----- Original Message -----
From: "Igor Galić" <i.ga...@brainsware.org>
To: <users@httpd.apache.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: [us...@httpd] SSL Client Authentication Problem
----- "Alan Brown" <em745...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
Hi all,
I am working in a test environment with Apache v2.2.14 on XP Pro SP3
and I
have experienced difficulties setting up SSL Client Authentication.
I have used the openssl command line tool to set up my private key,
server
certificate, and a certificate authority, and I have configured the
httpd-ssl.conf file. All works as expected, except when I try to
configure
SSL Client Authentication. All browsers report an error and are unable
to
establish an SSL session, eg with Firefox :-
Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to myhost_1.
SSL peer was unable to negotiate an acceptable set of security
parameters.
(Error code: ssl_error_handshake_failure_alert)
(myhost_1 is configured as 127.0.0.1 in hosts file)
In the config which works I have :-
<VirtualHost _default_:443>
SSLEngine on
SSLCipherSuite
ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL
SSLCertificateFile "/xampp/xampp/apache/conf/test/server.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "/xampp/xampp/apache/conf/test/server.key"
#SSLCACertificateFile "/xampp/xampp/apache/conf/test/ca/ca.crt"
#SSLVerifyClient require
#SSLVerifyDepth 10
</VirtualHost>
When I uncomment the lines to configure SSL Client Authentication then
I get
the above errors. The browser is supposed to request which client
certificate the user wants to use, then I can select the one I created
and
signed with ca.crt, which I have set as a trusted CA in the browser.
My Apache server has the following identifier (from HTTP Response
header) :-
Server: Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8l
mod_autoindex_color PHP/5.3.1 mod_apreq2-20090110/2.7.1 mod_perl/2.0.4
Perl/v5.10.1
The openssl version I am using is also 0.9.8l (l for 'link').
No. OpenSSL 0.9.8l is a version regularily released:
http://www.openssl.org/source/
Here are the openssl commands I used :-
openssl genrsa -out ca.key 1024
openssl req -new -key ca.key -x509 -days 60 -out ca.crt
openssl genrsa -out server.key 1024
openssl req -new -key server.key -days 90 -out server.csr
openssl x509 -req -in server.csr -set_serial 451470 -CA ca\ca.crt
-CAkey
ca\ca.key -out server.crt
openssl genrsa -out client_a.key 1024
openssl req -new -key client_a.key -days 90 -out client_a.csr
openssl x509 -req -in client_a.csr -set_serial 451470 -CA
..\ca\ca.crt -CAkey ..\ca\ca.key -out client_a.crt
I have carefully studied all documentation and I just wonder why this
is not
working - have I misunderstood something or is there possibly a bug?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Instead of involving a browser, which is a big, complex and opaque thing,
can you please test with openssl s_client?
Alan.
So long,
i
--
Igor Galić
Tel: +43 (0) 664 886 22 883
Mail: i.ga...@brainsware.org
URL: http://brainsware.org/
Thanks Igor for pointing out this s_client tool within openssl. On
investigating use of this tool, I realised I needed a bit more understanding
of how SSL/TLS works, and realised I omitted to understand one essential
feature of the SSL handshake, namely that the client must possess a private
key.
This means the client cert must actually contain a private key, which makes
it quite unlike a website cert, which just has the public key<->identity
mapping (and digital signature). I found this concept very odd at first -
even if it is password protected a digital cert seems not a place to store a
private key. The format for the composite file is PKCS#12, (.p12 extension).
(When you view such a client cert in IE8, for example, it says 'You have a
private key which corresponds to this certificate').
To create the .p12 file you enter the command :-
openssl pkcs12 -export -out client_a.p12 -in client_a.crt -inkey
client_a.key
where client_a.crt is the client cert and client_a.key is the private key
file.
Then the browser can accept import of the file client_a.p12 as a 'Personal
Certificate', and it now all works on Firefox/Chrome/Opera/IE8, with the
browser displaying a dialog for client cert choice on accessing the secure
page.
Thanks also Joost - you are correct, importing client cert is needed, it
will not work without this, ie it won't just prompt for a client cert on
accessing secure page. But I had not set up client cert correctly, so the
import did not work.
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