Security
This chapter describes how authentication, rule-based authorization, encryption, and digital signing can be accomplished using Qpid. Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user; in Qpid, this is done using the SASL framework. Rule-based authorization is a mechanism for specifying the actions that each user is allowed to perform; in Qpid, this is done using an Access Control List (ACL) that is part of the Qpid broker. Encryption is used to ensure that data is not transferred in a plain-text format that could be intercepted and read. Digital signatures provide proof that a given message was sent by a known sender. Encryption and signing are done using SSL (they can also be done using SASL, but SSL provides stronger encryption).
User Authentication
AMQP uses Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) to authenticate client connections to the broker. SASL is a framework that supports a variety of authentication methods. For secure applications, we suggest CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, or GSSAPI. The ANONYMOUS method is not secure. The PLAIN method is secure only when used together with SSL.
Both the Qpid broker and Qpid clients use the Cyrus SASL library, a full-featured authentication framework, which offers many configuration options. This section shows how to configure users for authentication with SASL, which is sufficient when using SASL PLAIN. If you are not using SSL, you should configure SASL to use CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, or GSSAPI (which provides Kerberos authentication). For information on configuring these and other options in SASL, see the Cyrus SASL documentation.
Important
The SASL PLAIN method sends passwords in cleartext, and is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks unless SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is also used (see ).
If you are not using SSL, we recommend that you disable PLAIN authentication in the broker.
The Qpid broker uses the auth yes|no option to determine whether to use SASL authentication. Turn on authentication by setting auth to yes in /etc/qpidd.conf:
# /etc/qpidd.conf
#
# Set auth to 'yes' or 'no'
auth=yes
Configuring SASL
On Linux systems, the SASL configuration file is generally found in /etc/sasl2/qpidd.conf or /usr/lib/sasl2/qpidd.conf.
The SASL database contains user names and passwords for SASL. In SASL, a user may be associated with a realm. The Qpid broker authenticates users in the QPID realm by default, but it can be set to a different realm using the realm option:
# /etc/qpidd.conf
#
# Set the SASL realm using 'realm='
auth=yes
realm=QPID
The SASL database is installed at /var/lib/qpidd/qpidd.sasldb; initially, it has one user named guest in the QPID realm, and the password for this user is guest.
Note
The user database is readable only by the qpidd user. When run as a daemon, Qpid always runs as the qpidd user. If you start the broker from a user other than the qpidd user, you will need to either reconfigure SASL or turn authentication off.
Important
The SASL database stores user names and passwords in plain text. If it is compromised so are all of the passwords that it stores. This is the reason that the qpidd user is the only user that can read the database. If you modify permissions, be careful not to expose the SASL database.
Add new users to the database by using the saslpasswd2 command, which specifies a realm and a user ID. A user ID takes the form user-id@domain..
# saslpasswd2 -f /var/lib/qpidd/qpidd.sasldb -u realmnew_user_name
To list the users in the SASL database, use sasldblistusers2:
# sasldblistusers2 -f /var/lib/qpidd/qpidd.sasldb
If you are using PLAIN authentication, users who are in the database can now connect with their user name and password. This is secure only if you are using SSL. If you are using a more secure form of authentication, please consult your SASL documentation for information on configuring the options you need.
Kerberos
Both the Qpid broker and Qpid users are 'principals' of the Kerberos server, which means that they are both clients of the Kerberos authentication services.
To use Kerberos, both the Qpid broker and each Qpid user must be authenticated on the Kerberos server:
Install the Kerberos workstation software and Cyrus SASL GSSAPI on each machine that runs a qpidd broker or a qpidd messaging client:
$ sudo yum install cyrus-sasl-gssapi krb5-workstation
Make sure that the Qpid broker is registered in the Kerberos database.
Traditionally, a Kerberos principal is divided into three parts: the primary, the instance, and the realm. A typical Kerberos V5 has the format primary/instance@REALM. For a Qpid broker, the primary is qpidd, the instance is the fully qualified domain name, which you can obtain using hostname --fqdn, and the REALM is the Kerberos domain realm. By default, this realm is QPID, but a different realm can be specified in qpid.conf, e.g.:
realm=EXAMPLE.COM
For instance, if the fully qualified domain name is dublduck.example.com and the Kerberos domain realm is EXAMPLE.COM, then the principal name is qpidd/dublduck.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM.
The following script creates a principal for qpidd:
FDQN=`hostname --fqdn`
REALM="EXAMPLE.COM"
kadmin -r $REALM -q "addprinc -randkey -clearpolicy qpidd/$FQDN"
Now create a Kerberos keytab file for the Qpid broker. The Qpid broker must have read access to the keytab file. The following script creates a keytab file and allows the broker read access:
QPIDD_GROUP="qpidd"
kadmin -r $REALM -q "ktadd -k /etc/qpidd.keytab qpidd/$FQDN@$REALM"
chmod g+r /etc/qpidd.keytab
chgrp $QPIDD_GROUP /etc/qpidd.keytab
The default location for the keytab file is /etc/krb5.keytab. If a different keytab file is used, the KRB5_KTNAME environment variable must contain the name of the file, e.g.:
export KRB5_KTNAME=/etc/qpidd.keytab
If this is correctly configured, you can now enable kerberos support on the Qpid broker by setting the auth and realm options in /etc/qpidd.conf:
# /etc/qpidd.conf
auth=yes
realm=EXAMPLE.COM
Restart the broker to activate these settings.
