krb5 commit: Add section on updating from single-DES
Benjamin Kaduk
kaduk at MIT.EDU
Tue Oct 9 21:53:12 EDT 2012
https://github.com/krb5/krb5/commit/060d1cf259c7090734342f06bf3d9e45d2299d4f
commit 060d1cf259c7090734342f06bf3d9e45d2299d4f
Author: Ben Kaduk <kaduk at mit.edu>
Date: Wed Oct 3 15:56:46 2012 -0400
Add section on updating from single-DES
There are, unfortunately, still some single-DES deployments out
there. Try to help them along by documenting a procedure for
migrating to stronger crypto.
The texinfo install guide had a section on "upgrading", but it was
not really suitable for direct import into a RST document. For one,
it gave a high profile to the on-disk incompatibilities in upgrades
to 1.1 and 1.2. It also was driven at upgrading *to* triple-des (or RC4),
which are something of a dead-end. This new text attempts to be more
general and applicable to today's environment.
doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/index.rst | 2 +-
.../krb_admins/advanced/retiring-des.rst | 129 ++++++++++++++++++++
doc/rst_source/krb_admins/database.rst | 2 +
3 files changed, 132 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/index.rst b/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/index.rst
index a67d2fb..20112bd 100644
--- a/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/index.rst
+++ b/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/index.rst
@@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ Advanced topics
:maxdepth: 1
ldapbackend.rst
-
+ retiring-des.rst
diff --git a/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/retiring-des.rst b/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/retiring-des.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30f9677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/advanced/retiring-des.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+.. _retiring-des:
+
+Retiring DES
+=======================
+
+Version 5 of the Kerberos protocol was originally implemented using
+the Data Encryption Standard (DES) as a block cipher for encryption.
+While it was considered secure at the time, advancements in computational
+ability have rendered it vulnerable to brute force attacks on its 56-bit
+keyspace. As such, it is now considered insecure and should not be
+used (:rfc:`6649`).
+
+History
+-------
+
+DES was used in the original Kerberos implementation, and was the
+only cryptosystem in krb5 1.0. Partial support for triple-DES (3DES) was
+added in version 1.1, with full support following in version 1.2.
+The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which supersedes DES, gained
+partial support in version 1.3.0 of krb5 and full support in version 1.3.2.
+However, deployments of krb5 using Kerberos databases created with older
+versions of krb5 will not necessarily start using strong crypto for
+ordinary operation without administrator intervention.
+
+Types of keys
+-------------
+
+The entire Kerberos database is encrypted using the database master
+key, presently stored as ``K/M`` by default. Each entry in the
+Kerberos database has a set of keys with different encryption types,
+corresponding to that principal's current key version number.
+For a user principal, these keys are derived from the user's password
+via the various string2key functions for those encryption types;
+for a service principal with keys stored in a keytab, the keys of
+different encryption types are all stored in the keytab.
+When a new principal is added or a principal's key is updated (for
+example, due to a user password change), new keys are generated for
+that principal with all of the different encryption types that the
+KDC is configured to use (the **supported_enctypes** variable in kdc.conf).
+This list can be overridden on a case-by-case basis using arguments
+to :ref:`kadmin(1)`.
+
+When a Kerberos client initiates a Kerberos transaction, the client
+requests a service ticket for a given service from the KDC; this service
+ticket will contain only a single key, of a particular encryption type.
+When sending its request to the KDC, the client can request a particular
+list of encryption types, as controlled by the client machine's
+:ref:`krb5.conf(5)` configuration file or specific API calls in the
+client software.
+To choose the encryption type for the service ticket's key, the KDC
+must accomodate the client's preference and also confirm that the service
+principal has a key in the Kerberos database of that encryption type.
+Note that the encryption types supported by the krb5 installation on
+the server that will receive the service ticket is not a factor in
+the KDC's choice of encryption type; this information is not available
+in the Kerberos protocol. In order to allow uninterrupted operation to
+clients while migrating away from DES, care must be taken to ensure that
+the krb5 installation on server machines is configured to support newer
+encryption types before keys of those new encryption types are created
+in the Kerberos database for those server principals.
