RECENT BLOG NEWS
wolfSSL Embedded SSL for Bare Metal and No OS Environments
Are you looking for an SSL/TLS library which will seamlessly integrate into your bare metal or No-OS environment? If so, continue reading to learn why the wolfSSL lightweight SSL library is a perfect fit for such environments.
wolfSSL has been designed with portability and ease of use in mind, allowing developers to easily integrate it into a bare metal or operating systemless environment. As a large percentage of wolfSSL users are running the library on small, embedded devices, we have added several abstraction layers which make tying wolfSSL into these types of environments an easy task.
Available abstraction layers include:
- Custom Input/Output
- Standard C library / Memory
- File system (Able to use cert/key buffers instead)
- Threading
- Operating System
In addition to abstraction layers, we have tried to keep wolfSSL’s memory usage as low as possible. Build sizes for a complete SSL/TLS stack range from 20-100kB depending on build options, with RAM usage between 1-36kB per connection.
To learn more about how to integrate wolfSSL into your environment or get more information about reducing wolfSSL’s memory usage, please see the wolfSSL Manual or contact us directly.
wolfSSL WICED Port
wolfSSL recently released version 4.0.0 of the wolfSSL embedded SSL/TLS library with a litany of port additions. One of these new ports is added functionality for Cypress’s WICED Studio SDK! WICED Studio is an SDK targeting IoT devices, offering both Bluetooth and WI-Fi (IEEE 802.11) development platforms. WICED SDK offers code examples and tools for embedded development boards including Adafruit Feather boards which, is a great alternative to Arduino for student boards. The code examples demonstrate the use of wolfCrypt and integrate wolfSSL functionality into the WICED platform. A TLS client and server was added using the wolfSSL library, as well as, an HTTPS client example. wolfSSL supplies a client and server for testing purposes, the HTTPS client example also runs against the wolfSSL example server as well as www.example.com for demonstration purposes.
wolfSSL is a highly configurable option to accompany WICED software allowing manual configuration options affecting functionality and build size. The examples provided serve as a starting point for any embedded project and works with TLS versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3; they are built on the ThreadX RTOS using NetX Duo for the TCP/IP stack.
wolfSSL v4.0.0.0 can be downloaded from the wolfSSL download page, or from the GitHub repository here: https://github.com/wolfssl/wolfssl.git.
Supported functionality and features:
- wolfCrypt test suite and benchmark test
- wolfSSL TLS client and server
- wolfSSL HTTPS client
- NetX Duo TCP/IP stack for embedded systems
- ThreadX RTOS for embedded platforms
- Server Name Indication (SNI) extension
- Maximum fragment length extension
- Truncated HMAC
- TLS versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3
- Certificate verification
- Certificate chain loading
- RSA and ECC certificates
- Multithread capability
- Session resumption
Cipher suites supported out of the box:
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384 ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 AES128-GCM-SHA256 AES256-SHA256 AES256-GCM-SHA384 AES128-SHA
Cipher suites supported for TLS 1.3 out of the box:
TLS13-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLS13-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLS13-CHACHA20-POLY1305-SHA256 TLS13-AES128-CCM-SHA256
wolfSSL Java JSSE Provider
We’re happy to announce that wolfSSL is currently working on a Java Secure Socket Extensions (JSSE) provider for the native wolfSSL embedded SSL/TLS library! JSSE is a way for Java applications to utilize the SSL and TLS protocols through a standardized Java API using pluggable “providers” underneath. It was integrated into Java versions following Java 1.4. With this upcoming provider, Java applications will have the ability to use the most recent and secure version of the TLS protocol, TLS 1.3! And for FIPS 140-2 users, this will allow Java applications to use wolfCrypt FIPS underneath if needed. Additionally, this will also allow users to take advantage of other features offered by the wolfSSL library such as high-speed and high-strength encryption, high portability, low footprint size, and more!
Are you interested in a JSSE provider for wolfSSL? For more information about the wolfSSL library, its features, or if you would like to share your interest on this feature addition, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
Reference
wolfSSL GitHub repository: https://github.com/wolfssl/wolfssl.git
Oracle JSSE reference guide: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/security/jsse/JSSERefGuide.html#Introduction
wolfSSL at Japan IT Week Spring 2019
wolfSSL is at Japan IT Week - Spring this year! Japan IT Week Spring occurrs twice this year, once in April and once in May. wolfSSL will be attending the event in April, which will include two exhibitions: IoT/M2M Expo Spring and Embedded Systems Expo. For 2019, Japan IT Week Spring (part 1) will be held in Tokyo, Japan.
