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Eleftheria Petraki

Certificate chain problem

Hi all,

I have generated a self signed root certification authority and an
intermediate certification authority signed by the root CA using openssl
0.9.7g. The intermediate CA signed an apache 1 with mod-ssl SSL server
certificate. Both the root and intermediate PEM certificates are placed in
the file ca.crt pointed by the directive SSLCACertificateFile.

With this setup I have problem opening my secure site with any browser:
Internet Exlorer 6 cannot display the page, while Mozilla reports: error
establishing an encrypted connection with server error code -8155.
The root CA certificate is successfully imported to the client browsers.

Something must be wrong with the certificate chain because the page is
correctly opened if the server certificate is issued direclty be the root
CA.

I would greatly appreciate any help, since I can not find any solution for
this.

Thanks

Ellie

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Olaf Gellert

Re: Certificate chain problem

Eleftheria Petraki wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have generated a self signed root certification authority and an
> intermediate certification authority signed by the root CA using openssl
> 0.9.7g. The intermediate CA signed an apache 1 with mod-ssl SSL server
> certificate. Both the root and intermediate PEM certificates are placed
> in the file ca.crt pointed by the directive SSLCACertificateFile.

How about putting the intermediate CA-certificate in the file
ca.chain and let the directive SSLCertificateChainFile point
to it? SSLCACertificateFile is IMHO only for accepted CAs
for client authentication (so no wonder the server does not
accept the connection request, your browser does not have
an according client certificate).

> I would greatly appreciate any help, since I can not find any solution
> for this.

I hope it works as described above. Cheers,
Olaf

--
Dipl.Inform. Olaf Gellert PRESECURE (R)
Senior Researcher, Consulting GmbH
Phone: (+49) 0700 / PRESECURE [hidden email]

A daily view on Internet Attacks
https://www.ecsirt.net/sensornet

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Eleftheria Petraki

Re: Certificate chain problem

> > Hi all,
> >
> > I have generated a self signed root certification authority and an
> > intermediate certification authority signed by the root CA using openssl
> > 0.9.7g. The intermediate CA signed an apache 1 with mod-ssl SSL server
> > certificate. Both the root and intermediate PEM certificates are placed
> > in the file ca.crt pointed by the directive SSLCACertificateFile.
>
>How about putting the intermediate CA-certificate in the file
>ca.chain and let the directive SSLCertificateChainFile point
>to it? SSLCACertificateFile is IMHO only for accepted CAs
>for client authentication (so no wonder the server does not
>accept the connection request, your browser does not have
>an according client certificate).

Unfortunately it is not working. IE still cannot display the page and
Mozilla causes the following entry in error_log:
[Mon Jun 13 16:42:57 2005] [error] OpenSSL: error:14094412:SSL
routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert bad certificate [Hint: Subject CN in
certificate not server name or identical to CA!?]

But CN is identical to server name and openssl verifies correctly the server
certificate. If both root and intermediate CA certificates are imported in
Mozilla the page is opened without problems. However the same thing does not
work in IE - the page cannot be displayed. I am realy confused.

>
> > I would greatly appreciate any help, since I can not find any solution
> > for this.
>
>I hope it works as described above. Cheers,
> Olaf
>
>--
>Dipl.Inform. Olaf Gellert PRESECURE (R)
>Senior Researcher, Consulting GmbH
>Phone: (+49) 0700 / PRESECURE [hidden email]
>
> A daily view on Internet Attacks
> https://www.ecsirt.net/sensornet
>

Per Nilsson

RE: Certificate chain problem

In reply to this post by Eleftheria Petraki

The root CA certificate needs to be installed in the browser, have you done
that ?
It is not enough to put the root CA in the ca chain. The client must be able
to build
a certificate chain that ends in a locally trusted certificate (usually a
preinstalled root CA).
I believe the hint in the log file is simply the most likely cause, not the
actual
one in this case, which I guess would be (assuming you didn't install the
root ca and the names are correct)

- If you didn't put the root CA in the chain the client will be unable to
verify the signature on the intermediate CA certificate
- If you did put the root CA in the chain the client will end up with an
untrusted root CA certificate

Both of which would cause a bad certificate alert.

