Month: October 2023

ExpressVPN has merged DTLS 1.3 support into their lightway-core library. This is the library that implements their modern Lightway VPN protocol. Lightway is a new protocol and built from the ground up with privacy, security, speed, and reliability in mind. Currently it depends on DTLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 but with the addition of DTLS 1.3, it opens up a whole new set of possibilities. Lightway will be able to push what is possible in every aspect. The pull request implements new DTLS 1.3 API’s from wolfSSL.

wolfSSL is the first TLS library to adopt and implement DTLS 1.3. DTLS 1.3 has many improvements over DTLS 1.2 in areas of security and reliability. One of the biggest and most important changes is the addition of acknowledgements to the protocol. In DTLS 1.2, when a peer has detected a network failure (for example a packet was dropped or a timeout has been reached) it had no choice but to resend the entirety of its previous flight. In DTLS 1.3, the peer can just send a minimal acknowledgement packet that also specifies exactly which messages it is missing. It cuts down drastically on how much data has to be transmitted and saves both peers from having to resend entire flights if just a part is missing.

Another advantage of DLTS 1.3 over DTLS 1.2 is that it is based on the TLS 1.3 protocol. TLS 1.3 is currently receiving many exciting new additions and all this work benefits DTLS 1.3 as well. Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) ciphersuites are actively being researched in TLS 1.3 and it is unlikely they will be backported to TLS 1.2. DTLS 1.3 benefits from this research and wolfSSL can support arbitrarily large PQC keys in DTLS 1.3! One more example is the Encrypted Client Hello (ECH) which makes the connection fully private by not leaking any sensitive information (like the Server Name Indication extension) in plaintext. For a full description, please take a look at our ECH feature announcement.

DTLS 1.3 also benefits from the filtered list of available ciphers. Legacy and deprecated algorithms have been removed from the protocol and are no longer supported. All the ciphers are AEAD ciphers that provide increased security and performance.

For a full discussion of the differences between DTLS 1.2 and DTLS 1.3 please see our analysis blog. For any questions regarding DTLS 1.3 and wolfSSL please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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wolfSSL and CodeSecure are partnering to host a webinar on October 19th at 10 AM PT, discussing the significance of testing in embedded software. wolfSSL Engineer Andras and CodeSecure VP of Global Solutions Engineering, Mark, will discuss how each company processes testing to deliver safe and secure embedded software that requires a rigorous focus on automated testing.

Save the Date: 10/19/2023 at 10 AM PT

You will gain insights into how wolfSSL will proceed with their testing mandate and how their focus on testing allows them to innovate with high quality, portable, embedded security software. CodeSecure will explain how Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is a crucial pillar in any automated testing workflow and how CodeSonar can be used both in developer pipelines as well as in daily testing cycles to find problems that dynamic testing may miss. Additionally, this webinar will review a few examples of defects that CodeSonar has detected and that were recently fixed in wolfSSL.

This is your opportunity to learn about the importance of testing in embedded software and uncover the secrets behind high-quality software from two industry-leading companies.

Seats are limited, so register now!

As always, our webinars will include Q&A sessions throughout. If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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wolfSSL makes a great effort to support a variety of open-source projects and the latest addition to the list is the disk encryption utility, VeraCrypt. With our recent porting effort, users will be able to leverage the VeraCrypt application with our cutting-edge crypto library, wolfCrypt.

VeraCrypt is packed with highly customizable security features employed to create and mount encrypted virtual disks as real disks, in addition to supporting entire/partial partition encryption and hidden volumes. Plugging wolfCrypt into the project makes VeraCrypt the ideal solution for users with performance and FIPS validation requirements.

Follow the instructions here to set up VeraCrypt with wolfCrypt.

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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Here at wolfSSL, we’ve got a new product that should interest you! We love it when we can help make potentially painful decisions easier for our customers.

Have you switched over to the 3.x series of releases on OpenSSL? It was likely a very large investment in time and human resources, but you needed to because the 1.1.1 series of releases recently went EOL (End of Life) in early September. Congratulations if you successfully completed your migration.

If after that migration you suddenly have a new FIPS 140-3 requirement, you’re probably wondering what a FIPS canister is going to look like for the the 3.x series of releases of OpenSSL. You’re likely aware that they are no longer supporting the “engine” interface and have moved to the “provider” model. There is a fips-provider, but if you look at the documentation you’ll note that it only provides FIPS 140-2. What about FIPS 140-3? Unfortunately, there is no support for it. When will OpenSSL’s certification for FIPS-140-3 be ready? No one knows; not even the OpenSSL Team.

What about wolfSSL? Our wolfCrypt FIPS product is right on the cusp of being granted FIPS 140-3 certification. How does that help you? Well, we have a wolfProvider product that provides the glue between OpenSSL 3.x series of releases and wolfCrypt FIPS. To use wolfProvider and wolfCrypt FIPS you don’t even need to recompile OpenSSL nor your applications. Just specify where wolfProvider is located via configuration file, install the wolfssl library to the default system location and you’re good to go!

Go ahead and take it for a spin! You can find wolfCrypt FIPS as part of the wolfssl fips-ready release which you can download and wolfProvider in its github repo all under GPL licensing terms until you want to use it for commercial purposes.

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247

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We are excited to announce that wolfCrypt now supports the EAX mode of operation for AES!

