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1.10      deraadt     4: <title>Cryptography in OpenBSD</title>
1.1       deraadt     5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
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1.10      deraadt     7: <meta name="description" content="OpenBSD cryptography">
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1.22      deraadt    15: <img alt="[OpenBSD]" height=200 width=200 SRC="images/blowfish.jpg">
1.1       deraadt    16:
1.32      deraadt    17: <h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Cryptography</strong></font></h3>
                     18: <hr>
                     19:
                     20: <strong>Index</strong><br>
                     21: <a href=#why>Why do we ship cryptography?</a>.<br>
                     22: <a href=#disclosure>Full Disclosure policy</a>.<br>
                     23: <a href=#process>Source code auditing process</a>.<br>
                     24:
                     25: <a href=#prng>Pseudo Random Number Generators</a> (PRNG): ARC4, ...<br>
                     26: <a href=#hash>Cryptographic Hash Functions</a>: MD5, SHA1, ...<br>
                     27: <a href=#trans>Cryptographic Transforms</a>: DES, Blowfish, ...<br>
                     28:
                     29: <a href=#people>International Cryptographers wanted</a><br>
1.33      deraadt    30: <a href=#papers>Further Reading</a><br>
1.1       deraadt    31: <p>
1.32      deraadt    32: <hr>
                     33:
                     34: <dl>
                     35: <a name=why></a>
                     36: <li><h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Why do we ship cryptography?</strong></font></h3><p>
                     37:
                     38: In three words:  <strong>because we can</strong>.<p>
                     39:
1.1       deraadt    40: The OpenBSD project is based in Canada.<p>
                     41:
1.23      deraadt    42: The <a href=ECL.html>Export Control List of Canada</a>
                     43: places no significant restriction on the export of
1.5       deraadt    44: cryptographic software, and is even more explicit about the free
                     45: export of freely-available cryptographic software.  Marc Plumb has
                     46: done
1.2       deraadt    47: <a href=http://insight.mcmaster.ca/org/efc/pages/doc/crypto-export.html>
1.31      aaron      48: some research to test the cryptographic laws</a>.
1.2       deraadt    49: <p>
1.1       deraadt    50:
1.3       deraadt    51: Hence the OpenBSD project has embedded cryptography into numerous places
                     52: in the operating system.  We require that the cryptographic software we
                     53: use be <a href=policy.html>freely available and with good licenses</a>.
1.32      deraadt    54: We do not directly use cryptography with nasty patents.
1.13      deraadt    55: We also require that such software is from countries with useful export
1.16      deraadt    56: licenses because we do not wish to break the laws of any country.
                     57: The cryptographic software components which we use currently were
                     58: written in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Norway, and
                     59: Sweden.
                     60: <p>
1.7       deraadt    61:
1.15      deraadt    62: When we create OpenBSD releases or snapshots we build our release
                     63: binaries in free countries to assure that the sources and binaries we
                     64: provide to users are free of tainting.  In the past our release binary
                     65: builds have been done in Canada, Sweden, and Germany.<p>
                     66:
1.16      deraadt    67: OpenBSD ships with Kerberos IV included.  The codebase we use is the
1.17      deraadt    68: exportable KTH-based release from Sweden.  Our X11 source has been
                     69: extended to make use of Kerberos IV as well.  Kerberos V support will
1.16      deraadt    70: perhaps appear in 1999, but at present time a freely exportable
                     71: Kerberos V release does not exist.<p>
                     72:
1.15      deraadt    73: Today cryptography is an important means for enhancing the <a
                     74: href=security.html>security</a> of an operating system.  The
                     75: cryptography utilized in OpenBSD can be classified into three
1.33      deraadt    76: different aspects, which will be described later.<p>
1.10      deraadt    77:
                     78: <p>
1.18      deraadt    79: <a name=prng></a>
1.32      deraadt    80: <li><h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Pseudo Random Number Generators</strong></font></h3><p>
                     81:
1.10      deraadt    82: A Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG) provides applications with a stream of
                     83: numbers which have certain important properties for system security:<p>
                     84:
                     85: <ul>
1.11      deraadt    86: <li>It should be impossible for an outsider to predict the output of the
                     87:        random number generator even with knowledge of previous output.
