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Properties : C.12 IceSSL Properties
Copyright © 2003-2009 ZeroC, Inc.

C.12 IceSSL Properties

IceSSL.Alias

Synopsis

IceSSL.Alias=alias (Java)

Description

Selects a particular certificate from the key store specified by IceSSL.Keystore. The certificate identified by alias is presented to the peer request during authentication.

IceSSL.CertAuthDir

Synopsis

IceSSL.CertAuthDir=path (C++)

Description

Specifies the directory containing the certificates of trusted certificate authorities. The directory must be prepared in advance using the OpenSSL utility c_rehash. The path name may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir.

IceSSL.CertAuthFile

Synopsis

IceSSL.CertAuthFile=file (C++, Ice Touch)

Description

Specifies a file containing the certificate of a trusted certificate authority. The file name may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir.

Platform Notes

C++
The certificate must be encoded using the PEM format.
Ice Touch
The certificate must be encoded using the DER format.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is also defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified CA certificate file as Resources/DefaultDir/file in the application’s resource bundle and as DefaultDir/file in the file system.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is not defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified CA certificate file as Resources/file in the application’s resource bundle and as file in the file system.
If this property is not defined, IceSSL looks for suitable CA certificates in the user’s keychains and in the system keychain.

IceSSL.CertFile

Synopsis

IceSSL.CertFile=file (.NET, Ice Touch)
IceSSL.CertFile=file[:file] (C++ - Unix)
IceSSL.CertFile=file[;file] (C++ - Windows)

Description

Specifies a file that contains the program's certificate, and may also contain the corresponding private key. The file name may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir.

Platform Notes

C++
The private key is optional; if not present, the file containing the private key must be identified by IceSSL.KeyFile. If a password is required, OpenSSL will prompt the user at the terminal unless the application has installed a password handler or supplied the password using IceSSL.Password. The certificate must be encoded using the PEM format.
OpenSSL allows you to specify certificates for both RSA and DSA. To specify both certificates, separate the filenames using the platform’s path separator character.
.NET
The file must use the PFX (PKCS#12) format and contain the certificate and its private key. The password for the file must be supplied using IceSSL.Password.
Ice Touch
The file must use the PFX (PKCS#12) format and contain the certificate and its private key. The password for the file must be supplied using IceSSL.Password. The certificate is imported into the keychain identified by the IceSSL.Keychain property.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is also defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified certificate file as Resources/DefaultDir/file in the application’s resource bundle and as DefaultDir/file in the file system.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is not defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified certificate file as Resources/file in the application’s resource bundle and as file in the file system.

IceSSL.CertVerifier

Synopsis

IceSSL.CertVerifier=classname (Java, .NET)

Description

Specifies the name of a Java or .NET class that implements the IceSSL.CertificateVerifier interface (see Section 42.5).

IceSSL.CheckCertName

Synopsis

IceSSL.CheckCertName=num

Description

If num is a value greater than zero, IceSSL attempts to match the server's host name as specified in the proxy against the DNS and IP address fields of the server certificate’s subject alternative name. The search does not issue any DNS queries, but simply performs a case-insensitive string match. The server’s certificate is accepted if any of its DNS or IP addresses matches the host name in the proxy. This property has no affect on the validation of client certificates. If no match is found, IceSSL aborts the connection attempt and raises an exception. If not defined, the default value is zero.

IceSSL.CheckCRL

Synopsis

IceSSL.CheckCRL=num (.NET)

Description

If num is a value greater than zero, IceSSL checks the certificate revocation list to determine if the peer's certificate has been revoked. If so, IceSSL aborts the connection and raises an exception.

IceSSL.Ciphers

Synopsis

IceSSL.Ciphers=ciphers (C++, Java)

Description

Specifies the cipher suites that IceSSL is allowed to negotiate. A cipher suite is a set of algorithms that satisfies the four requirements for establishing a secure connection: signing and authentication, key exchange, secure hashing, and encryption. Some algorithms satisfy more than one requirement, and there are many possible combinations.

