Presentation of cryptographic processes¶
Date |
Jan 10, 2023 |
Written by |
Hubert TOUVET |
Applicable for WAPT |
>= 1.5.0.17 |
Version of the Document |
1.5.0.17-0 |
Cryptographic processes are used in the following activities:
signature and verification of the files contained in a package;
signature and verification of the attributes of a package;
signature and verification of instantaneous actions on the WAPT Clients;
signature of inventories and status of WAPT clients;
authentication of the WAPT client Websocket connections on the server;
HTTPS communication between the WAPT clients and the WAPT Server;
HTTPS communication between the WAPT console and the WAPT Server;
HTTPS communication between the WAPT clients and the WAPT repositories;
Folders and files referenced in this document¶
<WAPT>: WAPT installation folder. By default%Program Files (x86)%WAPT;<WAPT>wapt-get.ini: WAPT client configuration file (wapt-get and waptservice);<WAPT>ssl: default directory for signed actions and trusted certificates;<WAPT>sslserver: default directory for storing HTTPS server certificates (pinning);<WAPT>private: default certificate directory for signing the inventory and the Websocket connections;%LOCALAPPDATA%waptconsolewaptconsole.ini: configuration file for the console and package development actions for the wapt-get tool;%appdata%waptconsolessl: default trusted certificate directory for importing packages from an external repository (i.e. package templates);
Actors¶
Organization
it is the realm of responsibility within which WAPT is used;
Certificate Authority
it is the entity that keeps the keys that have been used to sign certificates for the Package Developers and the HTTPS servers;
Administrators
they have a personal RSA key and a certificate that has been signed by the Certificate Authority of the Organization; they also have a login and a password for accessing the WAPT console;
WAPT clients
realm of Windows PCs that the Organization has allowed the Administrators to manage with WAPT. The Windows clients are joined to the Organization’s Active Directory domain;
Internal WAPT repositories
it is one or several Linux/ Nginx servers that deliver signed WAPT packages to WAPT clients using the HTTPS protocol;
WAPT Server
it is the Linux / Nginx/ PostgreSQL /WAPT server that the Organization uses to keep the inventory of WAPT equipped devices.
By default, the WAPT Server also plays the role of an internal WAPT Repository. The WAPT Server has a machine account in the Organization’s Active Directory.
external WAPT repositories
it is a public WAPT repository that the Package Developers may use to import packages designed by other Organizations, under the condition that they check the adequacy of the WAPT package in regards the internal policies on security and safety;
Active Directory Server
server that manages the Organization’s domain;
Summary of crypto modules present in WAPT¶
On the client side of WAPT (WAPT 1.5.0.12):
Python 2.7.13 standard ssl module linked on OpenSSL 1.0.2j 26 Sep 2016: used for the HTTPS connections between the WAPT clients and the WAPT server;
cryptography==1.9 linked on openssl 1.1.0f: used for all RSA crypto operations such as key generations, X509 certificate generations and signature verifications;
kerberos-sspi==0.2 and requests-kerberos==0.11.0: used for authenticating the WAPT client on its first registering on the WAPT Server;
pyOpenSSL==17.0.0: used to recover the WAPT Server certificate chain;
certifi==2017.4.17: used as base for the Root Authorities certificates;
Openssl 1.0.2l dll: used in waptcommon.pas written with the FPC Indy library and the TIdSSLIOHandlerSocketOpenSSL class;
On the server side of WAPT:
nginx/1.10.2: configured for TLS1.2, cipher ‘EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH’;
python 2.7.5 standard ssl module linked on OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013;
cryptography==1.9 linked on OpenSSL 1.0.1e-fips 11 Feb 2013: used for all RSA crypto operations such as key generations, X509 certificate generations and signature verifications;
Key and certificate management for the Administrator¶
Context¶
Packages and actions done by an Administrator are signed so that only Trusted Administrators are authorized to manage the devices.
The WAPT Administrator holds:
a private 2048 bit RSA key that has been encrypted by the aes-256-cbc algorithm;
a X509 certificate signed by an Certificate Authority trusted by the Organization;
Note
The process for creating the keys and signing, distributing and revocating the certificates are of the responsibility of the Organization using WAPT; that process is beyond the functional perimeter of WAPT.
