SSL Socket between .Net and Java with client authentication - c#

I am trying to create an SSL Socket Server/Client between .NET and Java. In this case, my SSL Socket Server will run in .net and the client runs in Java under Linux. My problem is that the connection fails during the handshaking, specifically when the server request a certificate from the client, the client is unable to send something back and the connection fails.
In .net I am using sslStream to establish the connection and on Java I am using the standard SSLSocket. Some code snippets are below, but this is what I have so far:
On the server side (Windows), I have a private certificate in the Personal/Certificates folders under MMC. I have a public certificate from the client in the Trusted People/Certificates. Both certificates were issued by the same CA. The certificate chain for both certificates have multiple levels, but it is the same for both. The root level certificate in the chain is also installed in the trusted Certification Authorities/Certificates folder.
On the client side (Linux), I have a keystore that contains the private certificate that matches the public certificate installed at the server. I have a trust store that contains the public certificate from the server, matching the server's private one.
On the server side (.net) I am using a Socket that does an asynchronous read and then it gets wrapped into an SSLStream, the code snippet is like this:
NetworkStream ns = new NetworkStream(socket, false);
SslStream ssl = new SslStream(ns, true);
ssl.AuthenticateAsServer(serverCertificate, true, SslProtocols.Default, true);
The client code is pretty much standard code:
SSLSocketFactory factory = (SSLSocketFactory) SSLSocketFactory.getDefault();
InetAddress addr = InetAddress.getByName(servername);
SSLSocket socket = (SSLSocket) factory.createSocket(addr,port);
socket.setUseClientMode(true);
socket.setNeedClientAuth(true);
socket.setWantClientAuth(true);
socket.startHandshake();
os = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
is = new DataInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
byte[] outBuf = new byte[50];
os.write("SEND SOMETHING".getBytes("UTF-8"));
is.read(outBuf);
In java I have set the proper varialbes to point to the trust and key store with their password.
Now, following the standard SSL Handshake, this is what happens:
ClientHello
ServerHello
Server sends public certificate
Client matches the public certificate with the one on the trust store
Server sends the Certificate request
With the certificate request the server sends a list of valid CAs, on this list only the my root CA is sent (among a long list of other well known CAs.).
Client certificate is null.
Server receives a null certificate from the client, thus closes the connection.
And that is it, the client won't send a valid certificate back to the server. I have some questions on this:
Has anybody experienced something like this?
Regarding that list of CAs sent by the server (Windows), How does .net determine what to send to the client? Is there a way to modify that list?
Do I need to send the all the authorities in the chain used to sign my certificate in that list of CAs? or is the Root one enough?
Am I missing something on either side of my code?
Any help will be greatly appreciated it.
In

The following two statements are useless on the client side (although they shouldn't hurt):
socket.setNeedClientAuth(true);
socket.setWantClientAuth(true);
The fact that you see the Certificate Request message and the Client Certificate message shows that the server is configured properly.
The most likely cause that comes to mind for the absence of certificate in the client certificate message is that the keystore (on the client side) might not be configured properly. You may be interested in this answer to make sure that your client key store is configured properly. More specifically, you need to make sure that the private key for your client certificate was imported in the same alias as the certificate chain (and that it's the chain going back to a CA advertised in the Certificate Request message).
(Regarding the rest of your question, I'm not sure how to modify the CA list sent by the server when using SslStream in C#. This earlier question would seem to suggest there is no solution, although newer versions of .Net may have addresses the issue since this question was asked. I haven't been able to find anything that would do it by looking at the SslStream API documentation and related classes, but this doesn't mean it doesn't exist.)