Make sure that each Qpid user is registered in the Kerberos database, and that Kerberos is correctly configured on the client machine. The Qpid user is the account from which a Qpid messaging client is run. If it is correctly configured, the following command should succeed:
$ kinit user@REALM.COM
Java JMS clients require a few additional steps.
The Java JVM must be run with the following arguments:
-Djavax.security.auth.useSubjectCredsOnly=false
Forces the SASL GASSPI client to obtain the kerberos credentials explicitly instead of obtaining from the "subject" that owns the current thread.
-Djava.security.auth.login.config=myjas.conf
Specifies the jass configuration file. Here is a sample JASS configuration file:
com.sun.security.jgss.initiate {
com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required useTicketCache=true;
};
-Dsun.security.krb5.debug=true
Enables detailed debug info for troubleshooting
The client's Connection URL must specify the following Kerberos-specific broker properties:
sasl_mechs must be set to GSSAPI.
sasl_protocol must be set to the principal for the qpidd broker, e.g. qpidd/
sasl_server must be set to the host for the SASL server, e.g. sasl.com.
Here is a sample connection URL for a Kerberos connection:
amqp://guest@clientid/testpath?brokerlist='tcp://localhost:5672?sasl_mechs='GSSAPI'&sasl_protocol='qpidd'&sasl_server='<server-host-name>''Authorization
In Qpid, Authorization specifies which actions can be performed by each authenticated user using an Access Control List (ACL).
Use the --acl-file command to load the access control list. The filename should have a .acl extension:
$ qpidd --acl-file ./aclfilename.acl
Each line in an ACL file grants or denies specific rights to a user. If the last line in an ACL file is acl deny all all, the ACL uses deny mode, and only those rights that are explicitly allowed are granted:
acl allow rajith@QPID all all
acl deny all all
On this server, rajith@QPID can perform any action, but nobody else can. Deny mode is the default, so the previous example is equivalent to the following ACL file:
acl allow rajith@QPID all all
Alternatively the ACL file may use allow mode by placing:
acl allow all all
as the final line in the ACL file. In allow mode all actions by all users are allowed unless otherwise denied by specific ACL rules.
The ACL rule which selects deny mode or allow mode must be the last line in the ACL rule file.
ACL syntax allows fine-grained access rights for specific actions:
acl allow carlt@QPID create exchange name=carl.*
acl allow fred@QPID create all
acl allow all consume queue
acl allow all bind exchange
acl deny all all
An ACL file can define user groups, and assign permissions to them:
group admin ted@QPID martin@QPID
acl allow admin create all
acl deny all all
An ACL file can define per user connection and queue quotas:
group admin ted@QPID martin@QPID
group blacklist usera@qpid userb@qpid
quota connections 10 admin
quota connections 5 all
quota connections 0 blacklist
quota queues 50 admin
quota queues 5 all
quota queues 1 test@qpid
Performance Note: Most ACL queries are performed infrequently. The overhead associated with
ACL passing an allow or deny decision on the creation of a queue is negligible
compared to actually creating and using the queue. One notable exception is the publish exchange
query. ACL files with no publish exchange rules are noted and the broker short circuits the logic
associated with the per-messsage publish exchange ACL query.
However, if an ACL file has any publish exchange rules
then the broker is required to perform a publish exchange query for each message published.
Users with performance critical applications are encouraged to structure exchanges, queues, and bindings so that
the publish exchange ACL rules are unnecessary.
ACL Syntax
ACL rules follow this syntax:
ACL rules can also include a single object name (or the keyword all) and one or more property name value pairs in the form property=value
The following tables show the possible values for permission, action, object, and property in an ACL rules file.
ACL Rules: permissionallow
Allow the action
allow-log
Allow the action and log the action in the event log
deny
Deny the action
deny-log
Deny the action and log the action in the event log
ACL Rules: actionaccess
Accessing or reading an object
bind
Associating a queue to an exchange with a routing key.
consume
Using an object
create
Creating an object.
delete
Deleting an object.
move
Moving messages between queues.
publish
Authenticating an incoming message.
purge
Purging a queue.
redirect
Redirecting messages between queues
reroute
Rerouting messages from a queue to an exchange
unbind
Disassociating a queue from an exchange with a routing key.
update
Changing a broker configuration setting.
