TAO implements SSL as a pluggable protocol. As such, it must be dynamically
loaded into the ORB. You must use a service configurator file to do this.
The service configurator options for the ORB are described in detail in
Options for TAO Components. In this case you have to create a svc.conf
file that includes:
dynamic SSLIOP_Factory Service_Object * TAO_SSLIOP:_make_TAO_SSLIOP_Protocol_Factory() "" static Resource_Factory "-ORBProtocolFactory SSLIOP_Factory"
Note that "TAO_SSLIOP:_make...
" is part of the first
line. This will load the SSLIOP protocol from the library called TAO_SSL
and then use that protocol in the ORB. The SSLIOP protocol has a number of
configuration options that we describe below.
Once the SSLIOP protocol is loaded you may want to setup the private key and certificate files, the authentication level and similar features. This is done by setting more options in the service configurator file, for example:
dynamic SSLIOP_Factory Service_Object * TAO_SSLIOP:_make_TAO_SSLIOP_Protocol_Factory()"-SSLAuthenticate SERVER"
will enforce validation of the server certificate on each SSL connection.
Note that "TAO_SSLIOP:_make...
" is part of the first
line. The complete list of options is:
Option | Description |
---|---|
-SSLNoProtection |
On the client side, this option forces request invocations to use the standard insecure IIOP protocol. On the server side, use of this option allows invocations on the server to be made through the standard insecure IIOP protocol. Request invocations through SSL may still be made. This option will be deprecated once the |
-SSLCertificate FORMAT:filename |
Set the name of the file that contains the certificate for this process.
The file can be in Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM ) format or
ASN.1 (ASN1 ). Remember that the certificate must be signed
by a Certificate Authority recognized by the client. |
-SSLPrivateKey FORMAT:filename |
Set the name of the file that contains the private key for this process.
The private key and certificate files must match. It is extremely important
that you secure your private key! By default the OpenSSL
utilities will generate pass phrase protected private key files. The password
is prompted when you run the CORBA application. |
-SSLAuthenticate which |
Control the level of authentication. The argument can be NONE ,
SERVER , CLIENT or SERVER_AND_CLIENT .
Due to limitations in the SSL protocol CLIENT implies that
the server is authenticated too. |
-SSLAcceptTimeout which |
Set the maximum amount of time to allow for establishing a
SSL/TLS passive connection, i.e. for accepting a
SSL/TLS connection. The default value is 10
seconds.
See the discussion in Bug 1348 in our bug tracking system for the rationale behind this option. |
-SSLDHParams filename |
Set the filename containing the Diffie-Hellman parameters to
be used when using DSS-based certificates. The specified
file may be a file containing only Diffie-Hellman
parameters created by "openssl dhparam ", or
it can be a certificate containing a PEM encoded set of
Diffie-Hellman parameters. |
The SSLIOP protocol uses the following environment variables to control its behavior.
Environment Variable | Description |
---|---|
SSL_CERT_FILE filename |
The name of the file that contains all the trusted certificate authority
self-signed certificates. By default it is set to the value of the ACE_DEFAULT_SSL_CERT_FILE
macro. |
SSL_CERT_DIR directory |
The name of the directory that contains all the trusted certificate
authority self-signed certificates. By default it is set to the value
of the ACE_DEFAULT_SSL_CERT_DIR macro. This directory must
be indexed using the OpenSSL format, i.e. each certificate is aliased
with the following link:
$ ln -s cacert.pem `openssl x509 -noout -hash < cacert.pem`.0Consult the documentation of your SSL implementation for more details. |
SSL_EGD_FILE filename |
The name of the UNIX domain socket that the Entropy Gathering Daemon (EGD) is listening on. |
SSL_RAND_FILE filename |
The file that contains previously saved state from OpenSSL's pseudo-random number generator. |
SSLIOP::Current
ObjectTAO's SSLIOP pluggable protocol allows an application to gain access to the
SSL session state for the current request. For example, it allows an application
to obtain the SSL peer certificate chain associated with the current request
so that the application can decide whether or not to reject the request. This
is achieved by invoking certain operations on the SSLIOP::Current
object. The interface for SSLIOP::Current
object is:
module SSLIOP {
# pragma prefix "omg.org"
/// A DER encoded X.509 certificate.
typedef sequence<octet> ASN_1_Cert;
/// A chain of DER encoded X.509 certificates. The chain
/// is actually a sequence. The sender's certificate is
/// first, followed by any Certificate Authority
/// certificates proceeding sequentially upward.
typedef sequence<ASN_1_Cert> SSL_Cert;
/// The following are TAO
extensions.
# pragma prefix "ssliop.tao"
/// The SSLIOP::Current interface provides methods to
/// gain access to the SSL session state for the current
/// execution context.
local interface Current : CORBA::Current {
/// Exception that indicates a SSLIOP::Current
/// operation was invoked outside of an SSL
/// session.
exception NoContext {};
/// Return the certificate chain associated with
/// the current execution context. If no SSL
/// session is being used for the request or
/// upcall, then the NoContext exception is
/// raised.
SSL_Cert get_peer_certificate_chain ()
raises (NoContext);
};
# pragma prefix "omg.org"
};
SSLIOP::Current
ObjectA reference to the SSLIOP::Current
object may be obtained using
the standard CORBA::ORB::resolve_initial_references()
mechanism
with the argument "SSLIOPCurrent"
.
Here is an example:
int argc = 0;
CORBA::ORB_var orb =
CORBA::ORB_init (argc, "", "my_orb");
CORBA::Object_var obj =
orb->resolve_initial_references ("SSLIOPCurrent");
SSLIOP::Current_var ssliop =
SSLIOP::Current::_narrow (obj.in ());
Once a reference to the SSLIOP::Current
object has been retrieved,
the peer certificate for the current request may be obtained by invoking the
SSLIOP::get_peer_certificate
method, as follows:
// This method can throw a SSLIOP::Current::NoContext
// exception if it is not invoked during a request being
// performed over SSL.
SSLIOP::ASN_1_Cert_var cert =
ssliop->get_peer_certificate ();
The retrieved X.509 peer certificate is in DER (a variant of ASN.1) format. DER is the on-the-wire format used to transmit certificates between peers.
OpenSSL can be used to examine the certificate. For example, to extract and display the certificate issuer from the DER encoded X.509 certificate, the following can be done:
#include <openssl/x509.h>
#include <iostream>
.
.
.
// Obtain the underlying buffer from the
// SSLIOP::ASN_1_Cert.
CORBA::Octet *der_cert = cert->get_buffer ();
char buf[BUFSIZ];
// Convert the DER encoded X.509 certificate into
// OpenSSL's internal format.
X509 *peer = ::d2i_X509 (0, &der_cert, cert->length ());
::X509_NAME_oneline (
::X509_get_issuer_name (peer),
buf,
BUFSIZ);
std::cout << "Certificate issuer: " << buf << std::endl;
::X509_free (peer);