Platform Notes

C++
The value of this attribute is given directly to the OpenSSL library and is dependent on how OpenSSL was compiled. You can obtain a complete list of the supported cipher suites using the command openssl ciphers. This command will likely generate a long list. To simplify the selection process, OpenSSL supports several classes of ciphers. Classes and ciphers can be excluded by prefixing them with an exclamation point. The special keyword @STRENGTH sorts the cipher list in order of their strength, so that SSL gives preference to the more secure ciphers when negotiating a cipher suite. The @STRENGTH keyword must be the last element in the list. The classes are:
Enables all supported cipher suites. This class should be used with caution, as it may enable low-security cipher suites.
Here is an example of a reasonable setting:
ALL:!ADH:!LOW:!EXP:!MD5:@STRENGTH
This value excludes the ciphers with low bit-strength and known problems, and orders the remaining ciphers according to their strength. Note that no warning is given if an unrecognized cipher is specified.
Java
The property value is interpreted as a list of tokens delimited by white space. The plug‑in executes the tokens in the order of appearance in order to assemble the list of enabled cipher suites. The table below describes the tokens:
Enables all supported cipher suites. If specified, it must be the first token in the list. This token should be used with caution, as it may enable low-security cipher suites.
!NAME
(EXP)
Enables cipher suites whose names contain the regular expression EXP. For example, the value NONE (.*DH_anon.*) selects only cipher suites that use anonymous Diffie-Hellman authentication.
!(EXP)
Disables cipher suites whose names contain the regular expression EXP. For example, the value ALL !(.*DH_anon.*) enables all cipher suites except those that use anonymous Diffie-Hellman authentication.
If not specified, the plug‑in uses the security provider's default cipher suites. Set IceSSL.Trace.Security=1 to determine which cipher suites are enabled by default, or to verify your cipher suite configuration.

IceSSL.DefaultDir

Synopsis

IceSSL.DefaultDir=path

Description

Specifies the default directory in which to look for certificate, key, and key store files. See the descriptions of the relevant properties for more information.

IceSSL.DH.bits

Synopsis

IceSSL.DH.bits=file (C++)

Description

Specifies a file containing Diffie Hellman parameters whose key length is bits, as shown in the following example:
IceSSL.DH.1024=dhparams1024.pem
IceSSL supplies default parameters for key lengths of 512, 1024, 2048, and 4096 bits, which are used if no user-defined parameters of the desired key length are specified. The file name may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir. The parameters must be encoded using the PEM format.

IceSSL.EntropyDaemon

Synopsis

IceSSL.EntropyDaemon=file (C++)

Description

Specifies a Unix domain socket for the entropy gathering daemon, from which OpenSSL gathers entropy data to initialize its random number generator.

IceSSL.FindCert.location.name

Synopsis

IceSSL.FindCert.location.name=criteria (.NET)

Description

Queries the certificate repository for matching certificates and adds them to the application's collection of certificates that are used for authentication. The value for location must be LocalMachine or CurrentUser.
The name corresponds to the .NET enumeration StoreName and may be one of the following values: AddressBook, AuthRoot, CertificateAuthority, Disallowed, My, Root, TrustedPeople, TrustedPublisher. It is also possible to use an arbitrary value for name.
The value for criteria may be *, in which case all of the certificates in the store are selected. Otherwise, criteria must be one or more field:value pairs separated by white space. The valid field names are described below:
The field names are case-insensitive. If multiple criteria are specified, only certificates that match all criteria are selected. Values must be enclosed in single or double quotes to preserve white space.
Multiple occurrences of the property are allowed, but only one query is possible for each location/name combination. The certificates from all queries are combined to form the certificate collection, including a certificate loaded using IceSSL.CertFile. Here are some sample queries:
IceSSL.FindCert.LocalMachine.My=issuer:verisign serial:219336
IceSSL.FindCert.CurrentUser.Root=subject:"Joe's Certificate"
A server requires a certificate for authentication purposes, therefore IceSSL selects the first certificate in the accumulated collection. This is normally the certificate loaded via IceSSL.CertFile, if that property was defined. Otherwise, one of the certificates from IceSSL.FindCert is selected. Since IceSSL does not guarantee the order in which it evaluates IceSSL.FindCert properties, it is recommended that the criteria select only one certificate.

IceSSL.ImportCert.location.name

Synopsis

IceSSL.ImportCert.location.name=file[;password] (.NET)

Description

Imports the certificate in file into the specified certificate store. The value for location must be LocalMachine or CurrentUser. The name corresponds to the .NET enumeration StoreName and may be one of the following values: AddressBook, AuthRoot, CertificateAuthority, Disallowed, My, Root, TrustedPeople, TrustedPublisher. It is also possible to use an arbitrary value for name, which adds a new store to the repository. If you are importing a trusted CA certificate, it must be added to AuthRoot or Root.
The password is optional; it is only necessary if the certificate file also contains a private key or uses a secure storage format such as PFX.
The file name and password may be enclosed in single or double quotes if necessary. The file name may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir.
Importing a certificate into LocalMachine requires administrator privileges, while importing into CurrentUser may cause the platform to prompt the user for confirmation.

