Re: [Dspace-tech] Recommended TLS cipher suite for sites using HTTPS
Hi, Hilton. Thanks for your reply. First, I'd like to point out that I reverse proxy DSpace via nginx (and Apache httpd a few years ago). The decision to put nginx / httpd in front of Tomcat was made partially on the fact that it's easier to configure HTTPS in those servers than Tomcat, and nginx supports more modern crypto than Apache http or Apache Tomcat. Also mod_rewrite and vhosts etc were easier. Your HTTPS configuration could use several improvements. Attached is a screenshot of the negotiated cipher suite as seen in Chrome in GNU/Linux. Of note: - The connection is encrypted using AES CBC. AES is government-grade security, but implemented in CBC mode it is vulnerable to padding oracle attacks (see BEAST and Lucky13)[0]. It is recommended to use GCM mode (galois counter mode). - Message authentication (MAC, basically a hash or fingerprint) is using SHA1, which is of course very old and started showing weaknesses in academic circles and was first shown to be broken in 2005[1]. - Your connection is using Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral, which is good! Ephemeral means that there is a temporary secret used in the HTTPS negotiation that is thrown away after the session. In the scenario that an adversary (NSA?) gets your HTTPS key and records secure traffic, they won't be able to decode those sessions. This is called 'forward secrecy' (sometimes perfect forward secrecy). Other than that, your HTTPS certs are signed using SHA1, which has been deprecated by all major browsers in favor of SHA2[2]. It's kinda overwhelming, but using the Mozilla cipher list will get you started. They are a list of safe defaults which take into account most of the latest information we have on cryptography. Hope that helps, [0] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Attacks_on_TLS [1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/sha1_broken.html [2] https://sha.com/ On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 10:35 PM, helix84 heli...@centrum.sk wrote: On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 9:05 PM, Hilton Gibson hilton.gib...@gmail.com wrote: Who is the arbiter safe ciphers? I am not a cipher expert. There's no arbiter. The set changes over time as new vulnerabilities are found in existing ciphers and new ciphers are developed to mitigate those attack vectors. A cipher might look good on paper, but only widespread use reveals its weaknesses. Then there is the natural deprecation of shorter key sizes, which is required as new computers gets faster. Furthermore, errors exist in PRNGs, which encryption vitally depends on. The only way is to keep up to date on this information. That's why the Mozilla list Alan mentioned helps - they watch it for you and give you their recommendations. Regards, ~~helix84 Compulsory reading: DSpace Mailing List Etiquette https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette -- Alan Orth alan.o...@gmail.com http://alaninkenya.org http://mjanja.co.ke In heaven all the interesting people are missing. -Friedrich Nietzsche GPG public key ID: 0x8cb0d0acb5cd81ec209c6cdfbd1a0e09c2f836c0 -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette
Re: [Dspace-tech] Recommended TLS cipher suite for sites using HTTPS
Hi Alan Thanks. I updated the wiki page: http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/Secure_Internet_Connections#Example_.22server.xml.22_secure_settings Cheers hg *Hilton Gibson* Ubuntu Linux Systems Administrator JS Gericke Library Room 1025C Stellenbosch University Private Bag X5036 Stellenbosch 7599 South Africa Tel: +27 21 808 4100 | Cell: +27 84 646 4758 On 14 September 2014 09:39, Alan Orth alan.o...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Hilton. Thanks for your reply. First, I'd like to point out that I reverse proxy DSpace via nginx (and Apache httpd a few years ago). The decision to put nginx / httpd in front of Tomcat was made partially on the fact that it's easier to configure HTTPS in those servers than Tomcat, and nginx supports more modern crypto than Apache http or Apache Tomcat. Also mod_rewrite and vhosts etc were easier. Your HTTPS configuration could use several improvements. Attached is a screenshot of the negotiated cipher suite as seen in Chrome in GNU/Linux. Of note: - The connection is encrypted using AES CBC. AES is government-grade security, but implemented in CBC mode it is vulnerable to padding oracle attacks (see BEAST and Lucky13)[0]. It is recommended to use GCM mode (galois counter mode). - Message authentication (MAC, basically a hash or fingerprint) is using SHA1, which is of course very old and started