+
+Upgrade procedure
+-----------------
+
+This procedure assumes that the KDC software has already been upgraded
+to a modern version of krb5 that supports non-DES keys, so that the
+only remaining task is to update the actual keys used to service requests.
+
+While it is possible to upgrade individual service principals to non-DES
+keys before transitioning the entire realm, it is probably best to
+start with upgrading the key for the ticket-granting service principal,
+``krbtgt/REALM``. Since the server that will handle service tickets
+for this principal is the KDC itself, it is easy to guarantee that it
+will be configured to support any encryption types which might be
+selected. However, just creating a new key version (and new keys) for
+that principal will invalidate all existing tickets issued against that
+principal, which in practice means all tickets obtained by clients.
+Instead, a new key can be created with the old key retained, so that
+existing tickets will still function until their scheduled expiry
+(see :ref:`changing_krbtgt_key`).
+
+Once the krbtgt key is updated, users will get non-DES (usually AES in
+modern releases) session keys for their TGT, but subsequent requests
+for service tickets will still get DES keys, because the database
+entry for the service principal still only has DES keys. Application service
+remains uninterrupted due to the key-selection procedure on the KDC.
+
+At this point, service administrators can update their services and the
+servers behind them. If necessary, the krb5 installation should be
+upgraded to a version supporting non-DES keys, and :ref:`krb5.conf(5)`
+edited so that the default enctype list includes the additional enctypes
+needed. Only when the service is configured to accept non-DES keys should
+the key version number be incremented and new keys generated.
+Until the KDC's configuration is changed to generate non-DES keys by
+default, it is necessary to use :ref:`kadmin(1)` to produce new keys
+with the desired enctypes; the ``-keepold`` functionality may also be
+desired in some cases. When a single service principal is shared by
+multiple backend servers in a load-balanced environment, it may be
+necessary to schedule downtime or adjust the population in the load-balanced
+pool in order to propagate the updated keytab to all hosts in the pool
+with minimal service interruption.
+
+Once the high-visibility services have been rekeyed, it is probably
+appropriate to change :ref:`kdc.conf(5)` to generate keys with the new
+encryption types by default. This enables server administrators to generate
+new keys with :ref:`k5srvutil(1)` ``change``, and causes user password
+changes to add new encryption types for their entries. It will probably
+be necessary to implement administrative controls to cause all user
+principal keys to be updated in a reasonable period of time, whether
+by forcing password changes or a password synchronization service that
+has access to the current password and can add the new keys.
+
+Once all principals have been re-keyed, DES support can be disabled on the
+KDC, and client machines can remove **allow_weak_crypto = true** from
+their :ref:`krb5.conf(5)` configuration files, completing the migration.
+For completeness, the kadmin **purgekeys** command should be used to
+remove the old keylist for ``krbtgt/REALM`` which includes the single-DES
+key(s), though the KDC will only issue new tickets using the highest
+available kvno, which at this point does not have single-DES keys available.
+
+This procedure does not alter ``K/M at REALM``, the key used to encrypt the
+Kerberos database itself. (This is the key stored in the stash file
+on the KDC if stash files are used.) However, the security risk of
+a single-DES key for ``K/M`` is minimal, given that access to material
+encrypted in ``K/M`` (the Kerberos database) is generally tightly controlled.
+If an attacker can gain access to the encrypted database, they likely
+have access to the stash file as well, rendering the weak cryptography
+broken by non-cryptographic means. As such, upgrading ``K/M`` to a stronger
+encryption type is unlikely to be a high-priority task.
diff --git a/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/database.rst b/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/database.rst
index 2671e0e..4567c05 100644
--- a/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/database.rst
+++ b/doc/rst_source/krb_admins/database.rst
@@ -660,6 +660,8 @@ commands on the KDCs in both realms::
at least 26 characters of random ASCII text.
+.. _changing_krbtgt_key:
+
Changing the krbtgt key
-----------------------
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