On Dec 2, 2013, at 8:10 AM, Trevor Perrin <[email protected]> wrote:

> 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)

Yes. Maybe this is because the employee is using some weird device like a Mac, 
or a Windows Phone, or a box running Ubuntu - things the IT department has no 
idea how to handle. In other cases, we've seen SSL VPNs deployed to customers 
or partners.

> - 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)

Either that, or they can keep clicking through warning screens.

> - 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…)

Sure it makes sense. The transparent proxy goes with the Wifi.

> - Company A would like to prevent the user from accessing A's SSL VPN
> through B's MITM proxy

*Any* 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).

I don't think many would enable it. I don't think even banks would, and I'm 
pretty sure social media, and web-based mail wouldn't. It's a niche of web 
sites that would enable it.

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

Agreed. But the use case is against someone who does not control the machine.

Yoav

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