                     88: <li>The generated numbers should not have repeating patterns which means
                     89:        the PRNG should have a very long cycle length.
1.10      deraadt    90: </ul>
1.32      deraadt    91: <p>
1.10      deraadt    92:
1.13      deraadt    93: A PRNG is normally just an algorithm where the same initial starting
                     94: values will yield the same sequence of outputs. On a multiuser
                     95: operating system there are many sources which allow seeding the PRNG
                     96: with random data. The OpenBSD kernel uses the mouse interrupt timing,
                     97: network data interrupt latency, inter-keypress timing and disk IO
                     98: information to fill an entropy pool.  Random numbers are available for
                     99: kernel routines and are exported via devices to userland programs.
                    100: So far random numbers are used in the following places<p>
                    101:
1.10      deraadt   102: <ul>
1.14      deraadt   103: <li>Dynamic sin_port allocation in bind(2).
                    104: <li>PIDs of processes.
1.26      aaron     105: <li>IP datagram IDs.
1.14      deraadt   106: <li>RPC transaction IDs (XID).
                    107: <li>NFS RPC transaction IDs (XID).
                    108: <li>DNS Query-IDs.
                    109: <li>Inode generation numbers, see getfh(2) and fsirand(8).
1.31      aaron     110: <li>Timing perturbance in traceroute(8).
1.14      deraadt   111: <li>Stronger temporary names for mktemp(3) and mkstemp(3)
                    112: <li>Randomness added to the TCP ISS value for protection against
                    113:        spoofing attacks.
1.29      deraadt   114: <li>random padding in IPSEC esp_old packets.
1.14      deraadt   115: <li>To generate salts for the various password algorithms.
                    116: <li>For generating fake S/Key challenges.
1.28      angelos   117: <li>In <a href=http://wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/provos/photuris/>photurisd</a>
                    118:         and <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=isakmpd>isakmpd</a>
                    119:        to provide liveness proof of key exchanges.
1.10      deraadt   120: </ul>
1.1       deraadt   121:
1.10      deraadt   122: <p>
1.18      deraadt   123: <a name=hash></a>
1.32      deraadt   124: <li><h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Cryptographic Hash Functions</strong></font></h3><p>
                    125:
1.10      deraadt   126: A Hash Function compresses its input data to a string of
                    127: constant size. For a Cryptographic Hash Function it is infeasible to find
1.1       deraadt   128: <ul>
1.11      deraadt   129: <li>two inputs which have the same output (collision resistant),
                    130: <li>a different input for a given input with the same output
                    131:        (2nd preimage resistant).
1.1       deraadt   132: </ul>
1.32      deraadt   133: <p>
1.10      deraadt   134:
1.12      millert   135: In OpenBSD MD5, SHA1, and RIPEMD-160 are used as Cryptographic Hash Functions,
                    136: e.g.
1.10      deraadt   137: <ul>
1.27      deraadt   138: <li>In <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=skey>S/Key</a>
                    139:     to provide one time passwords.
                    140: <li>In <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ipsec>IPsec</a>,
                    141:     <a href=http://wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/provos/photuris/>photurisd</a>
                    142:     and
                    143:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=isakmpd>isakmpd(8)</a>
                    144:     to authenticate the data origin of packets and to ensure packet integrity.
                    145: <li>For FreeBSD-style MD5 passwords (not enabled by default), see
                    146:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=passwd.conf&sektion=5>
                    147:     passwd.conf(5)</a>
                    148: <li>For TCP SYN cookie support (not enabled by default), see
                    149:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=options&sektion=4>
                    150:     options(4)</a>
1.24      niklas    151: <li>In libssl for digital signing of messages.
