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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    14: <img alt="[OpenBSD]" height=200 width=200 SRC="images/blowfish.jpg">
1.37      deraadt    15: <p>
                     16: <h2><font color=#e00000>Cryptography</font><hr></h2>
1.32      deraadt    17:
                     18: <strong>Index</strong><br>
1.41      louis      19: <a href=#why>Why do we ship cryptography?</a>.<br>
1.40      deraadt    20: <a href=#ssh>SSH soon built in</a>.<br>
1.32      deraadt    21: <a href=#prng>Pseudo Random Number Generators</a> (PRNG): ARC4, ...<br>
                     22: <a href=#hash>Cryptographic Hash Functions</a>: MD5, SHA1, ...<br>
                     23: <a href=#trans>Cryptographic Transforms</a>: DES, Blowfish, ...<br>
                     24:
                     25: <a href=#people>International Cryptographers wanted</a><br>
1.33      deraadt    26: <a href=#papers>Further Reading</a><br>
1.1       deraadt    27: <p>
1.32      deraadt    28: <hr>
                     29:
                     30: <a name=why></a>
1.42    ! deraadt    31: <h3><font color=#e00000>Why do we ship cryptography?</font></h3><p>
1.32      deraadt    32:
                     33: In three words:  <strong>because we can</strong>.<p>
                     34:
1.1       deraadt    35: The OpenBSD project is based in Canada.<p>
                     36:
1.23      deraadt    37: The <a href=ECL.html>Export Control List of Canada</a>
                     38: places no significant restriction on the export of
1.5       deraadt    39: cryptographic software, and is even more explicit about the free
                     40: export of freely-available cryptographic software.  Marc Plumb has
                     41: done
1.2       deraadt    42: <a href=http://insight.mcmaster.ca/org/efc/pages/doc/crypto-export.html>
1.31      aaron      43: some research to test the cryptographic laws</a>.
1.2       deraadt    44: <p>
1.1       deraadt    45:
1.3       deraadt    46: Hence the OpenBSD project has embedded cryptography into numerous places
                     47: in the operating system.  We require that the cryptographic software we
                     48: use be <a href=policy.html>freely available and with good licenses</a>.
1.32      deraadt    49: We do not directly use cryptography with nasty patents.
1.13      deraadt    50: We also require that such software is from countries with useful export
1.16      deraadt    51: licenses because we do not wish to break the laws of any country.
                     52: The cryptographic software components which we use currently were
                     53: written in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Norway, and
                     54: Sweden.
                     55: <p>
1.7       deraadt    56:
1.15      deraadt    57: When we create OpenBSD releases or snapshots we build our release
                     58: binaries in free countries to assure that the sources and binaries we
                     59: provide to users are free of tainting.  In the past our release binary
                     60: builds have been done in Canada, Sweden, and Germany.<p>
                     61:
1.16      deraadt    62: OpenBSD ships with Kerberos IV included.  The codebase we use is the
1.17      deraadt    63: exportable KTH-based release from Sweden.  Our X11 source has been
                     64: extended to make use of Kerberos IV as well.  Kerberos V support will
1.16      deraadt    65: perhaps appear in 1999, but at present time a freely exportable
                     66: Kerberos V release does not exist.<p>
                     67:
1.15      deraadt    68: Today cryptography is an important means for enhancing the <a
                     69: href=security.html>security</a> of an operating system.  The
1.42    ! deraadt    70: cryptography utilized in OpenBSD can be classified into various
        !            71: aspects, described as follows.<p>
1.10      deraadt    72:
1.39      louis      73: <a name=ssh></a>
1.42    ! deraadt    74: <h3><font color=#e00000>SSH soon built in</font></h3><p>
1.39      louis      75:
1.40      deraadt    76: What is the first thing most people do after installing OpenBSD?