AES EAX is a two-pass authenticated encryption scheme that is optimized for simplicity and efficiency. More details about the algorithm can be found in EAX: A Conventional Authenticated-Encryption Mode, by M. Bellare, P. Rogaway, and D. Wagner.

To enable AES EAX in your wolfSSL build, simply pass the –enable-aeseax flag to configure. If you are building without autotools, you must define the WOLFSSL_AES_EAX preprocessor macro, as well as enable support for the AES CTR and CMAC algorithms by defining WOLFSSL_AES_COUNTER, WOLFSSL_AES_DIRECT, and WOLFSSL_CMAC.

The AES EAX API and a brief usage example can be found in the wolfCrypt AES API documentation. For a complete example, please refer to the aes_eax_test() function in wolfcrypt/test/test.c.

Please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247 with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

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Are you interested in integrating wolfSSL into OpenSC for smart card support?

We’ve been pondering this idea as well, especially after hearing from a few customers. But, we’re eager to know if there’s a broader interest out there and would greatly appreciate your feedback.

If the prospect of using wolfSSL within OpenSC intrigues you, we’d love to hear from you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at facts@wolfssl.com. Your insights and input can play a crucial role in making this integration a reality. Let’s explore the potential together!

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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The FIPS Training Webinar returns on October 12th at 10 AM PT, presented by wolfSSL Senior Software Engineer Kaleb. Join us for an exciting opportunity to enhance your understanding of FIPS and gain valuable insights into its implementation from wolfSSL as the current leader in embedded FIPS certificates.

Save the date: 10/12/2023 at 10 AM PT

Sneak peek of the webinar:

• Public resources for the FIPS module
• The Security Policy
• Locating and using the User Guide or Cryptographic Officer Manual
• Quick recap of the material
• Best Security Practices at the application level

Kaleb will provide in-depth insights of FIPS. This is your exclusive opportunity to expand your knowledge and familiarity with FIPS. Bring all your FIPS-related questions; Kaleb is ready to answer them all.

Seats are limited! Register Now

As always, our webinars will include Q&A sessions throughout. If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com, or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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TLS provides end-to-end encryption on one connection. You are routing data in and out from one application. (Note, this application can be a tunneling utility, see Stunnel.) It authenticates the server with a certificate chain of trust going back to a root CA that you implicitly trust to sign identities. It can authenticate the client to the server the same way, or can keep the client anonymous. Many protocols used over TLS provide authentication, like putting up a webpage to sign in on for your bank.

SSH provides an end-to-end encryption for a collection of data channels on one connection. Each channel can be a shell, a pseudo-terminal, an application, port forwarding, etc. It is routing STDIN and STDOUT (and STDERR) over the channel for a command. (SFTP is just a command run in a channel over the connection. SCP is as well, but these days SCP is implemented in SFTP commands.) You may be connected to a shell and not realize you are running multiple channels over your connection. (You might have an ssh-agent channel over your connection. With the “-Y” option you’d have X11 forwarding in a channel or multiple channels.) It authenticates the server to the client by showing the human at the terminal a hash of the server’s key and asking them if they recognize it as being correct. (And we all just hit Y without looking. Ha ha. Just kidding.) The client user is authenticated (or not) by using a password, public key, or something else. (You can set up an SSH server to allow anonymous client access. A friend of mine did this on his text BBS; the connections were port forwarding to a telnet port where you’d then log in with a password.)

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact to facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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We have notified the distros mailing list allowing the member distributions to prepare patches. (No one else gets details about these problems before October 11 without a support contract and a good reason.)

We are cutting the release cycle short and will release curl 8.4.0 on October 11, including fixes for a severity HIGH CVE and one severity LOW. The one rated HIGH is probably the worst curl security flaw in a long time.

The new version and details about the two CVEs will be published around 06:00 UTC on the release day.

• CVE-2023-38545: severity HIGH (affects both libcurl and the curl tool)
• CVE-2023-38546: severity LOW (affects libcurl only, not the tool)

There is no API nor ABI change in the coming curl release.

I cannot disclose any information about which version range that is affected, as that would help identify the problem (area) with a very high accuracy so I cannot do that ahead of time. The “last several years” of versions is as specific as I can get.

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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When it comes to edge computing devices, keeping secrets such as encryption keys or identifiable metadata from being tampered with or stolen is of the utmost importance and the TPM is an ideal facility for keeping such secrets.

WolfTPM already has facilities for storing secrets to the TPM, but we’ve recently added convenience functions for sealing secrets to the TPM using policy authorization tied to PCR values, wolfTPM2_SealWithAuthSig, wolfTPM2_SealWithAuthKey and wolfTPM2_UnsealWithAuthSig. These functions also have NV versions for keeping persistent secrets. wolfTPM2_SealWithAuthSig uses a premade signature to seal the secret instead of a signing key so that the signing key can be kept externally.

Sealing secrets using policy this way not only keeps the secret stored safely within the TPM, but also restricts internal access to the secret, requiring a valid signature of the policyDigest used to seal it and that the PCR value matches the value it had at the time of sealing. This means that an attacker would need the key used to seal the secret and would need to gain access to the system without modifying the PCR values, so tying the PCR values to things like expected log output or the firmware image would lock an attacker out of the secret if those elements were modified.

Try these new functions for yourself with wolfTPM, for examples on how to use these new policy sealing function check out https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfTPM/tree/master/examples/seal and https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfTPM/tree/master/examples/nvram.

If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.

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