On this page:
IceSSL.Alias
Synopsis
IceSSL.Alias=alias (Java)
Description
Selects a particular certificate from the key store specified by IceSSL.Keystore. The certificate identified by alias is presented to the peer request during authentication.
IceSSL.CertAuthDir
Synopsis
IceSSL.CertAuthDir=path (C++)
Description
Specifies the directory containing the certificates of trusted certificate authorities. The directory must be prepared in advance using the OpenSSL utility c_rehash.
IceSSL attempts to locate path as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate path relative to the default directory.
IceSSL.CertAuthFile
Synopsis
IceSSL.CertAuthFile=file (C++, Ice Touch)
Description
Specifies a file containing the certificate of a trusted certificate authority.
Platform Notes
C++
The certificate must be encoded using the PEM format.
IceSSL attempts to locate file as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate file relative to the default directory.
Ice Touch
The certificate must be encoded using the DER format.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is also defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified CA certificate file as Resources/DefaultDir/file in the application's resource bundle and as DefaultDir/file in the file system.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is not defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified CA certificate file as Resources/file in the application's resource bundle and as file in the file system.
If this property is not defined, IceSSL looks for suitable CA certificates in the user's keychains and in the system keychain.
IceSSL.CertFile
Synopsis
IceSSL.CertFile=file (.NET, Ice Touch)IceSSL.CertFile=file[:file] (C++ & Unix only)IceSSL.CertFile=file[;file] (C++ & Windows only)
Description
Specifies a file that contains the program's certificate, and may also contain the corresponding private key.
Platform Notes
C++
The private key is optional; if not present, the file containing the private key must be identified by IceSSL.KeyFile. If a password is required, OpenSSL will prompt the user at the terminal unless the application has installed a password handler or supplied the password using IceSSL.Password. The certificate must be encoded using the PEM format.
OpenSSL allows you to specify certificates for both RSA and DSA. To specify both certificates, separate the filenames using the platform's path separator character.
IceSSL attempts to locate file as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate file relative to the default directory.
.NET
The file must use the PFX (PKCS#12) format and contain the certificate and its private key. The password for the file must be supplied using IceSSL.Password.
IceSSL attempts to locate file as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate file relative to the default directory.
Ice Touch
The file must use the PFX (PKCS#12) format and contain the certificate and its private key. The password for the file must be supplied using IceSSL.Password. The certificate is imported into the keychain identified by the IceSSL.Keychain property.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is also defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified certificate file as Resources/DefaultDir/file in the application's resource bundle and as DefaultDir/file in the file system.
If IceSSL.DefaultDir is not defined, IceSSL attempts to open the specified certificate file as Resources/file in the application's resource bundle and as file in the file system.
IceSSL.CertVerifier
Synopsis
IceSSL.CertVerifier=classname (Java, .NET)
Description
Specifies the name of a Java or .NET class that implements the IceSSL.CertificateVerifier interface for performing application-defined certificate verification.
IceSSL.CheckCertName
Synopsis
IceSSL.CheckCertName=num
Description
If num is a value greater than zero, IceSSL attempts to match the server's host name as specified in the proxy endpoint against the common name component of the server certificate's subject name. If no match is found, IceSSL attempts to match the host name against the DNS and IP address fields of the server certificate's subject alternative name. The search does not issue any DNS queries but simply performs a case-insensitive string match. The server's certificate is accepted if its common name or any of its DNS or IP addresses matches the host name in the proxy endpoint. IceSSL skips this validation step if the server does not supply a certificate, or if the proxy endpoint does not include a host name and Ice.Default.Host is not defined. This property has no affect on a server's validation of a client's certificate. If no match is found, IceSSL aborts the connection attempt and raises an exception. If not defined, the default value is zero.
IceSSL.CheckCRL
Synopsis
IceSSL.CheckCRL=num (.NET)
Description
If num is a value greater than zero, IceSSL checks the certificate revocation list (CRL) to determine if the peer's certificate has been revoked. The value for num determines the resulting behavior:
| Disables CRL checking. |
| If a certificate is revoked, IceSSL aborts the connection, logs a message and raises an exception. If a certificate's revocation status is unknown, IceSSL logs a message but accepts the certificate. |
2 | If a certificate is revoked or its revocation status is unknown, IceSSL aborts the connection, logs a message and raises an exception. |
The IceSSL.Trace.Security property must be set to a non-zero value to see CRL-related log messages. If IceSSL.CheckCRL is not defined, the default value is zero.