IceSSL.Keychain

Synopsis

IceSSL.Keychain=name (Ice Touch)

Description

Specifies the name of keychain in which to import the certificate identified by IceSSL.CertFile. If not defined, the keychain named login is used by default. Note that this property is only relevant for the iPhone simulator and Mac OS X targets.

IceSSL.KeychainPassword

Synopsis

IceSSL.KeychainPassword=password (Ice Touch)

Description

Specifies the password for the keychain identified by IceSSL.Keychain. If not defined, IceSSL attempts to open the keychain without a password. Note that this property is only relevant for the iPhone simulator and Mac OS X targets.

IceSSL.KeyFile

Synopsis

IceSSL.KeyFile=file (C++)

Description

Specifies a file containing the private key associated with the certificate identified by IceSSL.CertFile. The file name may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir. The key must be encoded using the PEM format.

IceSSL.Keystore

Synopsis

IceSSL.Keystore=file (Java)

Description

Specifies a key store file containing certificates and their private keys. If the key store contains multiple certificates, you should specify a particular one to use for authentication using IceSSL.Alias. IceSSL first attempts to open the file as a class loader resource and then as a regular file. If the file cannot be found in the file system, IceSSL attempts to open the file relative to the directory specified by IceSSL.DefaultDir. The format of the file is determined by IceSSL.KeystoreType.
If this property is not defined, the application will not be able to supply a certificate during SSL handshaking. As a result, the application may not be able to negotiate a secure connection, or might be required to use an anonymous cipher suite.

IceSSL.KeystorePassword

Synopsis

IceSSL.KeystorePassword=password (Java)

Description

Specifies the password used to verify the integrity of the key store defined by IceSSL.Keystore. The integrity check is skipped if this property is not defined.
It is a security risk to use a plain-text password in a configuration file.

IceSSL.KeystoreType

Synopsis

IceSSL.KeystoreType=type (Java)

Description

Specifies the format of the key store file defined by IceSSL.Keystore. Legal values are JKS and PKCS12. If not defined, the JVM’s default value is used (normally JKS).

IceSSL.Password

Synopsis

IceSSL.Password=password

Description

Specifies the password necessary to decrypt the private key.

Platform Notes

C++
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the private key contained in the file defined by IceSSL.CertFile or IceSSL.KeyFile. If this property is not defined and you have not installed a password callback object, OpenSSL will prompt the user for a password if one is necessary.
Java
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the private key contained in the key store defined by IceSSL.Keystore. All of the keys in the key store must use the same password.
.NET
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the file defined by IceSSL.CertFile.
Ice Touch
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the file defined by IceSSL.CertFile.
It is a security risk to use a plain-text password in a configuration file.

IceSSL.PasswordCallback

Synopsis

IceSSL.PasswordCallback=classname (Java, .NET)

Description

Specifies the name of a Java or .NET class that implements the IceSSL.PasswordCallback interface (see Section 42.6.1).

IceSSL.PasswordRetryMax

Synopsis

IceSSL.PasswordRetryMax=num (C++)

Description

Specifies the number of attempts IceSSL should allow the user to make when entering a password. If not defined, the default value is 3.

IceSSL.Protocols

Synopsis

IceSSL.Protocols=list (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

Specifies the protocols to allow during SSL handshaking. Legal values are SSL3 and TLS1. You may also specify both values, separate by commas or white space. If this property is not defined, the platform's default is used.

IceSSL.Random

Synopsis

IceSSL.Random=filelist (C++, Java)

Description

Specifies one or more files containing data to use when seeding the random number generator. The file names should be separated using the platform's path separator (a colon on Unix and a semicolon on Windows). The file names may be specified relative to the default directory defined by IceSSL.DefaultDir.
In Java, IceSSL first attempts to open the files as class loader resources and then as regular files.