Related

Unable to establish https connection with gRPC

I have gRPC client / server code happily working on my local machine with the client using ChannelCredentials.Insecure but need to switch to a secure mode. I dont need any certificate checks just encrypted traffic.
Ive been unable to find any configuration of client server that talks to each other.
Running c# core server (gRPC 2.27.0), & c# .net framework client (gRPC 2.28.1).
The server says it publishing on http & https as below:
[20:12:58 DBG] Using development certificate: CN=localhost (Thumbprint: 3EDA2E5BD559D75C9DCF058E0A6994EED859CD34)
[20:12:58 INF] Now listening on: https://localhost:5001
[20:12:58 INF] Now listening on: http://localhost:5000
and client works with:
ChannelBase channel = new Channel("localhost:5000", ChannelCredentials.Insecure);
var client = new MyApp.MyAppClient(channel);
var response = client.Test(request)
If I switch client to SslCredentials as below
ChannelBase channel = new Channel("localhost:5001", new SslCredentials());
var client = new MyApp.MyAppClient(channel);
var response = client.Test(request)
I get the following errors.
server error
[19:32:53 DBG] Failed to authenticate HTTPS connection.
System.IO.IOException: Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream.
at System.Net.Security.SslStream.StartReadFrame(Byte[] buffer, Int32 readBytes, AsyncProtocolRequest asyncRequest)
at System.Net.Security.SslStream.PartialFrameCallback(AsyncProtocolRequest asyncRequest)
client error
Grpc.Core.RpcException: 'Status(StatusCode=Unavailable, Detail="failed to connect to all addresses")'
I've also tried adding (server) with no change in errors.
services.AddAuthentication(CertificateAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
.AddCertificate(options =>
{
options.RevocationMode = X509RevocationMode.NoCheck;
options.ValidateCertificateUse = false;
options.AllowedCertificateTypes = CertificateTypes.SelfSigned;
});
Any suggestions as to what i need to do to make them talk.
So you need to specify roots.pem that correspond to the dev certificate you're using on your server when creating SslCredentials.
If you use parameterless SslCredentials(), it will use the default trust roots which only work for certificates that have been signed by publicly trusted certificate authorities (e.g. if you're talking "official" servers such as googleapis.com etc, definitely not the case for your development certificates that you are using on your server). So you need to use SslCredentials(yourCustomTrustRootsPem).
Btw, with SSL/TLS, there's no such thing as "no certificate checks". The client will ALWAYS check that it connected to the right server (server's certificate are verifiable by their trust roots) - without that the secure communication would make no sense because it would be too susceptible to man-in-the-middle attack. (the server checking authenticity of client is optional though).
Feel free to refer to https://github.com/jtattermusch/grpc-authentication-kubernetes-examples for extra resources.
I had a similar problem and finally found a solution to establish HTTPs connection between
.NET Framework 4.7.2 client (WPF app) and
ASP .NET Core 3.1 gRPC Server (Console).
Indeed the answer of Jan Tattermusch is correct. You need to supply the server side certificate as PEM to the constructor of SslCredentials and in addition, the certificate has to contain the DNS name or IP of the url you are contacting the server through. In your case, I suggest to manually create a self-signed certificate for each server instead of using the developer certificate. This one can be downloaded by your client and then be passed as SslCredentials. Works like a charm.
See my more details on how to do all the details in my answer to a similar question here:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/63565090/378415
Try to check on which port Grpc Service is running after deployment in any way either windows service or other , then give the same in client to consume the service. Eg: If your service is running on https://localhost:5000 then give the same in client.
It will work for sure.
Mostly you will get the above issue when you make a mistake of mismatching the address of service to client.

