Amit,
On 11/25/20 12:40, Amit Pande wrote:
Thank you Chris for the inputs. Admittedly, I didn’t know the internals of Sun
JCE/JSSE vs BC JCE.
Pasting sample output and it indeed is taking minutes on RHEL 7.3. Not sure if
I am indeed missing some trick here.
RHEL 7.3 ---------------
test-host-1:~ # date ; /usr/openv/java/jre/bin/keytool -providerpath /root/Downloads/bc-fips-1.0.2.jar -providerclass
org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.BouncyCastleFipsProvider -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -keypass "Test123"
-validity 3650 -dname "CN=Amit_HostName, ou=My_Org_Unit, o=My_Org" -storepass "Test123" -keystore
"/tmp/test_bc.bcfks" -storetype BCFKS -v -alias abcd ; date
Wed Nov 25 10:52:56 CST 2020 (START TIME)
Generating 2,048 bit RSA key pair and self-signed certificate (SHA256withRSA)
with a validity of 3,650 days
for: CN=Amit_HostName, OU=My_Org_Unit, O=My_Org
[Storing /tmp/test_bc.bcfks]
Wed Nov 25 10:58:11 CST 2020 (END TIME) (Almost 6 minutes)
test-host-1:~ # uname -a
Linux test-host-1 3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Oct 19 11:24:13 EDT 2016
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
test-host-1:~ # cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo)
test-host-1:~ #
test-host-1:~ # /usr/openv/java/jre/bin/java -version
java version "1.8.0_271"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_271-b09)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.271-b09, mixed mode)
test-host-1:~ #
RHEL 7.2 -------------
[root@test-host-2 ~]# date ; /usr/openv/java/jre/bin/keytool -providerpath /root/bc-fips-1.0.2.jar -providerclass
org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.BouncyCastleFipsProvider -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -keypass "Test123"
-validity 3650 -dname "CN=Amit_HostName, ou=My_Org_Unit, o=My_Org" -storepass "Test123" -keystore
"/tmp/test_bc.bcfks" -storetype BCFKS -v -alias abcd ; date
Wed Nov 25 11:20:06 CST 2020 (START TIME)
Generating 2,048 bit RSA key pair and self-signed certificate (SHA256withRSA)
with a validity of 3,650 days
for: CN=Amit_HostName, OU=My_Org_Unit, O=My_Org
[Storing /tmp/test_bc.bcfks]
Wed Nov 25 11:20:10 CST 2020 (END TIME) (Almost 4 seconds)
[root@test-host-2 ~]# uname -a
Linux test-host-2 3.10.0-327.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Oct 29 17:29:29 EDT 2015
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@test-host-2 ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.2 (Maipo)
[root@test-host-2 ~]#
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.2 (Maipo)
[root@test-host-2 ~]# /usr/openv/java/jre/bin/java -version
java version "1.8.0_261"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_261-b33)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.261-b33, mixed mode)
[root@test-host-2 ~]#
Since the keytool is literally taking minutes (specifically on RHEL
7.3 as you can see above), enabling FIPS OOTB has become a challenge
as it has resulted in some our test suites timing out.
What I see is that on two servers were everything is the same (except
for the RHEL version... weird; RHEL 7.2 and 7.3 have identical kernel
versions?), two identical command-lines take different amounts of time.
In both cases, you are using BC with FIPS enabled.
The reason is that one of the servers is starved for entropy and the
other one is not. Some operations require a LOT of entropy (like
generating an RSA key) and others require less entropy, but each of
those operations consumes some of the system's entropy as they occur.
When you run out, processes block waiting for it, and it's only created
slowly as random hardware events are sampled to generate that "high
quality randomness". So it can take a while.
Some servers have hardware that generates entropy faster, some servers
have usage profiles that cause certain hardware events to occur more
often and therefore keep the entropy pool full. Others are constantly
starved for entropy.