IceSSL.Ciphers
Synopsis
IceSSL.Ciphers=ciphers (C++, Java)
Description
Specifies the cipher suites that IceSSL is allowed to negotiate. A cipher suite is a set of algorithms that satisfies the four requirements for establishing a secure connection: signing and authentication, key exchange, secure hashing, and encryption. Some algorithms satisfy more than one requirement, and there are many possible combinations.
Platform Notes
C++
The value of this attribute is given directly to the OpenSSL library and is dependent on how OpenSSL was compiled. You can obtain a complete list of the supported cipher suites using the command openssl ciphers. This command will likely generate a long list. To simplify the selection process, OpenSSL supports several classes of ciphers. Classes and ciphers can be excluded by prefixing them with an exclamation point. The special keyword @STRENGTH sorts the cipher list in order of their strength, so that SSL gives preference to the more secure ciphers when negotiating a cipher suite. The @STRENGTH keyword must be the last element in the list. The classes are:
| Enables all supported cipher suites. This class should be used with caution, as it may enable low-security cipher suites. |
| Anonymous ciphers. |
| Low bit-strength ciphers. |
| Export-crippled ciphers. |
Here is an example of a reasonable setting:
ALL:!ADH:!LOW:!EXP:!MD5:@STRENGTH
This value excludes the ciphers with low bit-strength and known problems, and orders the remaining ciphers according to their strength. Note that no warning is given if an unrecognized cipher is specified.
Java
The property value is interpreted as a list of tokens delimited by white space. The plug-in executes the tokens in the order of appearance in order to assemble the list of enabled cipher suites. The table below describes the tokens:
| Disables all cipher suites. If specified, it must be the first token in the list. |
| Enables all supported cipher suites. If specified, it must be the first token in the list. This token should be used with caution, as it may enable low-security cipher suites. |
| Enables the cipher suite matching the given name. |
| Disables the cipher suite matching the given name. |
| Enables cipher suites whose names contain the regular expression |
| Disables cipher suites whose names contain the regular expression |
If not specified, the plug-in uses the security provider's default cipher suites. Enable IceSSL.Trace.Security to determine which cipher suites are enabled by default, or to verify your cipher suite configuration.
IceSSL.DefaultDir
Synopsis
IceSSL.DefaultDir=path
Description
Specifies the default directory in which to look for certificate, key, and key store files. See the descriptions of the relevant properties for more information.
IceSSL.DH.bits
Synopsis
IceSSL.DH.bits=file (C++)
Description
Specifies a file containing Diffie Hellman parameters whose key length is bits, as shown in the following example:
IceSSL.DH.1024=dhparams1024.pem
IceSSL supplies default parameters for key lengths of 512, 1024, 2048, and 4096 bits, which are used if no user-defined parameters of the desired key length are specified. The parameters must be encoded using the PEM format.
IceSSL attempts to locate file as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate file relative to the default directory.
IceSSL.EntropyDaemon
Synopsis
IceSSL.EntropyDaemon=file (C++)
Description
Specifies a Unix domain socket for the entropy gathering daemon, from which OpenSSL gathers entropy data to initialize its random number generator.
IceSSL.FindCert.location.name
Synopsis
IceSSL.FindCert.location.name=criteria (.NET)
Description
Queries the certificate repository for matching certificates and adds them to the application's collection of certificates that are used for authentication. The value for location must be LocalMachine or CurrentUser.
The name corresponds to the .NET enumeration StoreName and may be one of the following values: AddressBook, AuthRoot, CertificateAuthority, Disallowed, My, Root, TrustedPeople, TrustedPublisher. It is also possible to use an arbitrary value for name.
The value for criteria may be *, in which case all of the certificates in the store are selected. Otherwise, criteria must be one or more field:value pairs separated by white space. The valid field names are described below:
| Matches a substring of the issuer's name. |
| Matches the issuer's entire distinguished name. |
| Matches the certificate's serial number. |
| Matches a substring of the subject's name. |
| Matches the subject's entire distinguished name. |
| Matches the certificate's subject key identifier. |
| Matches the certificate's thumbprint. |
The field names are case-insensitive. If multiple criteria are specified, only certificates that match all criteria are selected. Values must be enclosed in single or double quotes to preserve white space.