Where wolfSSL will be located for Japan IT Week:
Venue: Tokyo Big Sight
Booth #: 6-9, West Hall
When: April 10-12
Directions: https://www.japan-it-spring.jp/en-gb/visit/access.html
Stop by to hear more about the wolfSSL embedded SSL/TLS library, the wolfCrypt encryption engine, to meet the wolfSSL Japan team, or to get some free stickers and swag!
For more information about wolfSSL, its products, or future events, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
More information about Japan IT Week Spring can be found here: https://www.japan-it-spring.jp/ja-jp.html
wolfSSH Nonblocking Support
wolfSSL's wolfSSH library is a small footprint, fast, embedded SSH implementation. With recent additional support and adjustments, support for non-blocking connections has been added to the library! This allows for use of non-blocking connections with other features besides SSH, such as use with SFTP and SCP. This non-blocking support is supported by default and is easy to use. The default API can be called and the wolfSSH library internally handles all saving and restoring of states, returning WS_WANT_READ or WS_WANT_WRITE when calling wolfSSH_get_error() to signal if the API should be called again. The library is designed to be easy to use and quick to integrate into an application.
For more information about wolfSSH or using it in your project, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
wolfSSL 4.0.0 Now Available
Spring is here, and along with it is the newest and shiniest release of the wolfSSL embedded SSL/TLS library!
As with every release, this release includes many feature additions, bug fixes, and improvements to the wolfSSL library. Additionally, this new version of the wolfSSL library includes support for the new FIPS 140-2 Certificate for wolfCrypt v4.0! More information on wolfSSL and FIPS can be found here: https://www.wolfssl.com/license/fips/.
The list below outlines the new feature additions that are included with the release of wolfSSL version 4.0.0:
- Support for wolfCrypt FIPS v4.0.0, certificate #3389
- FIPS Ready Initiative
- Added TLS server side secure renegotiation
- Added TLS Trusted CA extension
- Support for the Deos Safety Critical RTOS
- TLS handshake now supports using PKCS #11 for private keys
- PKCS #11 support of HMAC, AES-CBC and random seeding/generation
- Support for named FFDHE parameters in TLS 1.2 (RFC 7919)
- Added Espressif ESP32 WROOM support with hardware crypto acceleration. More data can be found here: https://www.wolfssl.com/docs/benchmarks/#espressif_esp32_wroom.
- Added Cypress WICED Studio support
- Added ARM CMSIS-RTOS v2 support
- Added port to the Zephyr Project
- Added Cortex-M support for Single Precision (SP) math
- Added wolfCrypt RSA non-blocking time support
- Added 16-bit compiler support using --enable-16bit option
Additionally, the wolfSSL blog will be posting more elaboration and details on the ports and support that have been added with this release in the furture. Stay tuned for more information!
The following list outlines the various fixes, updates, and general improvements that have been included with wolfSSL 4.0.0:
- Added new wrapper for snprintf for use with certain Visual Studio builds
- Added ECC_PUBLICKEY_TYPE to the supported PEM header types
- Added strict checking of the ECDSA signature DER encoding length
- Added ECDSA option to limit sig/algos in client_hello to key size with USE_ECDSA_KEYSZ_HASH_ALGO
- Compatibility fixes for secure renegotiation with Chrome
- Better size check for TLS record fragment reassembly
- Improvements to non-blocking and handshake message retry support for DTLS
- Improvements to OCSP with ECDSA signers
- OCSP fixes for memory management and initializations
- Fixes for EVP Cipher decryption padding checks
- Removal of null terminators on wolfSSL_X509_print substrings
- wolfSSL_sk_ASN1_OBJCET_pop function renamed to wolfSSL_sk_ASN1_OBJECT_pop
- Adjustment to include path in compatibility layer for evp.h and objects.h
- Fixes for decoding BER encoded PKCS7 contents
- Move the TLS PRF to wolfCrypt.
- Update to CMS KARI support
- Fixes and additions to the OpenSSL compatibility layer
- Xcode project file update
- Fixes for ATECC508A/ATECC608A
- Fixes issue with CA path length for self signed root CA's
- Fixes for Single Precision (SP) ASM when building sources directly
- Fixes for STM32 AES GCM
- Fixes for ECC sign with hardware to ensure the input is truncated
- Fixes for proper detection of PKCS7 buffer overflow case
- Fixes to handle degenerate PKCS 7 with BER encoding
- Fixes for TLS v1.3 handling of 6144 and 8192 bit keys
- Fixes for possible build issues with SafeRTOS
- Improved Arduino sketch example
- Improved crypto callback features
- Improved TLS benchmark tool
There was also a bug in the tls_bench.c example test application (unrelated to the crypto or TLS portions of the library) that was resolved in wolfSSL 4.0.0 - CVE-2019-6439.
