Re: Possible SSL improvements for a newcomer to tackle

On Tue, Oct 03, 2017 at 11:45:24AM +0200, Adrien Nayrat wrote:
> On 10/03/2017 06:15 AM, Zeus Kronion wrote:
> > 2) I was surprised to learn the following from the docs:
> >
> >> By default, PostgreSQL will not perform any verification of the server
> > certificate. This means that it is possible to spoof the server identity (for
> > example by modifying a DNS record or by taking over the server IP address)
> > without the client knowing. In order to prevent spoofing, SSL certificate
> > verification must be used.
> >
> > Is there a technical reason to perform no verification by default? Wouldn't a
> > safer default be desirable?
>
> If you want to verify server's certificate you should use DANE [1] + DNSSEC [2]
> ? (I am not an SSL expert too)
>
> If I understand correctly, you can store your certificate in a DNS record
> (TLSA). Then the client can check the certificate. You must trust your DNS
> server (protection against spoofing), that's why you have to use DNSSEC.

+1, but it's trickier than you might think. I can connect you with
Viktor Dukhovni, who has implemented DANE for OpenSSL, and done yeoman's
work getting DANE for SMTP working.

Nico
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