Multiple occurrences of the property are allowed, but only one query is possible for each location/name combination. The certificates from all queries are combined to form the certificate collection, including a certificate loaded using IceSSL.CertFile. Here are some sample queries:
IceSSL.FindCert.LocalMachine.My=issuer:verisign serial:219336 IceSSL.FindCert.CurrentUser.Root=subject:"Joe's Certificate"
A server requires a certificate for authentication purposes, therefore IceSSL selects the first certificate in the accumulated collection. This is normally the certificate loaded via IceSSL.CertFile, if that property was defined. Otherwise, one of the certificates from IceSSL.FindCert.location.name is selected. Since IceSSL does not guarantee the order in which it evaluates IceSSL.FindCert.location.name properties, it is recommended that the criteria select only one certificate.
IceSSL.ImportCert.location.name
Synopsis
IceSSL.ImportCert.location.name=file[;password] (.NET)
Description
Imports the certificate in file into the specified certificate store. The value for location must be LocalMachine or CurrentUser. The name corresponds to the .NET enumeration StoreName and may be one of the following values: AddressBook, AuthRoot, CertificateAuthority, Disallowed, My, Root, TrustedPeople, TrustedPublisher. It is also possible to use an arbitrary value for name, which adds a new store to the repository. If you are importing a trusted CA certificate, it must be added to AuthRoot or Root.
The password is optional; it is only necessary if the certificate file also contains a private key or uses a secure storage format such as PFX.
The file name and password may be enclosed in single or double quotes if necessary.
Importing a certificate into LocalMachine requires administrator privileges, while importing into CurrentUser may cause the platform to prompt the user for confirmation.
IceSSL attempts to locate file as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate file relative to the default directory.
IceSSL.InitOpenSSL
Synopsis
IceSSL.InitOpenSSL=num (C++)
Description
Indicates whether IceSSL should perform the global initialization tasks for the OpenSSL library. The default value is 1, meaning IceSSL will initialize OpenSSL. An application can set this property to zero if it wishes to perform the OpenSSL initialization itself, which can be useful when the application uses multiple components that depend on OpenSSL.
IceSSL.Keychain
Synopsis
IceSSL.Keychain=name (Ice Touch)
Description
Specifies the name of keychain in which to import the certificate identified by IceSSL.CertFile. If not defined, the keychain named login is used by default. Note that this property is only relevant for the iPhone simulator and OS X targets.
IceSSL.KeychainPassword
Synopsis
IceSSL.KeychainPassword=password (Ice Touch)
Description
Specifies the password for the keychain identified by IceSSL.Keychain. If not defined, IceSSL attempts to open the keychain without a password. Note that this property is only relevant for the iPhone simulator and OS X targets.
IceSSL.KeyFile
Synopsis
IceSSL.KeyFile=file (C++)
Description
Specifies a file containing the private key associated with the certificate identified by IceSSL.CertFile. The key must be encoded using the PEM format.
IceSSL attempts to locate file as specified; if the given path cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate file relative to the default directory.
IceSSL.KeySet
Synopsis
IceSSL.KeySet=DefaultKeySet|MachineKeySet|UserKeySet (.NET)
Description
Specifies how and where to import the private key of an X.509 certificate. The possible values correspond directly to flags in the .NET enumeration X509KeyStorageFlags. If not defined, the default value is DefaultKeySet.
The IceSSL.PersistKeySet property affects the lifetime of the private key.
IceSSL.Keystore
Synopsis
IceSSL.Keystore=file (Java)
Description
Specifies a key store file containing certificates and their private keys. If the key store contains multiple certificates, you should specify a particular one to use for authentication using IceSSL.Alias. IceSSL first attempts to open file as a class loader resource and then as a regular file. If file cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate it relative to the default directory. The format of the file is determined by IceSSL.KeystoreType.
If this property is not defined, the application will not be able to supply a certificate during SSL handshaking. As a result, the application may not be able to negotiate a secure connection, or might be required to use an anonymous cipher suite.
IceSSL.KeystorePassword
Synopsis
IceSSL.KeystorePassword=password (Java)
Description
Specifies the password used to verify the integrity of the key store defined by IceSSL.Keystore. The integrity check is skipped if this property is not defined.
It is a security risk to use a plain-text password in a configuration file.
IceSSL.KeystoreType
Synopsis
IceSSL.KeystoreType=type (Java)
Description
Specifies the format of the key store file defined by IceSSL.Keystore. Legal values are JKS and PKCS12. If not defined, the JVM's default value is used (normally JKS).
