| .. _network_005ftls: |
| |
| TLS setup for network services |
| ------------------------------ |
| |
| Almost all network services in QEMU have the ability to use TLS for |
| session data encryption, along with x509 certificates for simple client |
| authentication. What follows is a description of how to generate |
| certificates suitable for usage with QEMU, and applies to the VNC |
| server, character devices with the TCP backend, NBD server and client, |
| and migration server and client. |
| |
| At a high level, QEMU requires certificates and private keys to be |
| provided in PEM format. Aside from the core fields, the certificates |
| should include various extension data sets, including v3 basic |
| constraints data, key purpose, key usage and subject alt name. |
| |
| The GnuTLS package includes a command called ``certtool`` which can be |
| used to easily generate certificates and keys in the required format |
| with expected data present. Alternatively a certificate management |
| service may be used. |
| |
| At a minimum it is necessary to setup a certificate authority, and issue |
| certificates to each server. If using x509 certificates for |
| authentication, then each client will also need to be issued a |
| certificate. |
| |
| Assuming that the QEMU network services will only ever be exposed to |
| clients on a private intranet, there is no need to use a commercial |
| certificate authority to create certificates. A self-signed CA is |
| sufficient, and in fact likely to be more secure since it removes the |
| ability of malicious 3rd parties to trick the CA into mis-issuing certs |
| for impersonating your services. The only likely exception where a |
| commercial CA might be desirable is if enabling the VNC websockets |
| server and exposing it directly to remote browser clients. In such a |
| case it might be useful to use a commercial CA to avoid needing to |
| install custom CA certs in the web browsers. |
| |
| The recommendation is for the server to keep its certificates in either |
| ``/etc/pki/qemu`` or for unprivileged users in ``$HOME/.pki/qemu``. |
| |
| .. _tls_005fgenerate_005fca: |
| |
| Setup the Certificate Authority |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| This step only needs to be performed once per organization / |
| organizational unit. First the CA needs a private key. This key must be |
| kept VERY secret and secure. If this key is compromised the entire trust |
| chain of the certificates issued with it is lost. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| # certtool --generate-privkey > ca-key.pem |
| |
| To generate a self-signed certificate requires one core piece of |
| information, the name of the organization. A template file ``ca.info`` |
| should be populated with the desired data to avoid having to deal with |
| interactive prompts from certtool:: |
| |
| # cat > ca.info <<EOF |
| cn = Name of your organization |
| ca |
| cert_signing_key |
| EOF |
| # certtool --generate-self-signed \ |
| --load-privkey ca-key.pem |
| --template ca.info \ |
| --outfile ca-cert.pem |
| |
| The ``ca`` keyword in the template sets the v3 basic constraints |
| extension to indicate this certificate is for a CA, while |
| ``cert_signing_key`` sets the key usage extension to indicate this will |
| be used for signing other keys. The generated ``ca-cert.pem`` file |
| should be copied to all servers and clients wishing to utilize TLS |
| support in the VNC server. The ``ca-key.pem`` must not be |
| disclosed/copied anywhere except the host responsible for issuing |
| certificates. |
| |
| .. _tls_005fgenerate_005fserver: |
| |
| Issuing server certificates |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Each server (or host) needs to be issued with a key and certificate. |
| When connecting the certificate is sent to the client which validates it |
| against the CA certificate. The core pieces of information for a server |
| certificate are the hostnames and/or IP addresses that will be used by |
| clients when connecting. The hostname / IP address that the client |
| specifies when connecting will be validated against the hostname(s) and |
| IP address(es) recorded in the server certificate, and if no match is |
| found the client will close the connection. |
| |
| Thus it is recommended that the server certificate include both the |
| fully qualified and unqualified hostnames. If the server will have |
| permanently assigned IP address(es), and clients are likely to use them |
| when connecting, they may also be included in the certificate. Both IPv4 |
| and IPv6 addresses are supported. Historically certificates only |
| included 1 hostname in the ``CN`` field, however, usage of this field |
| for validation is now deprecated. Instead modern TLS clients will |
| validate against the Subject Alt Name extension data, which allows for |