IceSSL.Trace.Security

Synopsis

IceSSL.Trace.Security=num (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

The SSL plug‑in trace level:

IceSSL.TrustOnly

Synopsis

IceSSL.TrustOnly=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

Identifies trusted peers. This family of properties provides an additional level of authentication by restricting connections to trusted peers. After the SSL engine has successfully completed its authentication process, IceSSL compares the peer's distinguished name (DN) with each ENTRY in the property value and allows the connection to succeed if the peer's DN matches any of the entries. ENTRY must contain only those relative distinguished name (RDN) components that a peer is required to have in its DN. IceSSL rejects a connection if no match is found for the peer's DN, or if the peer did not supply a certificate.
For example, you can limit access to people in the sales and marketing departments using the following configuration:
IceSSL.TrustOnly=O="Acme, Inc.",OU="Sales"; O="Acme, Inc.",OU="Marketing"
The peer's DN must match one of these entries in order to establish a connection.
An entry may contain as many RDN components as you wish, depending on how narrowly you need to restrict access. The order of the RDN components is not important.
To specify more than one entry, separate them using semicolons. IceSSL expects each entry to be formatted according to the rules defined by RFC2253.
While testing your trust configuration, you may find it helpful to set the IceSSL.Trace.Security property to a non-zero value, which causes IceSSL to display the DN of each peer during connection establishment.
This property affects incoming and outgoing connections. IceSSL also supports similar properties that affect only incoming connections or only outgoing connections.

IceSSL.TrustOnly.Client

Synopsis

IceSSL.TrustOnly.Client=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Client=ID (Ice Touch)

Description

Identifies trusted peers for outgoing (client) connections. For a connection to succeed, the peer's distinguished name (DN) must match an entry in this property or in IceSSL.TrustOnly.

Platform Notes

Ice Touch
For an outgoing connection to succeed, the peer certificate’s subject key identifier must match the property value exactly. The property value is formatted as a series of hexadecimal values separated by colons or spaces, as shown in the example below:
C2:E8:D3:33:D7:83:99:6E:08:F7:C2:34:31:F7:1E:8E:44:87:38:57
Since this value is specific to a single certificate authority, this property is valid only when used in conjunction with IceSSL.CertAuthFile.

IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server

Synopsis

IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

Identifies trusted peers for incoming ("server") connections. For a connection to succeed, the peer's distinguished name (DN) must match an entry in this property or in IceSSL.TrustOnly. To configure trusted peers for a particular object adapter, use IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.AdapterName.

IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.AdapterName

Synopsis

IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.AdapterName=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

Identifies trusted peers for incoming (server) connections to the object adapter AdapterName. For a connection to succeed, the peer's distinguished name (DN) must match an entry in this property, an entry in IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server, or an entry in IceSSL.TrustOnly.

IceSSL.Truststore

Synopsis

IceSSL.Truststore=file (Java)

Description

Specifies a key store file containing the certificates of trusted certificate authorities. IceSSL first attempts to open the file as a class loader resource and then as a regular file. If the file cannot be found in the file system, IceSSL attempts to open the file relative to the directory specified by IceSSL.DefaultDir. The format of the file is determined by IceSSL.TruststoreType.
If this property is not defined, the application will not be able to authenticate the peer's certificate during SSL handshaking. As a result, the application may not be able to negotiate a secure connection, or might be required to use an anonymous cipher suite.

IceSSL.TruststorePassword

Synopsis

IceSSL.TruststorePassword=password (Java)

Description

Specifies the password used to verify the integrity of the key store defined by IceSSL.Truststore. The integrity check is skipped if this property is not defined.
It is a security risk to use a plain-text password in a configuration file.

IceSSL.TruststoreType

Synopsis

IceSSL.TruststoreType=type (Java)

Description

Specifies the format of the key store file defined by IceSSL.Truststore. Legal values are JKS and PKCS12. If not defined, the default value is JKS.

IceSSL.VerifyDepthMax

Synopsis

IceSSL.VerifyDepthMax=num (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

Specifies the maximum depth of a trusted peer's certificate chain, including the peer's certificate. A value of zero accepts chains of any length. If not defined, the default value is 2.

IceSSL.VerifyPeer

Synopsis

IceSSL.VerifyPeer=num (C++, Java, .NET)

Description

Specifies the verification requirements to use during SSL handshaking. The legal values are shown in the table below. If this property is not defined, the default value is 2.
For an outgoing connection, the client verifies the server's certificate (if an anonymous cipher is not used) but does not abort the connection if verification fails. For an incoming connection, the server does not request a certificate from the client.
For an outgoing connection, the client verifies the server's certificate and aborts the connection if verification fails. For an incoming connection, the server requests a certificate from the client and verifies it if one is provided, aborting the connection if verification fails.
For an outgoing connection, the semantics are the same as for the value 1. For an incoming connection, the server requires a certificate from the client and aborts the connection if verification fails.

Platform Notes

.NET
This property has no effect on outgoing connections, since .NET always uses the semantics of value 2. For an incoming connection, the value 0 has the same semantics as the value 1.
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