On Sun, Dec 1, 2013 at 9:09 PM, Yoav Nir <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> The question remains whether "strict" is necessary for the "pinning to
>> local trust anchor" case.  Ryan argues that it's not, and describes a
>> way for the browser to handle this without "strict":
>>
>> http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/websec/current/msg01947.html
>>
>>
>> That proposal makes sense to me, and avoids the complexity of an
>> additional directive.  So I support removing "strict", and adding text
>> for this "pinning to local trust anchor" case.
>>
> The proposal there is for pins that chain to a well-known CA can be
> overridden, but pins that chain to local CAs cannot. This means that public
> sites, such as banks, social media and corporate portals (one type of "SSL
> VPN") cannot opt out of this local policy override.
>
> With vendor hat on, we have been asked by customers whether we could prevent
> traffic to SSL VPNs (which we provide) from being decrypted. Currently, the
> only options we can give them are to deploy client certificates or to use
> IPsec VPNs. The above proposal adds one other way - to deploy a corporate
> CA. All three defeat the purpose of SSL VPNs that is that they can be used
> from pretty much any device. A "strict" directive and enforcing browser
> version (yes, I know it can be spoofed - none of this is secure against a
> malicious client) can get us close enough.


It's unclear what you're describing.

Is it something like this? -
 - Company A provides an SSL VPN to its employees, but is unwilling to
customize the user's software (e.g. install a trust root)
 - Company B requires everyone working onsite to send all traffic
through a MITM proxy, and *is* willing to customize the user's
software (e.g. install a trust root)
 - An employee of Company A is working onsite at Company B, using her
company A laptop, yet subject to B's IT policies (which doesn't make
sense, but let's soldier on...)
 - Company A would like to prevent the user from accessing A's SSL VPN
through B's MITM proxy

Is this where you think "strict" is useful?  Company A would assert a
"strict" pin for its SSL VPN?

I think it's useless here.  If "strict" was in the spec, many sites
would undoubtedly enable it, causing these sites to (hypothetically)
not to work through B's MITM.  But B would "fix" this by configuring
user browsers to ignore strictness (or even worse, requiring users to
disable pinning, or use a browser without it).

You can't win a policy fight with someone who controls the machine.
It's pointless to try.


Trevor
_______________________________________________
websec mailing list
[email protected]
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/websec

Reply via email to