However, to make the testing of WAPT easy, WAPT offers a function to generate a RSA key and its corresponding X509 certificate:
the generated RSA key is 2048bit long, encrypted with aes-256-cbc, encoded in PEM format and saved with a .pem extension;
the certificate is either self-signed, or signed by a Trusted Authority from whom we have received a key and a PEM formated certificate;
if the certificate is self-signed, then its KeyUsage attribute contains the keyCertSign flag;
if the Administrator is authorized by the Organization to sign packages that contain python code (the presence of a
setup.pyfile is detected in the package), the extendedKeyUsage attribute of the certificate contains the CodeSigning flag;the X509 certificate is encoded and handed over to the Administrator in PEM format with a .crt extension;
Validity of the Administrator’s certificate¶
For WAPT version up to 1.5.0.12, WAPT agent does not verify the revocation state of the Administrator’s certificate during the process of verifying the package, the attributes or the actions of the Administrator.
It only checks the dates of validity (notValidBefore/ notValidAfter attributes). The certificate is valid if (Now >= notValidBefore and Now <= notValidAfter).
Managing the WAPT agent’s key and certificate¶
Context¶
The WAPT client (waptservice) uses RSA keys and X509 certificates to interact with the WAPT Server.
The WAPT client certificate is used in the following situations:
when updating the WAPT client status on the server (update_server_status) signing informations;
when the WAPT agent establishes a Websocket with the server (waptservice) signing the WAPT client UUID;
First emission and later update of the WAPT agent’s certificate¶
on finishing the installation process of the WAPT agent on the device, the WAPT agent automatically registers itself on the WAPT Server by sending a Kerberos authenticated HTTPS request that uses the TGT of the machine account.
The WAPT agent uses Windows kerberos APIs implemented with kerberos-sspi and requests-kerberos python modules.
Note
this process works if and only if the device is joined to the Windows domain for which the WAPT Server is configured.
if the key and the certificates have not yet been generated, or if they do not match the current FQDN of the device, the WAPT agent generates a self-signed RSA key and X509 certificate with the following parameters:
the key is 2048 bit RSA encoded in PEM format and stored in the file
<WAPT>private<device FQDN>.pem;the generated certificate has the following attributes:
Subject.COMMON_NAME = <device FQDN>;
Subject.ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT_NAME = name of the Organization registered in the WAPT client’s Windows registry;
SubjectAlternativeName.DNSName = <device FQDN>;
BasicConstraint.CA = True;
validity = 10 years;
serialnumber = random;
the certificate is saved in the
<WAPT>private<device FQDN>.crt;
Note
Only machine accounts and Local Administrators have access to
the <WAPT>private directory because specific ACLs have been applied
upon first installation of the WAPT agent on the device.
the inventory and the WAPT agent status updates are sent to the WAPT Server over POST HTTPS requests;
the POST HTTPS requests are authenticated by adding two specific headers:
X-Signature:
JSON encoded BLOB of inventory or status informations;
signature of the JSON file with the private key of the WAPT Client: sha256 hashing and PKCS#1 v1.5 padding;
base64 encoding of the signature;
X-Signer: Subject.COMMON_NAME or UUID of the WAPT Client.
after having initially authenticated the WAPT client with Kerberos, the WAPT Server receives the certificate sent by the Client and stores it in the table hosts of its inventory in PEM format (column host_certificate).
Note
If the device is renamed, the key/ certificate pair is regenerated.
When the WAPT agent will update its status with the WAPT Server, the POST request will be refused because the remote device is registered in the database with another certificate.
The device will then retry to register with the WAPT Server using Kerberos; then the new certificate will be saved in the database.
HTTPS communication between the WAPT clients and the WAPT repositories¶
The WAPT client¶
The HTTPS connection is implemented with requests, urllib3 et ssl python modules.
The certificate emitted by the repository HTTPS server is verified with the urllib3.contrib.pysopenssl.PyOpenSSLContext and urllib3.util.ssl_wrap_socket python modules.
Websocket communications between the WAPT clients and the WAPT Server¶
To allow immediate actions on the WAPT clients, the WAPT service deployed on the clients establishes and maintains a permanent Websocket with the WAPT server.
This connection is TLS encrypted and uses on the client side the same bundle of certificates as the HTTPS connexion from the WAPT client to the WAPT Server.