RabbitMq Broker not accepting PFX

After having a working solution of RabbitMq over SSL using the certs generated by OpenSSL, I was given a requirement from our client that we cannot use OpenSSL to generate the certs. The server admin went and created the certificate chain via IIS.
We did the following to the certs after creation:
exported the server certs to a PFX and extracted cert.pem and cert.key
exported the client cert to a PFX and extracted cert.pem and cert.key
exported the Root CA to rootca.pem
updated the config file for RabbitMq
To test the connections and certificates were created properly, we went through the Troubleshooting Steps here.
Everything passed fine. We are able to connect using openssl s_client on port 5671 as expected using the client's cert.pem and cert.key generated from client.pfx. We can see the connection made in management console, as well as in the logs, and they communicate back and forth.
Now, using the client.pfx in the .NET client, we are getting an error about the certificate validation:
MassTransit.RabbitMqTransport.RabbitMqConnectionException: Connect failed: admin#mitvs-atm01:5671/ ---> RabbitMQ.Client.Exceptions.BrokerUnreachableException: None of the specified endpoints were reachable ---> System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: The remote certificate is invalid according to the validation procedure.
How can I be getting an error using the client.pfx but not get an error when using the cert.pem and cert.key that I extracted from it?
This error message means that client can't validate server certificate. Your problem is likely to do with rootca.pem not being trusted on your client's machine. Follow the appropriate OS guide to make the root CA certificate trusted.
When testing the connections through OpenSSL using s_client, it performs no or very basic verification and .NET apps can provide a function that applies any logic. The most common verification type is matching certificate's CN against server's hostname but it really can be anything.
So, even on a trusted Root CA, the CN still needs to match the hostname, which isn't picked up using OpenSSL commands.
Regenerating the cert and amending that fixed the problem.
Also, you could effectively add the code below and it will disregard this error:
h.UseSsl(s =>
{
s.ServerName = SslHostName;
s.CertificatePath = SslFileLocation;
s.CertificatePassphrase = SslPassphrase;
// The below allows the Root CA's CN to be different than the others, but adds vulnerability
s.AllowPolicyErrors(System.Net.Security.SslPolicyErrors.RemoteCertificateNameMismatch);
});
Please note - Ignoring errors carries the risk of exposing your system to MITM attacks (unless you implement your own verification logic that's not based on CN/hostname matching, of course).

How to validate server SSL certificate for LDAP+SSL connection

Our application works with Active Directory users and groups. We are using LDAP on port 389 for Active Directory operations. Now, one of our clients want us add an option for using LDAP + SSL for Active Directory communication.
They told us that they have a local CA installed on their domain and using self signed certificate for LDAPS. They also told us that they will provide the certificate, no mutual-trust needed and we should use Windows certificate store.
I have developed a test application for LDAP+SSL operations and saw that server sends its certificate when a client initiates an LDAP+SSL connection. I can establish the connection only by returning true from the server certificate verification method.
The questions are;
- Which certificate (root, the ceritificate used for LDAP+SSL...) should the customer give us?
What should be the format of the certificate for working on .Net environment?
How should I verify the server's certificate when connecting the server?
What they mean by "we should use Windows certificate store"? Do they want us add the server's certificate automatically to trusted certificate store of the local machine?
Sample code I used for LDAP+SSL connection,
LdapConnection _connection = new LdapConnection(new LdapDirectoryIdentifier(m_DomainName, m_PortNo));
_connection.Timeout = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10);
_connection.AuthType = AuthType.Basic;
_connection.Credential = new NetworkCredential(m_UserName, m_Password);
_connection.SessionOptions.ProtocolVersion = 3;
_connection.SessionOptions.SecureSocketLayer = true;
_connection.SessionOptions.VerifyServerCertificate = (ldapCon, serverCertificate) =>
{
//TODO: Verify server certificate
return true;
};
_connection.SessionOptions.QueryClientCertificate = (con, trustedCAs) => null;
_connection.Bind();
Which certificate (root, the ceritificate used for LDAP+SSL...) should the customer give us?
The root certificate that signed the LDAP server cert. They can also give you the whole chain in advance, but that will be sent during TLS handshake anyway. You only need to have the root cert in advance.
What should be the format of the certificate for working on .Net environment?
Anything that you can import into certmgr.msc. Pfx is the usual choice on Windows.
How should I verify the server's certificate when connecting the server?
You should not write validation yourself. Certificate validation is tricky business, and it's already done for you. Use the built-in stuff (also see below).
What they mean by "we should use Windows certificate store"? Do they want us add the server's certificate automatically to trusted certificate store of the local machine?
Yes. They send you the root cert they used for signing the ldap server cert, which you can then import as a trusted root. Once this is done, you don't need to do any manual validation, it will just work™ :) with valid certificates and will not work with invalid ones.
Note that once you add their root cert as trusted, they can forge any server certificate for the client their root is installed on, and anything they sign will be considered valid on that client.
Bonus: adding semi-custom validation and debugging certificate errors
One problem that you may face is that error messages are not very helpful. If the certificate cannot be validated, you will get a very generic error message that has no hint about the actual problem. You may want to hook into the validation process for other reasons too.
For this purpose, you can define your own validation:
private bool VerifyServerCertificate(LdapConnection ldapConnection, X509Certificate certificate)
{
X509Certificate2 certificate2 = new X509Certificate2( certificate );
return certificate2.Verify();
}
And then add it to the ldap connection:
_connection.SessionOptions.VerifyServerCertificate =
new VerifyServerCertificateCallback( VerifyServerCertificate );
This way you can catch exceptions on Verify() etc. But again, if the certificate is valid (can be verified by the client), this is not strictly needed, it's done automatically anyway. You only need this if you want something not implemented, like for example you could just return true in VerifyServerCertificate to accept any cert including the invalid ones (this would be a Bad Idea and makes a secure connection useless, but may be good for debugging, etc).
Another thing you could implement in this method is certificate pinning for additional security, but that's beyond the scope of this answer.
BTW: Since introduction of the StartTLS extended operation for LDAP v3 in May 2000 (RFC 2830) LDAPS (made for LDAP v2) is deprecated.