To download and view the most recent version of wolfSSL, the wolfSSL GitHub repository can be cloned from here: https://github.com/wolfssl/wolfssl.git, and the most recent stable release can be downloaded from the wolfSSL download page here: https://www.wolfssl.com/download/.
For more information, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
wolfSSL now has lwIP support
The wolfSSL (formerly CyaSSL) embedded SSL library supports lwIP, the light weight internet protocol implementation, out of the box. The user merely needs to define WOLFSSL_LWIP
or uncomment the line /* #define WOLFSSL_LWIP */
in os_settings.h to use wolfSSL with lwIP.
The focus of lwIP is to reduce RAM usage while still providing a full TCP stack. That focus makes lwIP great for use in embedded systems, the same area where wolfSSL is an ideal match for SSL/TLS needs. An active community exists with contributor ports for many systems. Give it a try and let us know if you have any suggestions or questions.
For the latest news and releases of lwIP, you can visit the project homepage, here: http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/lwip/
For more information, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
wolfSSL with MPLAB Harmony v3
Since earlier versions, wolfSSL's embedded SSL/TLS library has been included with MPLAB Harmony. MPLAB Harmony is a flexible, fully integrated embedded software development framework for 32-bit MCUs and MPUs. Recently, MPLAB Harmony version 3 was released, with wolfSSL packaged within! The new release of MPLAB Harmony features aspects from the latest version of wolfSSL, version 3.15.7. wolfSSL is included in such a way that the example applications, demos, and source code of the wolfSSL library can be easily integrated and executed with other MPLAB projects. Additionally, other software libraries and examples are also being included in this new release of MPLAB Harmony, such as CMSIS-FreeRTOS.
For more information on the new release of MPLAB Harmony v3, please visit Microchip's page here: https://www.microchip.com/mplab/mplab-harmony/mplab-harmony-v3.
For more information about wolfSSL, wolfSSL with MPLAB Harmony, or other general inquiries, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
MQTT v5.0 Approved by OASIS
wolfSSL provides many different products for many different implementations of internet protocols, one of which is wolfMQTT. The wolfMQTT library is a client implementation of the MQTT written in C for embedded use, with support for SSL/TLS via the wolfSSL library, and also provides support for MQTT-Sensor Network (MQTT-SN). While wolfMQTT is based on the MQTT 3.1.1 specification, wolfMQTT also provides support for the MQTT v5.0 specification - which was recently approved and standardized by OASIS. This new standard comes with some changes, which are outlined below (from the MQTT v5.0 standard):
- Enhancements for scalability and large scale systems
- Improved error reporting
- Formalize common patterns including capability discovery and request response
- Extensibility mechanisms including user properties
- Performance improvements and support for small clients
For more information about wolfMQTT or its MQTT v5.0 support, please contact facts@wolfssl.com.
Reference
wolfMQTT GitHub Repository: https://github.com/wolfssl/wolfmqtt.git
wolfMQTT User Manual: https://www.wolfssl.com/docs/wolfmqtt-manual/
MQTT v5.0 specification: https://docs.oasis-open.org/mqtt/mqtt/v5.0/cos02/mqtt-v5.0-cos02.html#_Toc1477318
Differences between TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 (#TLS13)
wolfSSL's embedded SSL/TLS library has included support for TLS 1.3 since early releases of the TLS 1.3 draft. Since then, wolfSSL has remained up-to-date with the TLS 1.3 specification. In this post, the major upgrades of TLS 1.3 from TLS 1.2 are outlined below:
TLS 1.3
This protocol is defined in RFC 8446. TLS 1.3 contains improved security and speed. The major differences include:
- The list of supported symmetric algorithms has been pruned of all legacy algorithms. The remaining algorithms all use Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) algorithms.
- A zero-RTT (0-RTT) mode was added, saving a round-trip at connection setup for some application data at the cost of certain security properties.
- Static RSA and Diffie-Hellman cipher suites have been removed; all public-key based key exchange mechanisms now provide forward secrecy.
- All handshake messages after the ServerHello are now encrypted.
- Key derivation functions have been re-designed, with the HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand Key Derivation Function (HKDF) being used as a primitive.
- The handshake state machine has been restructured to be more consistent and remove superfluous messages.
- ECC is now in the base spec and includes new signature algorithms. Point format negotiation has been removed in favor of single point format for each curve.
- Compression, custom DHE groups, and DSA have been removed, RSA padding now uses PSS.
- TLS 1.2 version negotiation verification mechanism was deprecated in favor of a version list in an extension.
- Session resumption with and without server-side state and the PSK-based ciphersuites of earlier versions of TLS have been replaced by a single new PSK exchange.
More information about the TLS 1.3 protocol can be found here: https://www.wolfssl.com/docs/tls13/. Additionally, please contact facts@wolfssl.com for any questions.
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