diff options
author | Phil Pennock <pdp@exim.org> | 2012-05-17 01:32:13 -0400 |
---|---|---|
committer | Phil Pennock <pdp@exim.org> | 2012-05-17 01:32:13 -0400 |
commit | af3498d60d7cae92d50e56353ae19f304b84e6ca (patch) | |
tree | 7c7d4f0ff32504ed7eda563767dd96e190e5fedc /doc/doc-docbook | |
parent | eae0036b2dfac1547351908f77a6154b898c45d6 (diff) |
Guards for older releases of GnuTLS.
gnutls_sec_param_to_pk_bits() and gnutls_rnd() are both new as of
GnuTLS 2.12.x. Guard their usage on 2.12.0+ at compile time.
In older versions, the vaguely_random_number() function just immediately
calls the fallback, so it's the same as before this change (just one
extra indirection in the code-path).
Define a constant of 1024 for dh-bits for use in those old releases
where GnuTLS won't tell us how many we should use.
Change the on-disk filename for generated D-H params again, replacing
the -normal with -<bitcount>, so that it's 1024 or whatever, and as
the value changes, Exim will automatically start using the new value.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/doc-docbook')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt | 25 |
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt b/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt index 22b805c18..6d1802b6b 100644 --- a/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt +++ b/doc/doc-docbook/spec.xfpt @@ -9772,7 +9772,8 @@ supplied number and is at least 0. The quality of this randomness depends on how Exim was built; the values are not suitable for keying material. If Exim is linked against OpenSSL then RAND_pseudo_bytes() is used. .new -if Exim is linked against GnuTLS then gnutls_rnd(GNUTLS_RND_NONCE) is used. +If Exim is linked against GnuTLS then gnutls_rnd(GNUTLS_RND_NONCE) is used, +for versions of GnuTLS with that function. .wen Otherwise, the implementation may be arc4random(), random() seeded by srandomdev() or srandom(), or a custom implementation even weaker than @@ -24964,7 +24965,8 @@ implementation, then patches are welcome. GnuTLS uses D-H parameters that may take a substantial amount of time to compute. It is unreasonable to re-compute them for every TLS session. Therefore, Exim keeps this data in a file in its spool directory, called -&_gnutls-params-normal_&. +&_gnutls-params-NNNN_& for some value of NNNN, corresponding to the number +of bits requested. The file is owned by the Exim user and is readable only by its owner. Every Exim process that start up GnuTLS reads the D-H parameters from this file. If the file does not exist, the first Exim process @@ -24983,7 +24985,7 @@ until enough randomness (entropy) is available. This may cause Exim to hang for a substantial amount of time, causing timeouts on incoming connections. The solution is to generate the parameters externally to Exim. They are stored -in &_gnutls-params-normal_& in PEM format, which means that they can be +in &_gnutls-params-N_& in PEM format, which means that they can be generated externally using the &(certtool)& command that is part of GnuTLS. To replace the parameters with new ones, instead of deleting the file @@ -24991,20 +24993,27 @@ and letting Exim re-create it, you can generate new parameters using &(certtool)& and, when this has been done, replace Exim's cache file by renaming. The relevant commands are something like this: .code +# ls +[ look for file; assume gnutls-params-1024 is the most recent ] # rm -f new-params # touch new-params # chown exim:exim new-params # chmod 0600 new-params -# certtool --generate-dh-params >>new-params +# certtool --generate-dh-params --bits 1024 >>new-params # chmod 0400 new-params -# mv new-params gnutls-params-normal +# mv new-params gnutls-params-1024 .endd If Exim never has to generate the parameters itself, the possibility of stalling is removed. -The filename changed in Exim 4.78, to gain the -normal suffix, corresponding -to the GnuTLS constant &`GNUTLS_SEC_PARAM_NORMAL`&, defining the number of -bits to include. At time of writing, NORMAL corresponds to 2432 bits for D-H. +The filename changed in Exim 4.78, to gain the -bits suffix. The value which +Exim will choose depends upon the version of GnuTLS in use. For older GnuTLS, +the value remains hard-coded in Exim as 1024. As of GnuTLS 2.12.x, there is +a way for Exim to ask for the "normal" number of bits for D-H public-key usage, +and Exim does so. Exim thus removes itself from the policy decision, and the +filename and bits used change as the GnuTLS maintainers change the value for +their parameter &`GNUTLS_SEC_PARAM_NORMAL`&. At the time of writing, this +gives 2432 bits. .wen |