ACL Rules:objectbrokerconnection
Incoming TCP/IP connection
exchangelink
A federation or inter-broker link
method
Management method
query
Management query of an object or class
queue
ACL Rules: propertyPropertyTypeDescriptionUsagenameStringRule refers to objects with this name. When 'name' is blank or absent then the rule
applies to all objects of the given type.alternateStringName of an alternate exchangeCREATE QUEUE, CREATE EXCHANGE, ACCESS QUEUE, ACCESS EXCHANGE, DELETE QUEUE, DELETE EXCHANGEautodeleteBooleanIndicates whether or not the object gets deleted when the connection that created it is closedCREATE QUEUE, CREATE EXCHANGE, ACCESS QUEUE, ACCESS EXCHANGE, DELETE QUEUEdurableBooleanRule applies to durable objectsCREATE QUEUE, CREATE EXCHANGE, ACCESS QUEUE, ACCESS EXCHANGE, DELETE QUEUE, DELETE EXCHANGEexchangenameStringName of the exchange to which queue's entries are routedREROUTE QUEUEfilemaxcountlowerlimitIntegerMinimum value for file.max_count (files)CREATE QUEUEfilemaxcountupperlimitIntegerMaximum value for file.max_count (files)CREATE QUEUEfilemaxsizelowerlimitIntegerMinimum value for file.max_size (64kb pages)CREATE QUEUEfilemaxsizeupperlimitIntegerMaximum value for file.max_size (64kb pages)CREATE QUEUEhostStringTarget TCP/IP host or host range for create connection rulesCREATE CONNECTIONexclusiveBooleanIndicates the presence of an exclusive flagCREATE QUEUE, ACCESS QUEUE, DELETE QUEUEpagefactorlowerlimitIntegerMinimum value for size of a page in paged queueCREATE QUEUEpagefactorupperlimitIntegerMaximum value for size of a page in paged queueCREATE QUEUEpageslowerlimitIntegerMinimum value for number of paged queue pages in memoryCREATE QUEUEpagesupperlimitIntegerMaximum value for number of paged queue pages in memoryCREATE QUEUEpagingBooleanIndicates if the queue is a paging queueCREATE QUEUEpolicytypeString"ring", "self-destruct", "reject"CREATE QUEUE, ACCESS QUEUE, DELETE QUEUEqueuenameStringName of the target queueACCESS EXCHANGE, BIND EXCHANGE, MOVE QUEUE, UNBIND EXCHANGEqueuemaxsizelowerlimitIntegerMinimum value for queue.max_size (memory bytes)CREATE QUEUE, ACCESS QUEUEqueuemaxsizeupperlimitIntegerMaximum value for queue.max_size (memory bytes)CREATE QUEUE, ACCESS QUEUEqueuemaxcountlowerlimitIntegerMinimum value for queue.max_count (messages)CREATE QUEUE, ACCESS QUEUEqueuemaxcountupperlimitIntegerMaximum value for queue.max_count (messages)CREATE QUEUE, ACCESS QUEUEroutingkeyStringSpecifies routing keyBIND EXCHANGE, UNBIND EXCHANGE, ACCESS EXCHANGE, PUBLISH EXCHANGEschemaclassStringQMF schema class nameACCESS METHOD, ACCESS QUERYschemapackageStringQMF schema package nameACCESS METHODtypeStringType of exchange, such as topic, fanout, or xmlCREATE EXCHANGE, ACCESS EXCHANGE, DELETE EXCHANGE
ACL Action-Object-Property Combinations
Not every ACL action is applicable to every ACL object. Furthermore, not every property may be
specified for every action-object pair. The following table lists the broker events
that trigger ACL lookups. Then for each event it lists the action, object, and properties
allowed in the lookup.
User-specified ACL rules constrain property sets to those that match one or more of
the action and object pairs. For example these rules are allowed:
acl allow all access exchange
acl allow all access exchange name=abc
acl allow all access exchange name=abc durable=true
These rules could possibly match one or more of the broker lookups. However, this rule
is not allowed:
acl allow all access exchange queuename=queue1 durable=true
Properties queuename and durable
are not in the list of allowed properties for any 'access exchange' lookup.
This rule would never match a broker lookup query and would never contribute to an
allow or deny decision.
For more information about matching ACL rules please refer to
ACL Rule Matching
ACL Syntactic ConventionsComments
A line starting with the # character is considered a comment and is ignored.
Embedded comments and trailing comments are not allowed. The # is commonly found in routing keys and other AMQP literals which occur naturally in ACL rule specifications.
White Space
Empty lines and lines that contain only whitespace (' ', '\f', '\n', '\r', '\t', '\v') are ignored.
Additional whitespace between and after tokens is allowed.
Group and Acl definitions must start with group and acl respectively and with no preceding whitespace.
Character Set
ACL files use 7-bit ASCII characters only
Group names may contain only
[a-z][A-Z][0-9]'-' hyphen'_' underscore
Individual user names may contain only
[a-z][A-Z][0-9]'-' hyphen'_' underscore'.' period'@' ampersand'/' slashCase Sensitivity
All tokens are case sensitive. name1 is not the same as Name1 and create is not the same as CREATE.
Line Continuation
Group lists can be extended to the following line by terminating the line with the '\' character. No other ACL file lines may be continued.
Group specification lines may be continued only after the group name or any of the user names included in the group. See example below.
Lines consisting solely of a '\' character are not permitted.
The '\' continuation character is recognized only if it is the last character in the line. Any characters after the '\' are not permitted.
Line Length
ACL file lines are limited to 1024 characters.
ACL File Keywords
ACL reserves several words for convenience and for context sensitive substitution.
The all Keyword
The keyword all is reserved. It may be used in ACL rules to match all individuals and groups, all actions, or all objects.
acl allow all create queueacl allow bob@QPID all queueacl allow bob@QPID create allUser Name and Domain Name Keywords
In the C++ Broker 0.20 a simple set of user name and domain name substitution variable keyword tokens is defined. This provides administrators with an easy way to describe private or shared resources.
Symbol substitution is allowed in the ACL file anywhere that text is supplied for a property value.
In the following table an authenticated user named bob.user@QPID.COM has his substitution keywords expanded.
ACL User Name and Domain Name Substitution KeywordsKeywordExpansion${userdomain}bob_user_QPID_COM${user}bob_user${domain}QPID_COM
The original user name has the period “.” and ampersand “@” characters translated into underscore “_”. This allows substitution to work when the substitution keyword is used in a routingkey in the Acl file.
