[PATCH] Re: RSA+DSA+ECC bundles

[Rob Stradling]

Hmmm, I guess I should've posted this to nginx-devel.  Reposting...

On 17/10/13 15:05, Rob Stradling wrote:
> On 06/02/13 17:24, Primoz Bratanic wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Apache supports specifying multiple certificates (different types) for
>> same
>> host in line with OpenSSL support (RSA, DSA, ECC). This allows using
>> ECC key
>> exchange methods with clients that support it and it's backwards
>> compatible.
>> I wonder how  much work would it be to add support for this to nginx.
>> Is it
>> just allowing specifying 2-3 certificates (and checking they have
>> different
>> key type) + adding support for returning proper key chain or are the any
>> other obvious roadblocks (that are not obvious to me).
>
> Here's a first stab at a patch.  I hope this is a useful starting point
> for getting this feature added to Nginx.  :-)
>
> To specify an RSA cert plus an ECC cert, use...
>    ssl_certificate  my_rsa.crt my_ecc.crt;
>    ssl_certificate_key  my_rsa.key my_ecc.key;
>    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers  on;
> Also, configure ssl_ciphers to prefer at least 1 ECDSA cipher and permit
> at least 1 RSA cipher.
>
> I think DSA certs should work too, but I've not tested this.
>
>
> Issues I'm aware of with this patch:
>
>    - It doesn't check that each of the certs has a different key type
> (but perhaps it should).  If you specify multiple certs with the same
> algorithm, all but the last one will be ignored.
>
>    - The certs and keys need to be specified in the correct order.  If
> you specify "my_rsa.crt my_ecc.crt" and "my_ecc.key my_rsa.key", Nginx
> will start but it won't be able to complete any SSL handshakes.  This
> could be improved.
>
>    - It doesn't add the new feature to mail_ssl_module.  Perhaps it should.
>
>    - The changes I made to ngx_conf_set_str_array_slot() work for me,
> but do they break anything?
>
>    - An RSA cert and an ECC cert might well be issued by different CAs.
>   On Apache httpd, you have to use SSLCACertificatePath to persuade
> OpenSSL to send different Intermediate certs for each one.
> Nginx doesn't currently have an equivalent directive, and Maxim has
> previously said it's unlikely to be added [1].
> I haven't researched this properly yet, but I think it might be possible
> to do "certificate path" in memory (i.e. without syscalls and disk
> access on each certificate check) using the OpenSSL X509_LOOKUP API.
>
>    - I expect Maxim will have other comments.  :-)
>
>
> [1] http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,229129,229151
>

-- 
Rob Stradling
Senior Research & Development Scientist
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