Hi,
On 6/1/19 8:29 AM, Michał Zegan wrote:
Hello,
I believe I have found a bug but not quite sure if it is in
documentation or jdk impl itself. I currently have no code example, but
I looked into the jdk code itself.
This
https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/security/java-pki-programmers-guide.html#GUID-43A3A247-E165-408C-AD74-88A75BFB4750
actually suggests that when using the own instance of
PKIXRevocationChecker, you should disable default revocation by
PKIXParameters.setRevocationEnabled(false)
Not completely true. You should disable revocation checking if you are
passing in an subclass of PKIXCertPathChecker (and not
PKIXRevocationChecker) because the JDK implementation doesn't know if it
is a revocation checker or not. But if you pass in a
PKIXRevocationChecker (this API was added later in JDK 1.8) it doesn't
matter if the revocation flag is enabled or not, it will be recognized
and get used instead of the default one.
and it actually seems to be
suggested by api docs too even though it is not stated there directly.
It says in PKIXParameters.setRevocationEnabled [1]:
"Sophisticated applications should set this flag to false when it is not
practical to use a PKIX service provider's default revocation checking
mechanism or when an alternative revocation checking mechanism is to be
substituted (by also calling the addCertPathChecker or
setCertPathCheckers methods)."
and in the PKIXRevocationChecker API [2]:
"When supplying a revocation checker in this manner, it will be used to
check revocation irrespective of the setting of the RevocationEnabled flag."
(Although we should probably add a similar statement to the
setRevocationChecker API so it is more clear).
However:
- first, from what I know, if revocation is enabled by
setRevocationEnabled and a custom PKIXRevocationChecker is added, then
this fact is respected correctly by the validator implementation, it can
be seen in the code.
Right.
- on the other hand, if it is disabled, then you can still add the
checker, but for example ocsp stapling in jsse probably will stop working.
It is because sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator's addResponses method
works only if revocationEnabled is true.
Good catch - that looks like a bug.
What is even more weird, the method seems to honour the fact that user
could add his own PKIXRevocationChecker, but for it to work it has to be
done *and* revocationEnabled needs to be true.
Yes, that should not be required.
Seems like a confusion/inconsistency. Not quite sure if this is a bug in
the code, or more in the documentation, and what is the correct approach.
Note I didn't actually test this (I don't have any ocsp whatever). It is
just what I read when looking at jdk code, so my findings could be wrong.
Thanks for spotting this. I will file a bug on your behalf.
--Sean
[1]
https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/12/docs/api/java.base/java/security/cert/PKIXParameters.html#setRevocationEnabled(boolean)
[2]
https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/12/docs/api/java.base/java/security/cert/PKIXRevocationChecker.html