The Acl processing matches ${userdomain} before matching either ${user} or ${domain}. Rules that specify the combination ${user}_${domain} will never match.
Wildcards
ACL privides two types of wildcard matching to provide flexibility in writing rules.
Property Value Wildcard
Text specifying a property value may end with a single trailing * character.
This is a simple wildcard match indicating that strings which match up to that point are matches for the ACL property rule.
An ACL rule such as
acl allow bob@QPID create queue name=bob*
allow user bob@QPID to create queues named bob1, bob2, bobQueue3, and so on.
Topic Routing Key Wildcard
In the C++ Broker 0.20 the logic governing the ACL Match has changed for each ACL rule that contains a routingkey property.
The routingkey property is matched according to Topic Exchange match logic the broker uses when it distributes messages published to a topic exchange.
Routing keys are hierarchical where each level is separated by a period:
weather.usaweather.europe.germanyweather.europe.germany.berlincompany.engineering.repository
Within the routing key hierarchy two wildcard characters are defined.
* matches one field# matches zero or more fields
Suppose an ACL rule file is:
acl allow-log uHash1@COMPANY publish exchange name=X routingkey=a.#.b
acl deny all all
When user uHash1@COMPANY attempts to publish to exchange X the ACL will return these results:
Topic Exchange Wildcard Match Examplesroutingkey in publish to exchange Xresulta.ballow-loga.x.ballow-loga.x.y.zz.ballow-loga.b.denyq.x.bdeny
ACL Rule Matching
The minimum matching criteria for ACL rules are:
An actor (individually named or group member)An actionAn object
If a rule does not match the minimum criteria then that rule does not control the ACL allow or deny decision.
ACL rules optionally specify object names and property name=value pairs. If an ACL rule specifies an object name or property values than all of them must match to cause the rule to match.
The following illustration shows how ACL rules are processed to find matching rules.
Referring to ACL Properties Allowed for each Action and Object table observe that some Action/Object pairs have different sets of allowed properties. For example different broker ACL lookups for access exchange have different property subsets.
[1] access exchange name
[2] access exchange name type alternate durable autodelete
[3] access exchange name queuename routingkey
[4] access exchange name type durable
If an ACL rule specifies the autodelete property then it can possibly match only the second case above. It can never match cases 1, 3, and 4 because the broker calls to ACL will not present the autodelete property for matching. To get proper matching the ACL rule must have only the properties of the intended lookup case.
acl allow bob access exchange alternate=other ! may match pattern 2 only
acl allow bob access exchange queuename=other ! may match pattern 3 only
acl allow bob access exchange durable=true ! may match patterns 2 and 4 only
acl deny bob access exchange ! may match all patterns
Specifying ACL Permissions
Now that we have seen the ACL syntax, we will provide representative examples and guidelines for ACL files.
Most ACL files begin by defining groups:
group admin ted@QPID martin@QPID
group user-consume martin@QPID ted@QPID
group group2 kim@QPID user-consume rob@QPID
group publisher group2 \
tom@QPID andrew@QPID debbie@QPID
Rules in an ACL file grant or deny specific permissions to users or groups:
acl allow carlt@QPID create exchange name=carl.*
acl allow rob@QPID create queue
acl allow guest@QPID bind exchange name=amq.topic routingkey=stocks.rht.#
acl allow user-consume create queue name=tmp.*
acl allow publisher publish all durable=false
acl allow publisher create queue name=RequestQueue
acl allow consumer consume queue durable=true
acl allow fred@QPID create all
acl allow bob@QPID all queue
acl allow admin all
acl allow all consume queue
acl allow all bind exchange
acl deny all all
In the previous example, the last line, acl deny all all, denies all authorizations that have not been specifically granted. This is the default, but it is useful to include it explicitly on the last line for the sake of clarity. If you want to grant all rights by default, you can specify acl allow all all in the last line.
ACL allows specification of conflicting rules. Be sure to specify the most specific rules first followed by more general rules. Here is an example:
group users alice@QPID bob@QPID charlie@QPID
acl deny charlie@QPID create queue
acl allow users create queue
acl deny all all
In this example users alice and bob would be able to create queues due to their membership in the users group. However, user charlie is denied from creating a queue despite his membership in the users group because a deny rule for him is stated before the allow rule for the users group.
Do not allow guest to access and log QMF management methods that could cause security breaches:
group allUsers guest@QPID
...
acl deny-log allUsers create link
acl deny-log allUsers access method name=connect
acl deny-log allUsers access method name=echo
acl allow all all
Auditing ACL Settings
The 0.30 C++ Broker ACL module provides a comprehensive set of run-time and debug logging checks.
The following example ACL file is used to illustrate working with the ACL module debugging features.
group x a@QPID b@QPID b2@QPID b3@QPID
acl allow all delete broker
acl allow all create queue name=abc
acl allow all create queue exchangename=xyz
acl allow all create connection host=1.1.1.1
acl allow all access exchange alternate=abc queuename=xyz
acl allow all access exchange queuename=xyz
acl allow all access exchange alternate=abc
acl allow a@qpid all all exchangename=123
acl allow b@qpid all all
acl allow all all
When this file is loaded it will show the following (truncated, formatted) Info-level log.
notice ACL: Read file "/home/chug/acl/svn-acl.acl"
warning ACL rule ignored: Broker never checks for rules with
action: 'delete' and object: 'broker'
warning ACL rule ignored: Broker checks for rules with
action: 'create' and object: 'queue'
but will never match with property set: { exchangename=xyz }
warning ACL rule ignored: Broker checks for rules with
action: 'access' and object: 'exchange'
but will never match with property set: { alternate=abc queuename=xyz }
info ACL Plugin loaded
Three of the rules are invalid. The first invalid rule is rejected because there are no rules
that specify 'delete broker' regardless of the properties. The other two rules are rejected
because the property sets in the ACL rule don't match any broker lookups.