                     77: They install Secure Shell (ssh) from the ports tree or the packages on
                     78: the FTP sites. Until now, that is.<p>
1.39      louis      79:
                     80: This is still very much a work in progress, but we found an innovative way
1.40      deraadt    81: around the RSA patent. We are taking a free license release of ssh and
                     82: OpenBSD-ifying it.  We will get around the USA-based RSA patent by providing
                     83: an easy way to automatically download and install a RSA-enabled package
1.41      louis      84: containing shared library versions of libcrypto and libssl.  These packages
1.40      deraadt    85: are based on OpenSSL.  People living outside the USA can freely use the
                     86: RSA patented code, while people inside the USA can freely use it for
                     87: non-commercial purposes.  It appears as if companies inside the USA can
                     88: use the RSA libraries too, as long as RSA is not used in a profit generating
                     89: role.<p>
1.39      louis      90:
1.40      deraadt    91: But this way almost everyone will get ssh built-in.<p>
1.39      louis      92:
1.18      deraadt    93: <a name=prng></a>
1.42    ! deraadt    94: <h3><font color=#e00000>Pseudo Random Number Generators</font></h3><p>
1.32      deraadt    95:
1.10      deraadt    96: A Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG) provides applications with a stream of
                     97: numbers which have certain important properties for system security:<p>
                     98:
                     99: <ul>
1.11      deraadt   100: <li>It should be impossible for an outsider to predict the output of the
                    101:        random number generator even with knowledge of previous output.
                    102: <li>The generated numbers should not have repeating patterns which means
                    103:        the PRNG should have a very long cycle length.
1.10      deraadt   104: </ul>
1.32      deraadt   105: <p>
1.10      deraadt   106:
1.13      deraadt   107: A PRNG is normally just an algorithm where the same initial starting
                    108: values will yield the same sequence of outputs. On a multiuser
                    109: operating system there are many sources which allow seeding the PRNG
                    110: with random data. The OpenBSD kernel uses the mouse interrupt timing,
                    111: network data interrupt latency, inter-keypress timing and disk IO
                    112: information to fill an entropy pool.  Random numbers are available for
                    113: kernel routines and are exported via devices to userland programs.
1.36      deraadt   114: So far random numbers are used in the following places:<p>
1.13      deraadt   115:
1.10      deraadt   116: <ul>
1.14      deraadt   117: <li>Dynamic sin_port allocation in bind(2).
                    118: <li>PIDs of processes.
1.26      aaron     119: <li>IP datagram IDs.
1.14      deraadt   120: <li>RPC transaction IDs (XID).
                    121: <li>NFS RPC transaction IDs (XID).
                    122: <li>DNS Query-IDs.
                    123: <li>Inode generation numbers, see getfh(2) and fsirand(8).
1.31      aaron     124: <li>Timing perturbance in traceroute(8).
1.14      deraadt   125: <li>Stronger temporary names for mktemp(3) and mkstemp(3)
                    126: <li>Randomness added to the TCP ISS value for protection against
                    127:        spoofing attacks.
1.29      deraadt   128: <li>random padding in IPSEC esp_old packets.
1.14      deraadt   129: <li>To generate salts for the various password algorithms.
                    130: <li>For generating fake S/Key challenges.
1.28      angelos   131: <li>In <a href=http://wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/provos/photuris/>photurisd</a>
                    132:         and <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=isakmpd>isakmpd</a>
                    133:        to provide liveness proof of key exchanges.
1.10      deraadt   134: </ul>
1.1       deraadt   135:
1.10      deraadt   136: <p>
1.18      deraadt   137: <a name=hash></a>
1.42    ! deraadt   138: <h3><font color=#e00000>Cryptographic Hash Functions</font></h3><p>
1.32      deraadt   139:
1.10      deraadt   140: A Hash Function compresses its input data to a string of
1.36      deraadt   141: constant size. For a Cryptographic Hash Function it is infeasible to find:
                    142:
1.1       deraadt   143: <ul>
1.11      deraadt   144: <li>two inputs which have the same output (collision resistant),
                    145: <li>a different input for a given input with the same output
                    146:        (2nd preimage resistant).
1.1       deraadt   147: </ul>
1.32      deraadt   148: <p>
1.10      deraadt   149:
1.12      millert   150: In OpenBSD MD5, SHA1, and RIPEMD-160 are used as Cryptographic Hash Functions,
1.36      deraadt   151: e.g:<p>
1.10      deraadt   152: <ul>
1.27      deraadt   153: <li>In <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=skey>S/Key</a>
                    154:     to provide one time passwords.
                    155: <li>In <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ipsec>IPsec</a>,
                    156:     <a href=http://wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/provos/photuris/>photurisd</a>
                    157:     and
                    158:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=isakmpd>isakmpd(8)</a>
                    159:     to authenticate the data origin of packets and to ensure packet integrity.
