[stunnel-users] X509 certificate info extract and use

[Pierre-Yves Bonnetain]

Hello Javier,

On 25/01/13 20:52, Javier wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:16:55 +0100
> "Pierre-Yves Bonnetain" <py.bonnetain at ba-consultants.fr> wrote:
> 
>> My BigDatabase has it's login/password authentication process. Since my
>> customers want to access the database through bad Internet, we set up a
>> SSL/TLS frontend. Each customer has his own X509 certificate, with all
>> proper bells and jingles in it. The frontend checks the certificate (CA
>> sig, validity, revocation, etc.) and then, as it should, passes the
>> unencrypted flow to the application.

[...]
> Let me ask one thing. When you say you pass "the unencrypted flow 
> to the application", do you mean you pass the flow to an unencrypted 
> connection too? If so, it is a big mistake.

That's not what I meant. The 'unencrypted flow' is 'the encrypted flow
that stunnel decrypted'. The application sits behind stunnel, and cannot
be reached otherwise. Otherwise, as you wrote, it would be a hell of a
big mistake.

> - app with database can't accept direct internet connections 
> (important!!!!)
> - stunnel needed in the client/user and in the server.
> - user certificate created with password (so each time the user 
> open stunnel, it is requested by Stunnel to start)
> - stunnel checks certificate against CA
> - stunnel passes the flow to the app and this requests the 
> user/password
> 
> Here you have a double identification check.

No. We do not have a double identification. We have two un-correlated
identifications : outer-level, with stunnel and the cert, and
inner-level, by the application. Of course, they _should_ be related.
But there is currently nothing to enforce this link.

> You have an encrypted connection where is checked that there is a 
> valid certificate and, therefore, a valid user; also you have an 
> application that, after being checked the certificate, it checks for 
> an user and password to be able to use it.
>
> So, why do you need or why are you seeking for a check of a 
> certificate by the application?

To prevent one legitimate user (with his own cert) to impersonate
another user (application-wise).

> Maybe I didn't explain before. The application can't accept a 
> connection if there is not a valid connection with stunnel first, 
> which requires a valid certificate. So, by insist in check the 
> certificate?

I may use a valid certificate (mine) and connect to my neighbour's
account (application-wise). Or try to brute-force the application's
login. Or know that some blurry-eyed admin did not change the app's
default admin password and abuse this.

Another example, more business-oriented way. BigApp is managed by a team
of 5 people. Unfortunately, BigApp has only one admin-level account. So
the password is shared (that's bad, but that's not the question here)
between all 5 people, which connect through stunnel (with their own cert).

One of the team changes jobs in the same company. He keeps his cert, but
his access to the admin-account of BigApp should be revoked. The proper
way would be to change the account password but hey, we know how these
things go. If there exists a check between the cert (outer-level auth)
and the application-user requested (inner-level auth), it would be
enough, all other things being equal, to break this link.

> I had this kind of connection you are telling here with a HTTP 
> server that requested a login too and I had as I explained. You 
> can't login to the HTTP server unless you have a valid certificate 
> for stunnel to check.
> 
> The link between both is obvious, unless your neighbour has stolen 

No, the link is absolutely not obvious. As a matter of fact, there is no
link except indirectly. If you have one connection per 15/30 secs, of
course you can correlate the stunnel and application logs. But if you
have a user base numbering in the tens of thousands, that's another
problem altogether.

> your certificate, the password for your certificate and the password 
> for the database app and he also uses the same client database app. 

Indeed, if Bad Guy as no valid certificate/privkey (either stolen as
said above, or just his own), he cannot get past stunnel. But as soon as
he has a valid cert, we get back to good old application-login stuff.

Sincerely,
-- 
Pierre-Yves Bonnetain-Nesterenko
B&A Consultants - Sécurité informatique - www.ba-consultants.fr
Tel. : +33 (0) 563 277 241 - Fax : +33 (0) 567 737 829