The ACL module only issues a warning about these rules and continues to operate. Users upgrading
from previous versions should be concerned that these rules never had any effect and should fix
the rules to have the property sets needed to allow or deny the intended broker events.
The next illustration shows the Debug-level log. Debug log level includes information about
constructing the rule tables, expanding groups and keywords, connection and queue quotas, and
connection black and white lists.
notice ACL: Read file "/home/chug/acl/svn-acl.acl"
debug ACL: Group list: 1 groups found:
debug ACL: "x": a@QPID b2@QPID b3@QPID b@QPID
debug ACL: name list: 7 names found:
debug ACL: * a@QPID a@qpid b2@QPID b3@QPID b@QPID b@qpid
debug ACL: Rule list: 10 ACL rules found:
debug ACL: 1 allow [*] delete broker
warning ACL rule ignored: Broker never checks for rules with
action: 'delete' and object: 'broker'
debug ACL: 2 allow [*] create queue name=abc
debug ACL: 3 allow [*] create queue exchangename=xyz
warning ACL rule ignored: Broker checks for rules with
action: 'create' and object: 'queue'
but will never match with property set: { exchangename=xyz }
debug ACL: 4 allow [*] create connection host=1.1.1.1
debug ACL: 5 allow [*] access exchange alternate=abc queuename=xyz
warning ACL rule ignored: Broker checks for rules with
action: 'access' and object: 'exchange'
but will never match with property set: { alternate=abc queuename=xyz }
debug ACL: 6 allow [*] access exchange queuename=xyz
debug ACL: 7 allow [*] access exchange alternate=abc
debug ACL: 8 allow [a@qpid] * * exchangename=123
debug ACL: 9 allow [b@qpid] * *
debug ACL: 10 allow [*] *
debug ACL: connections quota: 0 rules found:
debug ACL: queues quota: 0 rules found:
debug ACL: Load Rules
debug ACL: Processing 10 allow [*] *
debug ACL: FoundMode allow
debug ACL: Processing 9 allow [b@qpid] * *
debug ACL: Adding actions {access,bind,consume,create,delete,move,publish,purge,
redirect,reroute,unbind,update}
to objects {broker,connection,exchange,link,method,query,queue}
with props { }
for users {b@qpid}
debug ACL: Processing 8 allow [a@qpid] * * exchangename=123
debug ACL: Adding actions {access,bind,consume,create,delete,move,publish,purge,
redirect,reroute,unbind,update}
to objects {broker,connection,exchange,link,method,query,queue}
with props { exchangename=123 }
for users {a@qpid}
debug ACL: Processing 7 allow [*] access exchange alternate=abc
debug ACL: Adding actions {access}
to objects {exchange}
with props { alternate=abc }
for users {*,a@QPID,a@qpid,b2@QPID,b3@QPID,b@QPID,b@qpid}
debug ACL: Processing 6 allow [*] access exchange queuename=xyz
debug ACL: Adding actions {access}
to objects {exchange}
with props { queuename=xyz }
for users {*,a@QPID,a@qpid,b2@QPID,b3@QPID,b@QPID,b@qpid}
debug ACL: Processing 5 allow [*] access exchange alternate=abc queuename=xyz
debug ACL: Processing 4 allow [*] create connection host=1.1.1.1
debug ACL: Processing 3 allow [*] create queue exchangename=xyz
debug ACL: Processing 2 allow [*] create queue name=abc
debug ACL: Adding actions {create}
to objects {queue}
with props { name=abc }
for users {*,a@QPID,a@qpid,b2@QPID,b3@QPID,b@QPID,b@qpid}
debug ACL: Processing 1 allow [*] delete broker
debug ACL: global Connection Rule list : 1 rules found :
debug ACL: 1 [ruleMode = allow {(1.1.1.1,1.1.1.1)}
debug ACL: User Connection Rule lists : 0 user lists found :
debug ACL: Transfer ACL is Enabled!
info ACL Plugin loaded
The previous illustration is interesting because it shows the settings as the all keywords are
being expanded. However, that does not show the information about what is actually going into the ACL lookup tables.
The next two illustrations show additional information provided by Trace-level logs for ACL startup.