                    160: <li>For FreeBSD-style MD5 passwords (not enabled by default), see
                    161:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=passwd.conf&sektion=5>
                    162:     passwd.conf(5)</a>
                    163: <li>For TCP SYN cookie support (not enabled by default), see
                    164:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=options&sektion=4>
                    165:     options(4)</a>
1.24      niklas    166: <li>In libssl for digital signing of messages.
1.10      deraadt   167: </ul>
1.32      deraadt   168: <p>
1.10      deraadt   169:
1.6       deraadt   170: <p>
1.18      deraadt   171: <a name=trans></a>
1.42    ! deraadt   172: <h3><font color=#e00000>Cryptographic Transforms</font></h3><p>
1.32      deraadt   173:
1.11      deraadt   174: Cryptographic Transforms are used to encrypt and decrypt data. These
                    175: are normally used with an encryption key for data encryption and with
                    176: a decryption key for data decryption. The security of a Cryptographic
                    177: Transform should rely only on the keying material.<p>
1.6       deraadt   178:
1.24      niklas    179: OpenBSD provides transforms like DES, 3DES, Blowfish and Cast for the
1.36      deraadt   180: kernel and userland programs, which are used in many places like:<p>
1.10      deraadt   181: <ul>
1.27      deraadt   182: <li>In libc for creating
                    183:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=blf_key>Blowfish</a>
1.33      deraadt   184:     passwords.  See also the <a href=papers/bcrypt-paper.ps>USENIX paper</a>
                    185:     on this topic.
1.27      deraadt   186: <li>In
                    187:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=ipsec>IPsec</a>
                    188:     to provide confidentiality for the network layer.
                    189: <li>In Kerberos and a handful of kerberized applications, like
                    190:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=telnet>telnet</a>,
                    191:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=cvs>cvs</a>,
                    192:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=rsh>rsh</a>,
                    193:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=rcp>rcp</a>,
                    194:     and
                    195:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=rlogin>rlogin</a>.
1.24      niklas    196: <li>In <a href=http://wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de/provos/photuris/>
1.27      deraadt   197:     photurisd</a> and
                    198:     <a href=http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=isakmpd>isakmpd</a>
                    199:     to protect the exchanges where IPsec key material is negotiated.
1.24      niklas    200: <li>In AFS to protect the messages passing over the network, providing
1.27      deraadt   201:     confidentiality of remote filesystem access.
1.24      niklas    202: <li>In libssl to let applications communicate over the de-facto standard
                    203:        cryptographically secure SSL protocol.
1.10      deraadt   204: </ul>
1.1       deraadt   205:
1.10      deraadt   206: <p>
1.32      deraadt   207: <a name=people></a>
1.42    ! deraadt   208: <h3><font color=#e00000>International Cryptographers Wanted</font></h3><p>
1.32      deraadt   209:
                    210: Of course, our project needs people to work on these systems.  If any
                    211: non-American cryptographer who meets the constraints listed earlier is
                    212: interested in helping out with embedded cryptography in OpenBSD,
                    213: please contact us.<p>
                    214:
1.33      deraadt   215: <p>
                    216: <a name=papers></a>
1.42    ! deraadt   217: <h3><font color=#e00000>Further Reading</font></h3><p>
1.33      deraadt   218:
                    219: A number of papers have been written by OpenBSD team members, about
                    220: cryptographic changes they have done in OpenBSD.  The postscript
1.34      deraadt   221: versions of these documents are available as follows.<p>
1.33      deraadt   222:
                    223: <ul>
                    224: <li>A Future-Adaptable Password Scheme
                    225:     Niels Provos, David Mazieres.<br>
                    226:     <a href=papers/bcrypt-paper.ps>paper</a> and
                    227:     <a href=papers/bcrypt-slides.ps>slides</a>.
                    228: <li>Cryptography in OpenBSD: An Overview<br>
                    229:     Theo de Raadt, Niklas Hallqvist, Artur Grabowski,
                    230:     Angelos D. Keromytis, Niels Provos.<br>
                    231:     <a href=papers/crypt-paper.ps>paper</a> and
                    232:     <a href=papers/crypt-slides.ps>slides</a>.
                    233: </ul>
                    234:
1.32      deraadt   235: <p>
1.1       deraadt   236: <hr>
1.19      pauls     237: <a href=/index.html><img height=24 width=24 src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
1.10      deraadt   238: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
                    239: <br>
1.42    ! deraadt   240: <small>$OpenBSD: crypto.html,v 1.41 1999/10/01 22:46:10 louis Exp $</small>
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