Hope this helps

Per Nilsson

Teleca Sweden East AB

eMail: [hidden email]

-----Original Message-----
From: Eleftheria Petraki [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: den 13 juni 2005 16:09
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Certificate chain problem

> > Hi all,
> >
> > I have generated a self signed root certification authority and an
> > intermediate certification authority signed by the root CA using
> > openssl 0.9.7g. The intermediate CA signed an apache 1 with mod-ssl
> > SSL server certificate. Both the root and intermediate PEM
> > certificates are placed in the file ca.crt pointed by the directive
SSLCACertificateFile.
>
>How about putting the intermediate CA-certificate in the file ca.chain
>and let the directive SSLCertificateChainFile point to it?
>SSLCACertificateFile is IMHO only for accepted CAs for client
>authentication (so no wonder the server does not accept the connection
>request, your browser does not have an according client certificate).

Unfortunately it is not working. IE still cannot display the page and
Mozilla causes the following entry in error_log:
[Mon Jun 13 16:42:57 2005] [error] OpenSSL: error:14094412:SSL
routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert bad certificate [Hint: Subject CN in
certificate not server name or identical to CA!?]

But CN is identical to server name and openssl verifies correctly the server
certificate. If both root and intermediate CA certificates are imported in
Mozilla the page is opened without problems. However the same thing does not
work in IE - the page cannot be displayed. I am realy confused.

>
> > I would greatly appreciate any help, since I can not find any
> > solution for this.
>
>I hope it works as described above. Cheers,
> Olaf
>
>--
>Dipl.Inform. Olaf Gellert PRESECURE (R)
>Senior Researcher, Consulting GmbH
>Phone: (+49) 0700 / PRESECURE [hidden email]
>
> A daily view on Internet Attacks
> https://www.ecsirt.net/sensornet
>

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Goetz Babin-Ebell

Re: Certificate chain problem

In reply to this post by Eleftheria Petraki

Eleftheria Petraki wrote:
>> > Hi all,
Hello Eleftheria,

>> > I have generated a self signed root certification authority and an
>> > intermediate certification authority signed by the root CA using
>> openssl
>> > 0.9.7g. The intermediate CA signed an apache 1 with mod-ssl SSL server
>> > certificate. Both the root and intermediate PEM certificates are placed
>> > in the file ca.crt pointed by the directive SSLCACertificateFile.
>>
>> How about putting the intermediate CA-certificate in the file
>> ca.chain and let the directive SSLCertificateChainFile point
>> to it? SSLCACertificateFile is IMHO only for accepted CAs
>> for client authentication (so no wonder the server does not
>> accept the connection request, your browser does not have
>> an according client certificate).
>
> Unfortunately it is not working. IE still cannot display the page and
> Mozilla causes the following entry in error_log:
> [Mon Jun 13 16:42:57 2005] [error] OpenSSL: error:14094412:SSL
> routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert bad certificate [Hint: Subject CN
> in certificate not server name or identical to CA!?]

Perhaps you should start with a more basic approach:

do an
openssl s_client -connect server:443 -CAfile root.crt

(root.crt should only contain the root certificate...)

If this prints somewhere the verify error message
"unable to get local issuer certificate" the server doesn't send
the intermediate CA cert.
(this is an error, only the root cert may be omitted...)

You should insert the intermediate CE cert in the CA cert file
the directive SSLCertificateChainFile points to...

> But CN is identical to server name and openssl verifies correctly the
> server certificate. If both root and intermediate CA certificates are
> imported in Mozilla the page is opened without problems. However the
> same thing does not work in IE - the page cannot be displayed. I am
> realy confused.

In your constellation s_client should print an certificate chain with
2 certificates in it...
* the root cert (from the CAfile) and
* the intermediate cert (provided by the server)

Bye

Goetz

--
DMCA: The greed of the few outweighs the freedom of the many

smime.p7s (4K) Download Attachment

Eleftheria Petraki

Re: Certificate chain problem

Hi all,

with the intermediate CA in the SSLCertificateChainFile the openssl s_client
-connect ...,
returns verify code: 0 (ok). The certificate chain reports two certificates,
the server and the intermediate CA certificate with the correct issuers,
while just after CONNECTED(0000004) I can see all the certificates in the
chain included the root CA.