1.10      deraadt   152: </ul>
1.32      deraadt   153: <p>
1.10      deraadt   154:
1.6       deraadt   155: <p>
1.18      deraadt   156: <a name=trans></a>
1.32      deraadt   157: <li><h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Cryptographic Transforms</strong></font></h3><p>
                    158:
1.11      deraadt   159: Cryptographic Transforms are used to encrypt and decrypt data. These
                    160: are normally used with an encryption key for data encryption and with
                    161: a decryption key for data decryption. The security of a Cryptographic
                    162: Transform should rely only on the keying material.<p>
1.6       deraadt   163:
1.24      niklas    164: OpenBSD provides transforms like DES, 3DES, Blowfish and Cast for the
                    165: kernel and userland programs, which are used in many places like
1.10      deraadt   166: <ul>
1.27      deraadt   167: <li>In libc for creating
                    168:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=blf_key>Blowfish</a>
1.33      deraadt   169:     passwords.  See also the <a href=papers/bcrypt-paper.ps>USENIX paper</a>
                    170:     on this topic.
1.27      deraadt   171: <li>In
                    172:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ipsec>IPsec</a>
                    173:     to provide confidentiality for the network layer.
                    174: <li>In Kerberos and a handful of kerberized applications, like
                    175:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=telnet>telnet</a>,
                    176:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=cvs>cvs</a>,
                    177:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=rsh>rsh</a>,
                    178:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=rcp>rcp</a>,
                    179:     and
                    180:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=rlogin>rlogin</a>.
1.24      niklas    181: <li>In <a href=http://wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/provos/photuris/>
1.27      deraadt   182:     photurisd</a> and
                    183:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=isakmpd>isakmpd</a>
                    184:     to protect the exchanges where IPsec key material is negotiated.
1.24      niklas    185: <li>In AFS to protect the messages passing over the network, providing
1.27      deraadt   186:     confidentiality of remote filesystem access.
1.24      niklas    187: <li>In libssl to let applications communicate over the de-facto standard
                    188:        cryptographically secure SSL protocol.
1.10      deraadt   189: </ul>
1.1       deraadt   190:
1.10      deraadt   191: <p>
1.32      deraadt   192: <a name=people></a>
                    193: <li><h3><font color=#e00000><strong>International Cryptographers Wanted</strong></font></h3><p>
                    194:
                    195: Of course, our project needs people to work on these systems.  If any
                    196: non-American cryptographer who meets the constraints listed earlier is
                    197: interested in helping out with embedded cryptography in OpenBSD,
                    198: please contact us.<p>
                    199:
1.33      deraadt   200: <p>
                    201: <a name=papers></a>
                    202: <li><h3><font color=#e00000><strong>Further Reading</strong></font></h3><p>
                    203:
                    204: A number of papers have been written by OpenBSD team members, about
                    205: cryptographic changes they have done in OpenBSD.  The postscript
1.34      deraadt   206: versions of these documents are available as follows.<p>
1.33      deraadt   207:
                    208: <ul>
                    209: <li>A Future-Adaptable Password Scheme
                    210:     Niels Provos, David Mazieres.<br>
                    211:     <a href=papers/bcrypt-paper.ps>paper</a> and
                    212:     <a href=papers/bcrypt-slides.ps>slides</a>.
                    213: <li>Cryptography in OpenBSD: An Overview<br>
                    214:     Theo de Raadt, Niklas Hallqvist, Artur Grabowski,
                    215:     Angelos D. Keromytis, Niels Provos.<br>
                    216:     <a href=papers/crypt-paper.ps>paper</a> and
                    217:     <a href=papers/crypt-slides.ps>slides</a>.
                    218: </ul>
                    219:
1.32      deraadt   220: </dl>
                    221:
                    222: <p>
1.1       deraadt   223: <hr>
1.19      pauls     224: <a href=/index.html><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.10      deraadt   225: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
                    226: <br>
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