showing weaknesses in academic circles and was first shown to be broken in 2005[1]. - Your connection is using Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral, which is good! Ephemeral means that there is a temporary secret used in the HTTPS negotiation that is thrown away after the session. In the scenario that an adversary (NSA?) gets your HTTPS key and records secure traffic, they won't be able to decode those sessions. This is called 'forward secrecy' (sometimes perfect forward secrecy). Other than that, your HTTPS certs are signed using SHA1, which has been deprecated by all major browsers in favor of SHA2[2]. It's kinda overwhelming, but using the Mozilla cipher list will get you started. They are a list of safe defaults which take into account most of the latest information we have on cryptography. Hope that helps, [0] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Attacks_on_TLS [1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/sha1_broken.html [2] https://sha.com/ On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 10:35 PM, helix84 heli...@centrum.sk wrote: On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 9:05 PM, Hilton Gibson hilton.gib...@gmail.com wrote: Who is the arbiter safe ciphers? I am not a cipher expert. There's no arbiter. The set changes over time as new vulnerabilities are found in existing ciphers and new ciphers are developed to mitigate those attack vectors. A cipher might look good on paper, but only widespread use reveals its weaknesses. Then there is the natural deprecation of shorter key sizes, which is required as new computers gets faster. Furthermore, errors exist in PRNGs, which encryption vitally depends on. The only way is to keep up to date on this information. That's why the Mozilla list Alan mentioned helps - they watch it for you and give you their recommendations. Regards, ~~helix84 Compulsory reading: DSpace Mailing List Etiquette https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette -- Alan Orth alan.o...@gmail.com http://alaninkenya.org http://mjanja.co.ke In heaven all the interesting people are missing. -Friedrich Nietzsche GPG public key ID: 0x8cb0d0acb5cd81ec209c6cdfbd1a0e09c2f836c0 -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette
Re: [Dspace-tech] Recommended TLS cipher suite for sites using HTTPS
I use a verifier to check my config: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=exams.victoria.ac.nz Note that my settings are less secure than I might like, because increasing them causes some platforms (especially mobile platforms) to fail to access the content, while leaving nothing useful in the logs. Personally I find the Mozilla advice a little strong on the force users with outdated browsers to update approach. It's also possible to force users who login to use more secure credentials than those who just access content, if you can assume that only admin staff login from their desktops with recent browsers. There's an example on https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/ssl/ssl_howto.html Cheers stuart From: Alan Orth [mailto:alan.o...@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, 14 September 2014 7:39 p.m. To: Ivan Masár Cc: dspace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Dspace-tech] Recommended TLS cipher suite for sites using HTTPS Hi, Hilton. Thanks for your reply. First, I'd like to point out that I reverse proxy DSpace via nginx (and Apache httpd a few years ago). The decision to put nginx / httpd in front of Tomcat was made partially on the fact that it's easier to configure HTTPS in those servers than Tomcat, and nginx supports more modern crypto than Apache http or Apache Tomcat. Also mod_rewrite and vhosts etc were easier. Your HTTPS configuration could use several improvements. Attached is a screenshot of the negotiated cipher suite as seen in Chrome in GNU/Linux. Of note: - The connection is encrypted using AES CBC. AES is government-grade security, but implemented in CBC mode it is vulnerable to padding oracle attacks (see BEAST and Lucky13)[0]. It is recommended to use GCM mode (galois counter mode). - Message authentication (MAC, basically a hash or fingerprint) is using SHA1, which is of course very old and started showing weaknesses in academic circles and was first shown to be broken in 2005[1]. - Your connection is using Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral, which is good! Ephemeral means that there is a temporary secret used in the HTTPS negotiation that is thrown away after the session. In the scenario that an adversary (NSA?) gets your HTTPS key and records secure traffic, they won't be able to decode those sessions. This is called 'forward secrecy' (sometimes perfect forward secrecy). Other than that, your HTTPS certs are signed using SHA1, which has been deprecated by all major browsers in favor of SHA2[2]. It's kinda overwhelming, but using the Mozilla cipher list will get you started. They are a list of safe defaults which take into account most of the latest information we have on cryptography. Hope that helps, [0] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Attacks_on_TLS [1] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/sha1_broken.html [2] https://sha.com/ On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 10:35 PM, helix84 heli...