
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4. Windows Directory (e.g. C:\windows)
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5. all directories along %PATH%
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5. Get a better/different/newer CA cert bundle! One option is to extract the
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one a recent Firefox browser uses by running 'make ca-bundle' in the curl
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build tree root, or possibly download a version that was generated this
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way for you: [CA Extract](http://curl.haxx.se/docs/caextract.html)
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Neglecting to use one of the above methods when dealing with a server using a
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certificate that isn't signed by one of the certificates in the installed CA
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cert bundle, will cause SSL to report an error ("certificate verify failed")
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during the handshake and SSL will then refuse further communication with that
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server.
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Certificate Verification with NSS
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---------------------------------
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If libcurl was built with NSS support, then depending on the OS distribution,
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it is probably required to take some additional steps to use the system-wide
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CA cert db. RedHat ships with an additional module, libnsspem.so, which
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enables NSS to read the OpenSSL PEM CA bundle. This library is missing in
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OpenSuSE, and without it, NSS can only work with its own internal formats. NSS
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also has a new [database format](https://wiki.mozilla.org/NSS_Shared_DB).
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Starting with version 7.19.7, libcurl automatically adds the 'sql:' prefix to
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the certdb directory (either the hardcoded default /etc/pki/nssdb or the
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directory configured with SSL_DIR environment variable). To check which certdb
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format your distribution provides, examine the default certdb location:
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/etc/pki/nssdb; the new certdb format can be identified by the filenames
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cert9.db, key4.db, pkcs11.txt; filenames of older versions are cert8.db,
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key3.db, secmod.db.
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Certificate Verification with Schannel and Secure Transport
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-----------------------------------------------------------
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If libcurl was built with Schannel (Microsoft's native TLS engine) or Secure
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Transport (Apple's native TLS engine) support, then libcurl will still perform
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peer certificate verification, but instead of using a CA cert bundle, it will
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use the certificates that are built into the OS. These are the same
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certificates that appear in the Internet Options control panel (under Windows)
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or Keychain Access application (under OS X). Any custom security rules for
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certificates will be honored.
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Schannel will run CRL checks on certificates unless peer verification is
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disabled. Secure Transport on iOS will run OCSP checks on certificates unless
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peer verification is disabled. Secure Transport on OS X will run either OCSP
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or CRL checks on certificates if those features are enabled, and this behavior
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can be adjusted in the preferences of Keychain Access.
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