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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-10956?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel
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Sylvain Lebresne updated CASSANDRA-10956:
-----------------------------------------
    Description: 
xCurrently, the native protocol only supports user authentication via SASL.  
While this is adequate for many use cases, it may be superfluous in scenarios 
where clients are required to present an SSL certificate to connect to the 
server.  If the certificate presented by a client is sufficient by itself to 
specify a user, then an additional (series of) authentication step(s) via SASL 
merely add overhead.  Worse, for uses wherein it's desirable to obtain the 
identity from the client's certificate, it's necessary to implement a custom 
SASL mechanism to do so, which increases the effort required to maintain both 
client and server and which also duplicates functionality already provided via 
SSL/TLS.

Cassandra should provide a means of using certificates for user authentication 
in the native protocol without any effort above configuring SSL on the client 
and server.  Here's a possible strategy:

* Add a new authenticator interface that returns {{AuthenticatedUser}} objects 
based on the certificate chain presented by the client.
* If this interface is in use, the user is authenticated immediately after the 
server receives the {{STARTUP}} message.  It then responds with a {{READY}} 
message.
* Otherwise, the existing flow of control is used (i.e., if the authenticator 
requires authentication, then an {{AUTHENTICATE}} message is sent to the 
client).

One advantage of this strategy is that it is backwards-compatible with existing 
schemes; current users of SASL/{{IAuthenticator}} are not impacted.  Moreover, 
it can function as a drop-in replacement for SASL schemes without requiring 
code changes (or even config changes) on the client side.

  was:
Currently, the native protocol only supports user authentication via SASL.  
While this is adequate for many use cases, it may be superfluous in scenarios 
where clients are required to present an SSL certificate to connect to the 
server.  If the certificate presented by a client is sufficient by itself to 
specify a user, then an additional (series of) authentication step(s) via SASL 
merely add overhead.  Worse, for uses wherein it's desirable to obtain the 
identity from the client's certificate, it's necessary to implement a custom 
SASL mechanism to do so, which increases the effort required to maintain both 
client and server and which also duplicates functionality already provided via 
SSL/TLS.

Cassandra should provide a means of using certificates for user authentication 
in the native protocol without any effort above configuring SSL on the client 
and server.  Here's a possible strategy:

* Add a new authenticator interface that returns {{AuthenticatedUser}} objects 
based on the certificate chain presented by the client.
* If this interface is in use, the user is authenticated immediately after the 
server receives the {{STARTUP}} message.  It then responds with a {{READY}} 
message.
* Otherwise, the existing flow of control is used (i.e., if the authenticator 
requires authentication, then an {{AUTHENTICATE}} message is sent to the 
client).

One advantage of this strategy is that it is backwards-compatible with existing 
schemes; current users of SASL/{{IAuthenticator}} are not impacted.  Moreover, 
it can function as a drop-in replacement for SASL schemes without requiring 
code changes (or even config changes) on the client side.


> Enable authentication of native protocol users via client certificates
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: CASSANDRA-10956
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-10956
>             Project: Cassandra
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>            Reporter: Samuel Klock
>            Assignee: Samuel Klock
>         Attachments: 10956.patch
>
>
> xCurrently, the native protocol only supports user authentication via SASL.  
> While this is adequate for many use cases, it may be superfluous in scenarios 
> where clients are required to present an SSL certificate to connect to the 
> server.  If the certificate presented by a client is sufficient by itself to 
> specify a user, then an additional (series of) authentication step(s) via 
> SASL merely add overhead.  Worse, for uses wherein it's desirable to obtain 
> the identity from the client's certificate, it's necessary to implement a 
> custom SASL mechanism to do so, which increases the effort required to 
> maintain both client and server and which also duplicates functionality 
> already provided via SSL/TLS.
> Cassandra should provide a means of using certificates for user 
> authentication in the native protocol without any effort above configuring 
> SSL on the client and server.  Here's a possible strategy:
> * Add a new authenticator interface that returns {{AuthenticatedUser}} 
> objects based on the certificate chain presented by the client.
> * If this interface is in use, the user is authenticated immediately after 
> the server receives the {{STARTUP}} message.  It then responds with a 
> {{READY}} message.
> * Otherwise, the existing flow of control is used (i.e., if the authenticator 
> requires authentication, then an {{AUTHENTICATE}} message is sent to the 
> client).
> One advantage of this strategy is that it is backwards-compatible with 
> existing schemes; current users of SASL/{{IAuthenticator}} are not impacted.  
> Moreover, it can function as a drop-in replacement for SASL schemes without 
> requiring code changes (or even config changes) on the client side.



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