@centrum.skmailto:heli...@centrum.sk wrote: On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 9:05 PM, Hilton Gibson hilton.gib...@gmail.commailto:hilton.gib...@gmail.com wrote: Who is the arbiter safe ciphers? I am not a cipher expert. There's no arbiter. The set changes over time as new vulnerabilities are found in existing ciphers and new ciphers are developed to mitigate those attack vectors. A cipher might look good on paper, but only widespread use reveals its weaknesses. Then there is the natural deprecation of shorter key sizes, which is required as new computers gets faster. Furthermore, errors exist in PRNGs, which encryption vitally depends on. The only way is to keep up to date on this information. That's why the Mozilla list Alan mentioned helps - they watch it for you and give you their recommendations. Regards, ~~helix84 Compulsory reading: DSpace Mailing List Etiquette https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette -- Alan Orth alan.o...@gmail.commailto:alan.o...@gmail.com http://alaninkenya.org http://mjanja.co.ke In heaven all the interesting people are missing. -Friedrich Nietzsche GPG public key ID: 0x8cb0d0acb5cd81ec209c6cdfbd1a0e09c2f836c0 -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette
[Dspace-tech] announcing OAI9 in Geneva 17-19 June 2015
The CERN Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication (OAI9) University of Geneva June 17th-19th 2015 This series of Workshops in Geneva has become the major community event in Europe in the year in which it is held. For these three days, librarians, IT professionals, publishers and researchers come together to network, hear presentations from keynote speakers, attend tutorials on cutting-edge themes, and congtribute their ideas through breakout/technical sessions and poster displays. The workshop is designed to provide a focus for the interchange of ideas, the building of new partnerships, the annoucement of new developments and the celebration of success in innovation in the whole scholarly communications process. The workshop will be held in the University of Geneva at the Institute of Graduate Studies and Campus Biotech. Both locations are close to each other and easily accessible on the Geneva tram network. The Programme Committee is currently drawing up an innovative programme for the meeting. Please reserve the dates for OAI9 in your diaries now. Keep an eye on the Workshop website at http://indico.cern.ch/e/oai9, which also lists the Twitter feed and hashtag for the meeting. On behalf of the OAI9 Programme Committee, I look forward to seeing you in the University of Geneva to hear news of current developments in scholarly communication. Cheers, Thomas Krichel http://openlib.org/home/krichel skype:thomaskrichel -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette
[Dspace-tech] Compare repositories
Dear All, Please compare dspace, vivo, fedora, alfresco and more as repository. Sincerely, P.Hadadan | Senior Software Developer NotionWave | Toronto, Canada P.Hadadan [at] notionwave [dot] com -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette
Re: [Dspace-tech] Compare repositories
Hi Here is the beginning of a draft: http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/List_of_Repository_Software Help with info and suggestions would be welcome. Cheers hg *Hilton Gibson* Ubuntu Linux Systems Administrator JS Gericke Library Room 1025C Stellenbosch University Private Bag X5036 Stellenbosch 7599 South Africa Tel: +27 21 808 4100 | Cell: +27 84 646 4758 On 15 September 2014 07:30, P.Hadadan (NW) p.hada...@notionwave.com wrote: Dear All, Please compare dspace, vivo, fedora, alfresco and more as repository. Sincerely, *P.Hadadan | *Senior Software Developer NotionWave | Toronto, Canada P.Hadadan [at] notionwave [dot] com -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette -- Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk___ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech List Etiquette: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/Mailing+List+Etiquette