The first shows a dump of the broker's internal
action/object/properties table. This table is authoratative.
trace ACL: Definitions of action, object, (allowed properties) lookups
trace ACL: Lookup 1: "User querying message timestamp setting "
access broker ()
trace ACL: Lookup 2: "AMQP 0-10 protocol received 'query' "
access exchange (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 3: "AMQP 0-10 query binding "
access exchange (name,routingkey,queuename)
trace ACL: Lookup 4: "AMQP 0-10 exchange declare "
access exchange (name,durable,autodelete,type,alternate)
trace ACL: Lookup 5: "AMQP 1.0 exchange access "
access exchange (name,durable,type)
trace ACL: Lookup 6: "AMQP 1.0 node resolution "
access exchange (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 7: "Management method request "
access method (name,schemapackage,schemaclass)
trace ACL: Lookup 8: "Management agent method request "
access method (name,schemapackage,schemaclass)
trace ACL: Lookup 9: "Management agent query "
access query (name,schemaclass)
trace ACL: Lookup 10: "QMF 'query queue' method "
access queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 11: "AMQP 0-10 query "
access queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 12: "AMQP 0-10 queue declare "
access queue (name,durable,autodelete,exclusive,alternate,
policytype,queuemaxsizelowerlimit,queuemaxsizeupperlimit,
queuemaxcountlowerlimit,queuemaxcountupperlimit)
trace ACL: Lookup 13: "AMQP 1.0 queue access "
access queue (name,durable,autodelete,exclusive,alternate,
policytype,queuemaxsizelowerlimit,queuemaxsizeupperlimit,
queuemaxcountlowerlimit,queuemaxcountupperlimit)
trace ACL: Lookup 14: "AMQP 1.0 node resolution "
access queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 15: "AMQP 0-10 or QMF bind request "
bind exchange (name,routingkey,queuename)
trace ACL: Lookup 16: "AMQP 1.0 new outgoing link from exchange "
bind exchange (name,routingkey,queuename)
trace ACL: Lookup 17: "AMQP 0-10 subscribe request "
consume queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 18: "AMQP 1.0 new outgoing link from queue "
consume queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 19: "TCP/IP connection creation "
create connection (host)
trace ACL: Lookup 20: "Create exchange "
create exchange (name,durable,autodelete,type,alternate)
trace ACL: Lookup 21: "Interbroker link creation "
create link ()
trace ACL: Lookup 22: "Interbroker link creation "
create link ()
trace ACL: Lookup 23: "Create queue "
create queue (name,durable,autodelete,exclusive,
alternate,policytype,paging,
queuemaxsizelowerlimit,queuemaxsizeupperlimit,
queuemaxcountlowerlimit,queuemaxcountupperlimit,
filemaxsizelowerlimit,filemaxsizeupperlimit,
filemaxcountlowerlimit,filemaxcountupperlimit,
pageslowerlimit,pagesupperlimit,
pagefactorlowerlimit,pagefactorupperlimit)
trace ACL: Lookup 24: "Delete exchange "
delete exchange (name,durable,type,alternate)
trace ACL: Lookup 25: "Delete queue "
delete queue (name,durable,autodelete,exclusive,
alternate,policytype)
trace ACL: Lookup 26: "Management 'move queue' request "
move queue (name,queuename)
trace ACL: Lookup 27: "AMQP 0-10 received message processing "
publish exchange (name,routingkey)
trace ACL: Lookup 28: "AMQP 1.0 establish sender link to queue "
publish exchange (routingkey)
trace ACL: Lookup 29: "AMQP 1.0 received message processing "
publish exchange (name,routingkey)
trace ACL: Lookup 30: "Management 'purge queue' request "
purge queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 31: "Management 'purge queue' request "
purge queue (name)
trace ACL: Lookup 32: "Management 'redirect queue' request "
redirect queue (name,queuename)
trace ACL: Lookup 33: "Management 'reroute queue' request "
reroute queue (name,exchangename)
trace ACL: Lookup 34: "Management 'unbind exchange' request "
unbind exchange (name,routingkey,queuename)
trace ACL: Lookup 35: "User modifying message timestamp setting "
update broker ()
The final illustration shows a dump of every rule for every user in the ACL database.
It includes the user name, action, object, original ACL rule number, allow or deny status,
and a cross reference indicating which Lookup Events the rule could possibly satisfy.
Note that rules identified by User: * are the rules in effect
for users otherwise unnamed in the ACL file.
trace ACL: Decision rule cross reference
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access broker
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (1)
trace ACL: User: * access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: * access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: a@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: a@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: a@qpid access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: a@qpid access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: b2@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: b2@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: b3@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: b3@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: b@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: b@QPID access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access exchange
Rule: [rule 6 ruleMode = allow props{ queuename=xyz }]
may match Lookups : (3)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access exchange
Rule: [rule 7 ruleMode = allow props{ alternate=abc }]
may match Lookups : (4)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access exchange
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (2,3,4,5,6)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access method
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (7,8)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access query
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (9)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid access queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (10,11,12,13,14)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid bind exchange
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (15,16)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid consume queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (17,18)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid create connection
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (19)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid create exchange
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (20)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid create link
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (21,22)
trace ACL: User: * create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: a@QPID create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: a@qpid create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: b2@QPID create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: b3@QPID create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: b@QPID create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid create queue
Rule: [rule 2 ruleMode = allow props{ name=abc }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid create queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (23)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid delete exchange
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (24)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid delete queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (25)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid move queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (26)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid publish exchange
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (27,28,29)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid purge queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (30,31)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid redirect queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (32)
trace ACL: User: a@qpid reroute queue
Rule: [rule 8 ruleMode = allow props{ exchangename=123 }]
may match Lookups : (33)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid reroute queue
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (33)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid unbind exchange
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (34)
trace ACL: User: b@qpid update broker
Rule: [rule 9 ruleMode = allow props{ }]
may match Lookups : (35)
User Connection and Queue Quotas
The ACL module enforces various quotas and thereby limits user activity.