However I still cannot see the page with IE even though the root CA
certificate is correctly imported. Mozilla works only if both root and
intermediate certificates are imported.

I am going to abandon this scheme and use only the root CA.

Thank you for your answers...

>From: Goetz Babin-Ebell <[hidden email]>
>Reply-To: [hidden email]
>To: [hidden email]
>Subject: Re: Certificate chain problem
>Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 22:40:10 +0200
>
>Eleftheria Petraki wrote:
>>> > Hi all,
>Hello Eleftheria,
>
>>> > I have generated a self signed root certification authority and an
>>> > intermediate certification authority signed by the root CA using
>>>openssl
>>> > 0.9.7g. The intermediate CA signed an apache 1 with mod-ssl SSL server
>>> > certificate. Both the root and intermediate PEM certificates are
>>>placed
>>> > in the file ca.crt pointed by the directive SSLCACertificateFile.
>>>
>>>How about putting the intermediate CA-certificate in the file
>>>ca.chain and let the directive SSLCertificateChainFile point
>>>to it? SSLCACertificateFile is IMHO only for accepted CAs
>>>for client authentication (so no wonder the server does not
>>>accept the connection request, your browser does not have
>>>an according client certificate).
>>
>>Unfortunately it is not working. IE still cannot display the page and
>>Mozilla causes the following entry in error_log:
>>[Mon Jun 13 16:42:57 2005] [error] OpenSSL: error:14094412:SSL
>>routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert bad certificate [Hint: Subject CN in
>>certificate not server name or identical to CA!?]
>
>Perhaps you should start with a more basic approach:
>
>do an
>openssl s_client -connect server:443 -CAfile root.crt
>
>(root.crt should only contain the root certificate...)
>
>If this prints somewhere the verify error message
>"unable to get local issuer certificate" the server doesn't send
>the intermediate CA cert.
>(this is an error, only the root cert may be omitted...)
>
>You should insert the intermediate CE cert in the CA cert file
>the directive SSLCertificateChainFile points to...
>
>>But CN is identical to server name and openssl verifies correctly the
>>server certificate. If both root and intermediate CA certificates are
>>imported in Mozilla the page is opened without problems. However the same
>>thing does not work in IE - the page cannot be displayed. I am realy
>>confused.
>
>In your constellation s_client should print an certificate chain with
>2 certificates in it...
>* the root cert (from the CAfile) and
>* the intermediate cert (provided by the server)
>
>
>Bye
>
>Goetz
>
>--
>DMCA: The greed of the few outweighs the freedom of the many
><< smime.p7s >>

Goetz Babin-Ebell

Re: Certificate chain problem

Eleftheria Petraki wrote:
> Hi all,
Hello Elefteria,

> with the intermediate CA in the SSLCertificateChainFile the openssl
> s_client -connect ...,
> returns verify code: 0 (ok). The certificate chain reports two
> certificates, the server and the intermediate CA certificate with the
> correct issuers, while just after CONNECTED(0000004) I can see all the
> certificates in the chain included the root CA.

Beware:
The certificate verify code in s_client
has is still room for improvement.

So s_client having an verify code 0
doesn't say that the certificate chain is correct and complete...

> However I still cannot see the page with IE even though the root CA
> certificate is correctly imported. Mozilla works only if both root and
> intermediate certificates are imported.

???
Strange.
I remember doing a verify test with an certificate chain
with root and intermediate CA.
And AFAIR Mozilla had no problem with only the root known.

I think for chaining to work,
the CA certificates must be version 3 certificates
with basicConstrains- and keyUsage- extensions set.

Could you send me the certificates ?

Bye

Goetz

--
DMCA: The greed of the few outweighs the freedom of the many

smime.p7s (4K) Download Attachment

Eleftheria Petraki

Re: Certificate chain problem

In reply to this post by Goetz Babin-Ebell

SUMMARY:

The problem was that the root CA had a pathlen=0, so the intermediate CA
could not be recognized. Setting pathlen=1 solved it.

Many thanks to Goetz for his help.

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