c# proxy ssl / tls passthrough without certificate

This is the issue.
I have an https request. The request is is being sent as an SSL / TLS request (Not the CONNECT .... that comes from a browser with the proxy setup).
I need to write a proxy in c# that blocks a specific https://foo.com/foo.htm request but lets through https://foo.com/anything_else.htm.
I can do this fine creating a MITM attack with a new certificate etc etc.
But Im now wondering if there is an easy way to do this Im missing without using a MITM attack as I have no need to decrypt the data. I only need to know the URI/file.
I can easily just transfer streams but I want to know if there is a simple way to transfer the streams after I have read the URI and file.
I can write some fancy code to pull apart the tcp request and thats what I may have to do.
Anybody any ideas before I go down this path. Remember there is no CONNECT request. Just direct SSL / TLS.
The main reason for this is it just makes things simpler not creating self signed certificates etc.
Maybe its even possible to use the real certificate somehow from the server end as I dont need to decrypt any of the no header data.
I find the networking side of c# is not very well documented and a little all over the place.
Just for reference i can get the URI from the TcpClient using:
IPEndPoint ipEndPoint = (IPEndPoint)clientTcpClient.Client.RemoteEndPoint;
IPAddress ipAddress = ipEndPoint.Address;
// Get the hostname.
IPHostEntry ipHostEntry = Dns.GetHostEntry(ipAddress);
String hostName = ipHostEntry.HostName;
// Get the port.
Int32 port = ipEndPoint.Port;
But not the requested page.
While the target hostname might be visible in the TLS handshake as SNI extension or by analyzing the certificate returned by the server the path component of the URL is only contained in the HTTP request. Since this HTTP request is only done after TLS handshake and the request is thus already encrypted you cannot get to the full path without decrypting the request. This means that blocking access to a specific path is not possible without SSL man in the middle and thus requires a certificate for the target site owned by the man in the middle and trusted by the client.
Not that this is true for CONNECT requests too since these requests only contain the target hostname but the path component is again only contained in the encrypted HTTP request sent inside the tunnel created by CONNECT.

Using intermediate certificates with SslStream and X509Certificate2 in a server app

I am working on a .Net server application that uses SslStream to provide its SSL sockets. It works with some clients (such as those based on libcurl), but other clients throw errors due to the lack of the intermediate certificate(s). How can I associate the intermediate certificate with the SslStream or X509Certificate2 object to make these clients happy?
Here's the code I'm using now, when accepting the connection:
X509Certificate2 cert = new X509Certificate2("cert.pfx", "");
theSslStream.BeginAuthenticateAsServer(cert, ...);
If I were using OpenSSL I'd do this with SSL_CTX_add_extra_chain_cert(). I've looked at the X509Chain object but don't see how to make it fit in.
Thanks.
Have you tried including the full chain in the pfx you're using (eg, use OpenSSL to plug them all in)? I haven't tried this specifically with SSLStream, but WCF doesn't provide an explicit way to include intermediate certs- it just presents the full chain automatically if the intermediate certs are available in the source .pfx.
Including the Intermediate certificates in the .pfx file is the solution. You can verify that all the correct Intermediate certificates are installed at http://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html

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