| multiple entries. In the future usage of the ``CN`` field may be |
| discontinued entirely, so providing SAN extension data is strongly |
| recommended. |
| |
| On the host holding the CA, create template files containing the |
| information for each server, and use it to issue server certificates. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| # cat > server-hostNNN.info <<EOF |
| organization = Name of your organization |
| cn = hostNNN.foo.example.com |
| dns_name = hostNNN |
| dns_name = hostNNN.foo.example.com |
| ip_address = 10.0.1.87 |
| ip_address = 192.8.0.92 |
| ip_address = 2620:0:cafe::87 |
| ip_address = 2001:24::92 |
| tls_www_server |
| encryption_key |
| signing_key |
| EOF |
| # certtool --generate-privkey > server-hostNNN-key.pem |
| # certtool --generate-certificate \ |
| --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem \ |
| --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem \ |
| --load-privkey server-hostNNN-key.pem \ |
| --template server-hostNNN.info \ |
| --outfile server-hostNNN-cert.pem |
| |
| The ``dns_name`` and ``ip_address`` fields in the template are setting |
| the subject alt name extension data. The ``tls_www_server`` keyword is |
| the key purpose extension to indicate this certificate is intended for |
| usage in a web server. Although QEMU network services are not in fact |
| HTTP servers (except for VNC websockets), setting this key purpose is |
| still recommended. The ``encryption_key`` and ``signing_key`` keyword is |
| the key usage extension to indicate this certificate is intended for |
| usage in the data session. |
| |
| The ``server-hostNNN-key.pem`` and ``server-hostNNN-cert.pem`` files |
| should now be securely copied to the server for which they were |
| generated, and renamed to ``server-key.pem`` and ``server-cert.pem`` |
| when added to the ``/etc/pki/qemu`` directory on the target host. The |
| ``server-key.pem`` file is security sensitive and should be kept |
| protected with file mode 0600 to prevent disclosure. |
| |
| .. _tls_005fgenerate_005fclient: |
| |
| Issuing client certificates |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The QEMU x509 TLS credential setup defaults to enabling client |
| verification using certificates, providing a simple authentication |
| mechanism. If this default is used, each client also needs to be issued |
| a certificate. The client certificate contains enough metadata to |
| uniquely identify the client with the scope of the certificate |
| authority. The client certificate would typically include fields for |
| organization, state, city, building, etc. |
| |
| Once again on the host holding the CA, create template files containing |
| the information for each client, and use it to issue client |
| certificates. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| # cat > client-hostNNN.info <<EOF |
| country = GB |
| state = London |
| locality = City Of London |
| organization = Name of your organization |
| cn = hostNNN.foo.example.com |
| tls_www_client |
| encryption_key |
| signing_key |
| EOF |
| # certtool --generate-privkey > client-hostNNN-key.pem |
| # certtool --generate-certificate \ |
| --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem \ |
| --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem \ |
| --load-privkey client-hostNNN-key.pem \ |
| --template client-hostNNN.info \ |
| --outfile client-hostNNN-cert.pem |
| |
| The subject alt name extension data is not required for clients, so the |
| the ``dns_name`` and ``ip_address`` fields are not included. The |
| ``tls_www_client`` keyword is the key purpose extension to indicate this |
| certificate is intended for usage in a web client. Although QEMU network |
| clients are not in fact HTTP clients, setting this key purpose is still |
| recommended. The ``encryption_key`` and ``signing_key`` keyword is the |
| key usage extension to indicate this certificate is intended for usage |
| in the data session. |
| |
| The ``client-hostNNN-key.pem`` and ``client-hostNNN-cert.pem`` files |
| should now be securely copied to the client for which they were |
| generated, and renamed to ``client-key.pem`` and ``client-cert.pem`` |
| when added to the ``/etc/pki/qemu`` directory on the target host. The |
| ``client-key.pem`` file is security sensitive and should be kept |
| protected with file mode 0600 to prevent disclosure. |
| |
| If a single host is going to be using TLS in both a client and server |
| role, it is possible to create a single certificate to cover both roles. |
| This would be quite common for the migration and NBD services, where a |
| QEMU process will be started by accepting a TLS protected incoming |
| migration, and later itself be migrated out to another host. To generate |
| a single certificate, simply include the template data from both the |