Communications between the WAPT console and the WAPT Server¶
Deploying certificates of Authorities of Certification¶
verify_cert parameter in section [global] in file
%LOCALAPPDATA%waptconsolewaptconsole.ini:
verify_cert = 1
this method will only work well if the HTTPS server is configured to send its certificate and the intermediary certificates upon initialization of the TLS connexion.
verify_cert = <path to .pem>
check the HTTPS certificate using the indicated bundle of certificates. All the certificates of the intermediary Certificate Authorities must be bundled in a .pem formated file;
verify_cert = 0
do not verify the HTTPS certificate of the server;
Conventionally, the approved bundle of certificates from the
Certificate Authority is stored in the <WAPT>sslserver
directory.
The WAPT console includes a function that facilitates the initial recovery
of the server certificate chain and that stores it in .pem format
in the <WAPT>sslserver<server FQDN>.
The Administrator is responsible for insuring that the recovered certificate chain is authentic.
It is also possible to recover the server certificate chain and fill
out the verify_cert parameter with the command line
wapt-get enable-check-certificate.
Process for signing a package¶
The process for signing a package is launched with the following actions:
action
wapt-get.exe build-upload <directory>;action
wapt-get.exe sign-package <path-to-package-file.wapt>;shell command
wapt-signpackage.py <WAPT-package-list>;saving a host package in the WAPT console;
saving a group package in the WAPT console;
importing a package from an external repository;
creating a package with the MSI setup wizard;
Initial parameters¶
ZIP file of the package;
.pem formated RSA private key of the certificate holder (encrypted with OpenSSL’s aes-256-cbc algorithm if the key has been created in the WAPT console);
X509 certificate of the certificate holder matching the private key;
if the package to be signed contains a
setup.pyfile, then the X509 certificate must have the advanced Key Usage extension codeSigning (1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.3);
Signature of the attributes in the control file¶
The control file defines the metadata of a package and in particular
its name, its version, its dependencies and its conflicts. It is
the identity card of the WAPT package.
These metadata are primarily used by the WAPT agent to determine whether a package must be upgraded, and what packages must be first installed or removed.
The package attributes are therefore signed to insure the integrity and the authenticity of the WAPT package.
Process steps:
the attributes signed_attributes, signer, signature_date, signer_fingerprint are added to the structure of the
controlfile:signed_attributes: comma separated list of the names of the attributes;
signer: CommonName of the certificate holder;
signature_date: current date and time (UTC) in ‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S format;
signer_fingerprint: hexadecimal encoded
sha256fingerprint of the fingerprint obtained with the fingerprint function included in the cryptography.x509.Certificate class;
the attributes of the control structure are JSON encoded;
the resulting JSON BLOB is signed with sha256 hashing and PKCS#1 v1.5 padding;
the signature is base64 encoded and stored as a signature attribute in the
controlfile;
Signing the files of the package¶
the
controlfile attributes are signed and serialized in JSON format. The result is stored in the<WAPT>controlfile of the WAPT package;the PEM serialized X509 certificate of the certificate holder is stored in the
<WAPT>certificate.crtfile of the WAPT package;the sha256 fingerprints of the all files contained in the WAPT package are hexadecimal encoded and stored as a JSON list [(filename,hash),] in the
<WAPT>manifest.sha256file in the WAPT package;the content of the file
<WAPT>manifest.sha256is signed with the private key of the Administrator (2048 bit RAS key), sha256 hashed and PKCS#1 v1.5 padded:the signature process relies on the signing function of the cryptography.rsa.RSAPrivateKey.signer class;
cryptography.rsa.RSAPrivateKey.signer relies on the OpenSSL functions of EVP_DigestSignInit;
the signature is base64 serialized and stored in the file
<WAPT>signature.sha256of the WAPT package;
Verifying the signature of a package attributes¶
The verification takes place:
when the index file of available packages on the WAPT client is updated from the
Packagesindex file on the repository;when a package signature is verified (installation, download) when not in development mode, i.e. if the installation takes place from a ZIP file and not from a development directory;
The verification consists of:
reading the control attributes from the WAPT package’s
controlfile;recovering the X509 certificate from the certificate holder from the WAPT package’s
certificate.crtfile;decoding the base64 formated signature attribute;
constructing a JSON structure with the attributes to be signed (such as defined in the PackageEntry class);
verifying if the public key of the holder’s certificate can verify the hash of the JSON structured list of attributes and the signature of the
controlfile, using sha256 hashing and PKCS#1 v1.5 padding;verifying whether the certificate is trusted (either it is present in the list of trusted certificates, or signed by a Trusted Certificate Authority);
In case we must verify the attributes without having the WAPT package on hand,
we recover the list of certificates of potential certificate holders
from the Packages index file on the WAPT repository.