Connection Count Limits
The ACL module creates broker command line switches that set limits on the number of concurrent connections allowed per user or per client host address. These settings are not specified in the ACL file.
--max-connections N
--connection-limit-per-user N
--connection-limit-per-ip N
--max-connections specifies an upper limit for all user connections.
--connection-limit-per-user specifies an upper limit for each user based on the authenticated user name. This limit is enforced regardless of the client IP address from which the connection originates.
--connection-limit-per-ip specifies an upper limit for connections for all users based on the originating client IP address. This limit is enforced regardless of the user credentials presented with the connection.
Note that addresses using different transports are counted separately even though the originating host is actually the same physical machine. In the setting illustrated above a host would allow N_IP connections from [::1] IPv6 transport localhost and another N_IP connections from [127.0.0.1] IPv4 transport localhost.
The connection-limit-per-ip and connection-limit-per-user counts are active simultaneously. From a given client system users may be denied access to the broker by either connection limit.
The 0.22 C++ Broker ACL module accepts fine grained per-user connection limits through quota rules in the ACL file.
quota connections 10 admins userX@QPID
User all receives the value passed by the command line switch --connection-limit-per-user.
Values specified in the ACL rule for user all overwrite the value specified on the command line if any.
Connection quotas values are determined by first searching for the authenticated user name. If that user name is not specified then the value for user all
is used. If user all is not specified then the connection is denied.
The connection quota values range from 0..65530 inclusive. A value of zero disables connections from that user.
A user's quota may be specified many times in the ACL rule file. Only the last value specified is retained and enforced.
Per-user connection quotas are disabled when two conditions are true: 1) No --connection-limit-per-user command line switch and 2) No quota connections
rules in the ACL file. Per-user connections are always counted even if connection quotas are not enforced. This supports ACL file reloading that may subsequently
enable per-user connection quotas.
An ACL file reload may lower a user's connection quota value to a number lower than the user's current connection count. In that case the active connections
remain unaffected. New connections are denied until that user closes enough of his connections so that his count falls below the configured limit.
Connection Limits by Host Name
The 0.30 C++ Broker ACL module adds the ability to create allow and deny lists of the TCP/IP hosts from which users may connect. The rule accepts these forms:
acl allow user create connection host=host1
acl allow user create connection host=host1,host2
acl deny user create connection host=all
Using the form host=host1 specifies a single host. With a single host the name may resolve to multiple TCP/IP addresses. For example localhost resolves to both 127.0.0.1 and ::1 and possibly many other addresses. A connection from any of the addresses associated with this host matches the rule and the connection is allowed or denied accordingly.
Using the form host=host1,host2 specifies a range of TCP/IP addresses. With a host range each host must resolve to a single TCP/IP address and the second address must be numerically larger than the first. A connection from any host where host >= host1 and host <= host2 match the rule and the connection is allowed or denied accordingly.
Using the form host=all specifies all TCP/IP addresses. A connection from any host matches the rule and the connection is allowed or denied accordingly.
Connection denial is only applied to incoming TCP/IP connections. Other socket types are not subjected to nor denied by range checks.
Connection creation rules are divided into three categories:
User = all, host != all
These define global rules and are applied before any specific user rules.
These rules may be used to reject connections before any AMPQ protocol is run and before
any user names have been negotiated.
User != all, host = any legal host or 'all'
These define user rules. These rules are applied after the global rules and
after the AMQP protocol has negotiated user identities.
User = all, host = all
This rule defines what to do if no other rule matches. The default value is "ALLOW".
Only one rule of this type may be defined.
The following example illustrates how this feature can be used.
group admins alice bob chuck
group Company1 c1_usera c1_userb
group Company2 c2_userx c2_usery c2_userz
acl allow admins create connection host=localhost
acl allow admins create connection host=10.0.0.0,10.255.255.255
acl allow admins create connection host=192.168.0.0,192.168.255.255
acl allow admins create connection host=[fc00::],[fc00::ff]
acl allow Company1 create connection host=company1.com
acl deny Company1 create connection host=all
acl allow Company2 create connection host=company2.com
acl deny Company2 create connection host=all
In this example admins may connect from localhost or from any system on the 10.0.0.0/24, 192.168.0.0/16, and fc00::/7 subnets. Company1 users may connect only from company1.com and Company2 users may connect only from company2.com.
However, this example has a flaw. Although the admins group has specific hosts
from which it is allowed to make connections it is not blocked from connecting
from anywhere. The Company1 and Company2 groups are blocked appropriately.
This ACL file may be rewritten as follows:
group admins alice bob chuck
group Company1 c1_usera c1_userb
group Company2 c2_userx c2_usery c2_userz
acl allow admins create connection host=localhost
acl allow admins create connection host=10.0.0.0,10.255.255.255
acl allow admins create connection host=192.168.0.0,192.168.255.255
acl allow admins create connection host=[fc00::],[fc00::ff]
acl allow Company1 create connection host=company1.com
acl allow Company2 create connection host=company2.com
acl deny all create connection host=all
Now admins are blocked from connecting from anywhere but their allowed
hosts.
Queue Limits
The ACL module creates a broker command line switch that set limits on the number of queues each user is allowed to create. This settings is not specified in the ACL file.
--max-queues-per-user N
The queue limit is set for all users on the broker.
The 0.22 C++ Broker ACL module accepts fine grained per-user queue limits through quota rules in the ACL file.
quota queues 10 admins userX@QPID
User all receives the value passed by the command line switch --max-queues-per-user.
