Red Hat SummitChapter 3. Default FIPS configurations in Red Hat build of OpenJDK 8
3.1. Security providers
The Red Hat build of OpenJDK security policy is controled by the global java security policy file. You can find the java security policy file at $JRE_HOME/lib/security/java.security.
With FIPS mode enabled, Red Hat build of OpenJDK replaces the installed security providers with the following ones (in descending priority order):
SunPKCS11-NSS-FIPS
Initialized with a Network Security Services (NSS) Software Token (PKCS#11 backend). The NSS Software Token is configured as follows:
- name = NSS-FIPS
- nssLibraryDirectory = /usr/lib64
- nssSecmodDirectory = /etc/pki/nssdb
- nssDbMode = readOnly
- nssModule = fips
- The NSS library implements a FIPS-compliant Software Token. Also, FIPS policy-aware in RHEL.
SUN
-
For X.509 certificates support only. Make sure that your application is not using other cryptographic algorithms from this provider. For example,
MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-256", Security.getProvider("SUN"))would work but lead to a non-FIPS compliantMessageDigestservice.
SunEC
- For SunPKCS11 auxiliary helpers only. Make sure that your application is not explicitly using this provider.
SunJSSE
-
Initialized with the
SunPKCS11-NSS-FIPSprovider for all cryptographic primitives required by the TLS engine, including key derivation.
3.2. Crypto-policies
With FIPS mode enabled, Red Hat build of OpenJDK takes configuration values of cryptographic algorithms from global crypto-policies. You can find these values at /etc/crypto-policies/back-ends/java.config. You can use the update-crypto-policies tooling from RHEL to manage crypto-policies in a consistent way.
A crypto-policies approved algorithm might not be usable in Red Hat build of OpenJDK’s FIPS mode. This occurs when a FIPS-compliant implementation is not available in the NSS library or when it is not supported in Red Hat build of OpenJDK’s SunPKCS11 security provider.
3.3. Trust Anchor certificates
Red Hat build of OpenJDK uses the global Trust Anchor certificates repository when in FIPS mode. You can locate this repository at /etc/pki/java/cacerts. Use the update-ca-trust tooling from RHEL to manage certificates in a consistent way.
3.4. Key store
With FIPS mode, Red Hat build of OpenJDK uses the NSS DB as a read-only PKCS#11 store for keys. As a result, the keystore.type security property is set to PKCS11. You can locate the NSS DB repository at /etc/pki/nssdb. Use the modutil tooling in RHEL to manage NSS DB keys.
Revised on 2024-11-25 10:50:15 UTC
