Re: [nfsv4] NFS over TLS for floating clients

Trond Myklebust <trondmy@gmail.com> Fri, 06 March 2020 19:07 UTC

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From: Trond Myklebust <trondmy@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 14:07:33 -0500
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To: Rick Macklem <rmacklem@uoguelph.ca>
Cc: "nfsv4@ietf.org" <nfsv4@ietf.org>
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Subject: Re: [nfsv4] NFS over TLS for floating clients
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On Thu, 5 Mar 2020 at 22:06, Rick Macklem <rmacklem@uoguelph.ca> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> As I am working through implementation of NFS over TLS, I have run into
> a couple of things related to certificates.
> Here's an example scenario:
> - The client is a laptop that wants to mount a server from "anywhere" using
>   TLS, so that data is encrypted on the wire.
>   The server understandably wants to use "mutual authentication" to determine
>   that the client is indeed one that is allowed to mount the server.
>
> Ok, so now how do you get a certificate for the client that the server can
> reasonably verify?
> --> After a discussion over on a FreeBSD mailing list, it sounds like the easy
>       (maybe only?) way to do this is for the NFS server admin. to run a site local
>       CA and generate certificates against that.
>       - Although I'm sure there are other ways, you can create a site local CA
>          certificate with two openssl commands and sign a certificate for a client
>          with two more openssl commands.
>      Then the server can verify the certificate using the CAcert that was used to
>      sign the client's certificate.

It really boils down to the question of who do you trust to assert
what information.

If you own a domain, you can usually buy SSL certificates for it that
assert a given name within that domain. As long as you trust the major
CA vendors not to sell such a certificate to someone who does not own
the rights to the domain, then you might have your server use that
chain of trust to verify that this is indeed a trusted laptop. You
might decide to compare the full name appearing in the certificate to
a trusted list, or maybe just verify that the domain or subdomain info
matches a list of trusted domains or subdomains. Yes, you can do this
more cheaply by creating your own site-local CA, but it is essentially
the same process of setting up a chain of trust for your source of
information and then of asserting that information in a certificate.

> Now, when I read the sections around Page 6 of the draft...
>    Mutual Host Authentication
>       In this type of deployment, the client possesses a unique global
>       identity (e.g., a certificate).  As part of the TLS handshake,
>       both peers authenticate using the presented TLS identities.  If
>       authentication of either peer fails, or if authorization based on
>       those identities blocks access to the server, the client
>       association MUST be rejected.
> For the above, the client does not possess a unique global identity,
> it might more correctly be called a "site local identity" that the server
> can authenticate.
> Is the "unique global identity" requirement necessary? It seems to me
> that a site local CA issued certificate might be appropriate.
> (RFC 5280 page 12, second (a) item seems to allow site local CA
>  certificates).

It might be better to word in terms of the language of chains of
trust. "...the client possesses an identity (e.g. a certificate) that
is backed by a trusted entity."

> Also, w.r.t. server certificates, the draft says:
>    Each RPC server that supports RPC-over-TLS MUST possess a unique
>    global identity (e.g., a certificate that is signed by a well-known
>    trust anchor).  Such an RPC server MUST request a TLS peer identity...
> I wonder if the above must be a MUST?
> For example, I have an NFS server at home. It doe not have a well known
> fixed DNS address (residential internet connection, where it sits behind
> a NAT gateway where the address stays the same most of the time).
> --> If I want to mount this server from anywhere, I do want to use TLS
>       so that data is encrypted on the wire. Although it would be nice for
>       the laptop to be able to verify the server's identity, I don't see how I
>       can get a certificate for it from a well known trust anchor. I can live
>       with it having a self-signed certificate.
>
> Also, although an NFS server administrator can get a certificate from a
> well known trust anchor, it might cost $$ or it might not be easy. (Lets
> Encrypt expects to be able to use ACME on a web site or similar to issue
> a certificate, if I understand their setup?)
>
> Acquiring a certificate from a "well known trust anchor" might be a
> significant effort that will discourage use of TLS. (Again, you can easily
> create a self-signed certificate with a couple of openssl commands.)
> --> Maybe this could be a recommendation instead of a MUST and
>        the choice of accepting a self-signed certificate be left up to the
>        client via configuration?
>
> So, what do others think about this? rick
>
>
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