IceSSL.Password
Synopsis
IceSSL.Password=password
Description
Specifies the password necessary to decrypt the private key. It is a security risk to use a plain-text password in a configuration file.
Platform Notes
C++
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the private key contained in the file defined by IceSSL.CertFile or IceSSL.KeyFile. If this property is not defined and you have not installed a password callback object, OpenSSL will prompt the user for a password if one is necessary.
Java
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the private key contained in the key store defined by IceSSL.Keystore. All of the keys in the key store must use the same password.
.NET
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the file defined by IceSSL.CertFile.
Ice Touch
This property supplies the password that was used to secure the file defined by IceSSL.CertFile.
IceSSL.PasswordCallback
Synopsis
IceSSL.PasswordCallback=classname (Java, .NET)
Description
Specifies the name of a Java or .NET class that implements the IceSSL.PasswordCallback interface. Using a password callback is a more secure alternative to specifying a password in a plain-text configuration file.
IceSSL.PasswordRetryMax
Synopsis
IceSSL.PasswordRetryMax=num (C++)
Description
Specifies the number of attempts IceSSL should allow the user to make when entering a password. If not defined, the default value is 3.
IceSSL.PersistKeySet
Synopsis
IceSSL.PersistKeySet=num (.NET)
Description
If num is a value greater than zero, IceSSL includes the PersistKeySet flag when importing the private key of an X.509 certificate to ensure the key is stored in a persistent container. The PersistKeySet flag is one of the flags in the .NET enumeration X509KeyStorageFlags. If not defined, the default value is zero.
The IceSSL.KeySet property determines the location of the private key.
IceSSL.Protocols
Synopsis
IceSSL.Protocols=list (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
Specifies the protocols to allow during SSL handshaking. Legal values are SSL3, TLS1, TLS1_0 (alias for TLS1), TLS1_1, and TLS1_2. You may also specify multiple values, separated by commas or white space. If this property is not defined, the platform's default is used.
In C#, the options TLS1_1 and TLS1_2 require .NET 4.5 or later.
IceSSL.Random
Synopsis
IceSSL.Random=filelist (C++, Java)
Description
Specifies one or more files containing data to use when seeding the random number generator. The file names should be separated using the platform's path separator (a colon on Unix and a semicolon on Windows).
Platform Notes
C++
IceSSL attempts to locate each file as specified; if a file cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate it relative to the default directory.
Java
IceSSL first attempts to open each file as a class loader resource and then as a regular file. If a file cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate it relative to the default directory.
IceSSL.Trace.Security
Synopsis
IceSSL.Trace.Security=num (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
The SSL plug-in trace level:
| No security tracing (default). |
| Display diagnostic information about SSL connections. |
IceSSL.TrustOnly
Synopsis
IceSSL.TrustOnly=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
Identifies trusted and untrusted peers. This family of properties provides an additional level of authentication by using the peer certificate's distinguished name (DN) to decide whether to accept or reject a connection.
Each ENTRY in the property value consists of relative distinguished name (RDN) components, formatted according to the rules in RFC 2253. Specifically, the components must be separated by commas, and any component that contains a comma must be escaped or enclosed in quotes. For example, the following two property definitions are equivalent:
IceSSL.TrustOnly=O="Acme, Inc.",OU=Sales IceSSL.TrustOnly=O=Acme\, Inc.,OU="Sales"
Use a semicolon to separate multiple entries in a property:
IceSSL.TrustOnly=O=Acme\, Inc.,OU=Sales;O=Acme\, Inc.,OU=Marketing
By default, each entry represents an acceptance entry. A ! character appearing at the beginning of an entry signifies a rejection entry. The order of the entries in a property is not important.
After the SSL engine has successfully completed its authentication process, IceSSL evaluates the relevant IceSSL.TrustOnly properties in an attempt to find an entry that matches the peer certificate's DN. For a match to be successful, the peer DN must contain an exact match for all of the RDN components in an entry. An entry may contain as many RDN components as you wish, depending on how narrowly you need to restrict access. The order of the RDN components in an entry is not important.
The connection semantics are described below:
- IceSSL aborts the connection if any rejection or acceptance entries are defined and the peer does not supply a certificate.
- IceSSL aborts the connection if the peer DN matches any rejection entry. (This is true even if the peer DN also matches an acceptance entry.)