Tomcat is very much a core of our product and configuration and
starting Tomcat in timely manner (FIPS or no FIPS) has been a
critical requirement. And now, with this issue, test suites timing
out, hard to convince to get the suite timeouts increased. 😊
Well, you don't have too many choices. You either fix your entropy
problem (which isn't exactly straightforward), or you switch to a
process which does not require so much entropy (which may mean disabling
FIPS), or you allow for more time to complete those operations.
Is the generation of RSA keys a part of your test suite? Maybe you can
re-write your test suite to only generate the certificate if it's
missing and/or is getting close to expiration. If you generate a new RSA
key for each run of your test quite, you are certainly going to drain
your entropy pool quickly and repeatedly.
BTW, I'm assuming that you are using (or at least just /testing/) FIPS
mode because you need a "high security" environment. Nothing about a
2048-bit RSA key that is valid for 10 years should be considered "high
security".
-chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Schultz <ch...@christopherschultz.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 10:33 AM
To: users@tomcat.apache.org
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Bouncy Castle FIPS on RHEL 7.3
Amit,
On 11/24/20 11:21, Amit Pande wrote:
Probably not directly related to Tomcat but still sharing. Advanced
apologies for that.
I am using bouncy castle FIPS library and observed that specifically
on RHEL 7.3, the library usage is causing tremendous slowness.
Note that BC is pure-Java, so you should pretty much expect "tremendous
slowness". The reason that the Sun JCE/JSSE provider is (or can be) very fast is
because it's using both native code (which is only marginally faster than well-JIT'ed
Java bytecode, if at all) and also hardware support when it's available. There is no way
that I know of for BC's pure-Java crypto implementations to use hardware acceleration.
AES on silicon is *much* faster than AES in software.
e.g. below key tool command taking several minutes to finish.
Uhh... that's not software versus hardware. You might expect an order of
magnitude difference between BC and hardware-accelerated SunJCE. But minutes to
generate a 2048-bit RSA key? Something is wrong.
keytool -providerpath /root/Downloads/bc-fips-1.0.2.jar -providerclass
org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.BouncyCastleFipsProvider -genkeypair
-keyalg RSA -keypass "Test123" -validity 3650 -dname
"CN=Test_HostName, ou=My Org Unit, o=My Org" -storepass "Test123"
-keystore "/tmp/test_bc.bcfks" -storetype BCFKS -v -alias test_entry
However, when I add the JVM option
-J-Djava.security.egd=file:/dev/./urandom instead of the default
/dev/random, all problems go away.
Classic entropy problem.
It's rather strange that multiple 7.3 RHEL systems are showing this
behavior very consistently. RHEL 7.2, 8.0 seem just fine in my
testing. No issues when using /dev/random along with JKS type key
stores (including RHEL 7.3).
Even Tomcat is flagging the slowness to generate the secure random
numbers.
"17-Nov-2020 19:24:59.142 WARNING [Catalina-utility-2]
org.apache.catalina.util.SessionIdGeneratorBase.createSecureRandom Creation of
SecureRandom instance for session ID generation using [SHA1PRNG] took [68,745]
milliseconds."
Apparently, according to FIPS experts we should not use /dev/./urandom.
Correct. FIPS assumes that 100% of your cryptographic operations are of the
*utmost highly-classified state-secret-style nuclear-launch-code
flashing-purple* security level.
Sometimes you just don't need to have perfect entropy.
For long-lived keys, really good entropy is a Good Thing. So to generate your RSA keys,
I'd say go ahead and use the "high quality entropy source". But for randomness
for session id generation, and for temporary, bulk encryption TLS session keys,
/dev/urandom is perfectly fine.
So, while I continue to explore further, sharing this in case any one
has seen this behavior or be aware of such potential issue as it may
tie in to their Tomcat (or web apps to be deployed in Tomcat).
You might be able to justify using /dev/urandom (which must be spelled
/dev/./urandom to force Java to actually use it) in your web application, but I
would go ahead and let keytool take as long as it needs.
-chris
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org