The certificates are named ssl/<hexadecimal formated certificate
fingerprint>.crt.
An attribute in the WAPT package’s control file specifies
the fingerprint of the control file’s certificate holder.
Verifying the signature of a WAPT package¶
The verification takes place:
when installing a package on a WAPT Client;
when editing an existing package;
when importing a package from an external repository (if the checkbox is checked in the WAPT console);
The verification consists of:
recovering the X509 certificate from the certificate holder from the WAPT package’s
certificate.crtfile;verifying that the certificate has been signed by a Trusted Authority whose certificate is present in the file
sslon the WAPT client;verifying the signature of the file
manifest.sha256with the public key;
Signing immediate actions¶
Context¶
From the WAPT console, the Administrators may launch actions directly on the WAPT clients connected with the WAPT Server using Websockets.
The WAPT console signs these actions with the key and certificate of the Administrator before sending them to the WAPT Server using an HTTPS POST request; the request is then forwarded to the targeted WAPT clients.
Possible immediate actions are:
trigger_host_update;
trigger_host_upgrade;
trigger_install_packages;
trigger_remove_packages;
trigger_forget_packages;
trigger_cancel_all_tasks;
trigger_host_register;
Signing process for immediate actions¶
the action is defined by its name and the actions attributes. The attributes are uuid, action, force, notify_server, and packages (for actions implicating a list of packages)
the attributes signed_attributes, signer, signature_date, signer_certificate are added to the structure of the action:
signed_attributes list of the attributes that are signed;
signer Subject.COMMON_NAME of certificate holder;
signature_date: current date and time (UTC) in ‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S’ format;
signer_certificate certificate holder’s base64 encoded X509 certificate;
the structure is JSON encoded;
the signature of the JSON file is calculated from the RSA private key of the signer using a sha256 hash algorithm and a PKCS1 v1.5 padding;
the signature is base64 encoded and stored on the signature attribute inside the JSON file;
Verifying the signature of an immediate action¶
Context¶
From the WAPT console, the Administrators may launch actions directly on the WAPT clients connected with the WAPT Server using Websockets.
The actions are JSON encoded, signed with the key and certificate of the Administrator, and relayed to the targeted WAPT clients by the WAPT Server.
Possible immediate actions are:
trigger_host_update;
trigger_host_upgrade;
trigger_install_packages;
trigger_remove_packages;
trigger_forget_packages;
trigger_cancel_all_tasks;
trigger_host_register;
The action get_tasks_status does not require SSL authentication.
Verification process¶
Upon receiving an event on the Websocket connexion of the WAPT client:
the X509 certificate of the certificate holder is extracted from the JSON file (format PEM);
the WAPT client tests whether the certificate is to be trusted, i.e. that it is present in
<WAPT>sslor that it has been signed by a Trusted Authority (certificate of the Authority present in<WAPT>ssl);the WAPT client checks whether the certificate can verify the signature that is present in the JSON structure of the action, which consists of:
extracting the base64 encoded signature from the signature attribute in the JSON file;
extracting the signature date formated in ‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S’ from the signature_date attribute;
checking that the signature date is neither too old in the past, nor too late into the future by over 10 minutes;
reconstructing a JSON representation of the attributes of the action;
checking that the certificate’s public key can verify the JSON file with the signature by using a sha256 hash algorithm and a PKCS1 v1.5 padding;
Checking the complete download of a package¶
For each package, a md5 sum of the package is calculated and stored
in the Packages index file of the repository.
When installing a package, the WAPT client checks whether a local version
of the package is already available in the cache directory <WAPT>cache.
If the package file is cached, its md5 sum is calculated and compared with the md5 sum in the index file. If they are different, the cached package is deleted.
This md5 sum is only used to insure that a package has been fully downloaded.
The checking of the signature of the package will fully insure its integrity and its authenticity.