- IceSSL accepts the connection if the peer DN matches any acceptance entry, or if no acceptance entries are defined.
Our original example limits access to people in the sales and marketing departments:
IceSSL.TrustOnly=O=Acme\, Inc.,OU=Sales;O=Acme\, Inc.,OU=Marketing
If it later becomes necessary to deny access to certain individuals in these departments, you can add a rejection entry and restart the program:
IceSSL.TrustOnly=O=Acme\, Inc.,OU=Sales; O=Acme\, Inc.,OU=Marketing; !O=Acme\, Inc.,CN=John Smith
While testing your trust configuration, you may find it helpful to set the IceSSL.Trace.Security property to a non-zero value, which causes IceSSL to display the DN of each peer during connection establishment.
This property affects incoming and outgoing connections. IceSSL also supports similar properties that affect only incoming connections or only outgoing connections.
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Client
Synopsis
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Client=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)IceSSL.TrustOnly.Client=ID (Ice Touch)
Description
Identifies trusted and untrusted peers for outgoing (client) connections. The entries defined in this property are combined with those of IceSSL.TrustOnly.
Platform Notes
Ice Touch
For an outgoing connection to succeed, the peer certificate's subject key identifier must match the property value exactly. The property value is formatted as a series of hexadecimal values separated by colons or spaces, as shown in the example below:
C2:E8:D3:33:D7:83:99:6E:08:F7:C2:34:31:F7:1E:8E:44:87:38:57
Since this value is specific to a single certificate authority, this property is valid only when used in conjunction with IceSSL.CertAuthFile.
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server
Synopsis
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
Identifies trusted and untrusted peers for incoming ("server") connections. The entries defined in this property are combined with those of IceSSL.TrustOnly. To configure trusted and untrusted peers for a particular object adapter, use IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.AdapterName.
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.AdapterName
Synopsis
IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.AdapterName=ENTRY[;ENTRY;...] (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
Identifies trusted and untrusted peers for incoming (server) connections to the object adapter AdapterName. The entries defined in this property are combined with those of IceSSL.TrustOnly and IceSSL.TrustOnly.Server.
IceSSL.Truststore
Synopsis
IceSSL.Truststore=file (Java)
Description
Specifies a key store file containing the certificates of trusted certificate authorities. IceSSL first attempts to open file as a class loader resource and then as a regular file. If file cannot be found and IceSSL.DefaultDir is defined, IceSSL also attempts to locate it relative to the default directory. The format of the file is determined by IceSSL.TruststoreType.
If this property is not defined, IceSSL uses the value of IceSSL.Keystore by default. If no truststore is specified and the keystore does not contain a valid certificate chain, the application will not be able to authenticate the peer's certificate during SSL handshaking. As a result, the application may not be able to negotiate a secure connection, or might be required to use an anonymous cipher suite.
IceSSL.TruststorePassword
Synopsis
IceSSL.TruststorePassword=password (Java)
Description
Specifies the password used to verify the integrity of the key store defined by IceSSL.Truststore. The integrity check is skipped if this property is not defined.
It is a security risk to use a plain-text password in a configuration file.
IceSSL.TruststoreType
Synopsis
IceSSL.TruststoreType=type (Java)
Description
Specifies the format of the key store file defined by IceSSL.Truststore. Legal values are JKS and PKCS12. If not defined, the default value is JKS.
IceSSL.VerifyDepthMax
Synopsis
IceSSL.VerifyDepthMax=num (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
Specifies the maximum depth of a trusted peer's certificate chain, including the peer's certificate. A value of zero accepts chains of any length. If not defined, the default value is 2.
IceSSL.VerifyPeer
Synopsis
IceSSL.VerifyPeer=num (C++, Java, .NET)
Description
Specifies the verification requirements to use during SSL handshaking. The legal values are shown in the table below. If this property is not defined, the default value is 2.
| For an outgoing connection, the client verifies the server's certificate (if an anonymous cipher is not used) but does not abort the connection if verification fails. For an incoming connection, the server does not request a certificate from the client. |
| For an outgoing connection, the client verifies the server's certificate and aborts the connection if verification fails. For an incoming connection, the server requests a certificate from the client and verifies it if one is provided, aborting the connection if verification fails. |
| For an outgoing connection, the semantics are the same as for the value |
Platform Notes
.NET
This property has no effect on outgoing connections, since .NET always uses the semantics of value 2. For an incoming connection, the value 0 has the same semantics as the value 1.