| client and server instructions in one. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| # cat > both-hostNNN.info <<EOF |
| country = GB |
| state = London |
| locality = City Of London |
| organization = Name of your organization |
| cn = hostNNN.foo.example.com |
| dns_name = hostNNN |
| dns_name = hostNNN.foo.example.com |
| ip_address = 10.0.1.87 |
| ip_address = 192.8.0.92 |
| ip_address = 2620:0:cafe::87 |
| ip_address = 2001:24::92 |
| tls_www_server |
| tls_www_client |
| encryption_key |
| signing_key |
| EOF |
| # certtool --generate-privkey > both-hostNNN-key.pem |
| # certtool --generate-certificate \ |
| --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem \ |
| --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem \ |
| --load-privkey both-hostNNN-key.pem \ |
| --template both-hostNNN.info \ |
| --outfile both-hostNNN-cert.pem |
| |
| When copying the PEM files to the target host, save them twice, once as |
| ``server-cert.pem`` and ``server-key.pem``, and again as |
| ``client-cert.pem`` and ``client-key.pem``. |
| |
| .. _tls_005fcreds_005fsetup: |
| |
| TLS x509 credential configuration |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| QEMU has a standard mechanism for loading x509 credentials that will be |
| used for network services and clients. It requires specifying the |
| ``tls-creds-x509`` class name to the ``--object`` command line argument |
| for the system emulators. Each set of credentials loaded should be given |
| a unique string identifier via the ``id`` parameter. A single set of TLS |
| credentials can be used for multiple network backends, so VNC, |
| migration, NBD, character devices can all share the same credentials. |
| Note, however, that credentials for use in a client endpoint must be |
| loaded separately from those used in a server endpoint. |
| |
| When specifying the object, the ``dir`` parameters specifies which |
| directory contains the credential files. This directory is expected to |
| contain files with the names mentioned previously, ``ca-cert.pem``, |
| ``server-key.pem``, ``server-cert.pem``, ``client-key.pem`` and |
| ``client-cert.pem`` as appropriate. It is also possible to include a set |
| of pre-generated Diffie-Hellman (DH) parameters in a file |
| ``dh-params.pem``, which can be created using the |
| ``certtool --generate-dh-params`` command. If omitted, QEMU will |
| dynamically generate DH parameters when loading the credentials. |
| |
| The ``endpoint`` parameter indicates whether the credentials will be |
| used for a network client or server, and determines which PEM files are |
| loaded. |
| |
| The ``verify`` parameter determines whether x509 certificate validation |
| should be performed. This defaults to enabled, meaning clients will |
| always validate the server hostname against the certificate subject alt |
| name fields and/or CN field. It also means that servers will request |
| that clients provide a certificate and validate them. Verification |
| should never be turned off for client endpoints, however, it may be |
| turned off for server endpoints if an alternative mechanism is used to |
| authenticate clients. For example, the VNC server can use SASL to |
| authenticate clients instead. |
| |
| To load server credentials with client certificate validation enabled |
| |
| .. parsed-literal:: |
| |
| |qemu_system| -object tls-creds-x509,id=tls0,dir=/etc/pki/qemu,endpoint=server |
| |
| while to load client credentials use |
| |
| .. parsed-literal:: |
| |
| |qemu_system| -object tls-creds-x509,id=tls0,dir=/etc/pki/qemu,endpoint=client |
| |
| Network services which support TLS will all have a ``tls-creds`` |
| parameter which expects the ID of the TLS credentials object. For |
| example with VNC: |
| |
| .. parsed-literal:: |
| |
| |qemu_system| -vnc 0.0.0.0:0,tls-creds=tls0 |
| |
| .. _tls_005fpsk: |
| |
| TLS Pre-Shared Keys (PSK) |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Instead of using certificates, you may also use TLS Pre-Shared Keys |
| (TLS-PSK). This can be simpler to set up than certificates but is less |
| scalable. |
| |
| Use the GnuTLS ``psktool`` program to generate a ``keys.psk`` file |
| containing one or more usernames and random keys:: |
| |
| mkdir -m 0700 /tmp/keys |
| psktool -u rich -p /tmp/keys/keys.psk |
| |
| TLS-enabled servers such as qemu-nbd can use this directory like so:: |
| |
| qemu-nbd \ |
| -t -x / \ |
| --object tls-creds-psk,id=tls0,endpoint=server,dir=/tmp/keys \ |
| --tls-creds tls0 \ |
| image.qcow2 |
| |
| When connecting from a qemu-based client you must specify the directory |
| containing ``keys.psk`` and an optional username (defaults to "qemu"):: |
| |
| qemu-img info \ |
| --object tls-creds-psk,id=tls0,dir=/tmp/keys,username=rich,endpoint=client \ |
| --image-opts \ |
| file.driver=nbd,file.host=localhost,file.port=10809,file.tls-creds=tls0,file.export=/ |