Values specified in the ACL rule for user all overwrite the value specified on the command line if any.
Queue quotas values are determined by first searching for the authenticated user name. If that user name is not specified then the value for user all
is used. If user all is not specified then the queue creation is denied.
The queue quota values range from 0..65530 inclusive. A value of zero disables queue creation by that user.
A user's quota may be specified many times in the ACL rule file. Only the last value specified is retained and enforced.
Per-user queue quotas are disabled when two conditions are true: 1) No --queue-limit-per-user command line switch and 2) No quota queues
rules in the ACL file. Per-user queue creations are always counted even if queue quotas are not enforced. This supports ACL file reloading that may subsequently
enable per-user queue quotas.
An ACL file reload may lower a user's queue quota value to a number lower than the user's current queue count. In that case the active queues
remain unaffected. New queues are denied until that user closes enough of his queues so that his count falls below the configured limit.
Encryption using SSL
Encryption and certificate management for qpidd is provided by Mozilla's Network Security Services Library (NSS).
Enabling SSL for the Qpid broker
You will need a certificate that has been signed by a Certification Authority (CA). This certificate will also need to be trusted by your client. If you require client authentication in addition to server authentication, the client's certificate will also need to be signed by a CA and trusted by the broker.
In the broker, SSL is provided through the ssl.so module. This module is installed and loaded by default in Qpid. To enable the module, you need to specify the location of the database containing the certificate and key to use. This is done using the ssl-cert-db option.
The certificate database is created and managed by the Mozilla Network Security Services (NSS) certutil tool. Information on this utility can be found on the Mozilla website, including tutorials on setting up and testing SSL connections. The certificate database will generally be password protected. The safest way to specify the password is to place it in a protected file, use the password file when creating the database, and specify the password file with the ssl-cert-password-file option when starting the broker.
The following script shows how to create a certificate database using certutil:
mkdir ${CERT_DIR}
certutil -N -d ${CERT_DIR} -f ${CERT_PW_FILE}
certutil -S -d ${CERT_DIR} -n ${NICKNAME} -s "CN=${NICKNAME}" -t "CT,," -x -f ${CERT_PW_FILE} -z /usr/bin/certutil
When starting the broker, set ssl-cert-password-file to the value of ${CERT_PW_FILE}, set ssl-cert-db to the value of ${CERT_DIR}, and set ssl-cert-name to the value of ${NICKNAME}.
The following SSL options can be used when starting the broker:
--ssl-use-export-policy
Use NSS export policy
--ssl-cert-password-file PATH
Required. Plain-text file containing password to use for accessing certificate database.
--ssl-cert-db PATH
Required. Path to directory containing certificate database.
--ssl-cert-name NAME
Name of the certificate to use. Default is localhost.localdomain.
--ssl-port NUMBER
Port on which to listen for SSL connections. If no port is specified, port 5671 is used.
--ssl-require-client-authentication
Require SSL client authentication (i.e. verification of a client certificate) during the SSL handshake. This occurs before SASL authentication, and is independent of SASL.
This option enables the EXTERNAL SASL mechanism for SSL connections. If the client chooses the EXTERNAL mechanism, the client's identity is taken from the validated SSL certificate, using the CNliteral>, and appending any DCliteral>s to create the domain. For instance, if the certificate contains the properties CN=bob, DC=acme, DC=com, the client's identity is bob@acme.com.
If the client chooses a different SASL mechanism, the identity take from the client certificate will be replaced by that negotiated during the SASL handshake.
--ssl-sasl-no-dict
Do not accept SASL mechanisms that can be compromised by dictionary attacks. This prevents a weaker mechanism being selected instead of EXTERNAL, which is not vulnerable to dictionary attacks.
Also relevant is the --require-encryption broker option. This will cause qpidd to only accept encrypted connections.
Enabling SSL in ClientsC++ clients:
In C++ clients, SSL is implemented in the sslconnector.so module. This module is installed and loaded by default in Qpid.
The following options can be specified for C++ clients using environment variables:
SSL Client Environment Variables for C++ clients
SSL Client Options for C++ clients
QPID_SSL_USE_EXPORT_POLICY
Use NSS export policy
QPID_SSL_CERT_PASSWORD_FILE PATH
File containing password to use for accessing certificate database
QPID_SSL_CERT_DB PATH
Path to directory containing certificate database
QPID_SSL_CERT_NAME NAME
Name of the certificate to use. When SSL client authentication is enabled, a certificate name should normally be provided.
When using SSL connections, clients must specify the location of the certificate database, a directory that contains the client's certificate and the public key of the Certificate Authority. This can be done by setting the environment variable QPID_SSL_CERT_DB to the full pathname of the directory. If a connection uses SSL client authentication, the client's password is also needed—the password should be placed in a protected file, and the QPID_SSL_CERT_PASSWORD_FILE variable should be set to the location of the file containing this password.
To open an SSL enabled connection in the Qpid Messaging API, set the protocol connection option to ssl.
Java clients:
For both server and client authentication, import the trusted CA to your trust store and keystore and generate keys for them. Create a certificate request using the generated keys and then create a certificate using the request. You can then import the signed certificate into your keystore. Pass the following arguments to the Java JVM when starting your client:
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=/home/bob/ssl_test/keystore.jks
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=password
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/home/bob/ssl_test/certstore.jks
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=password
For server side authentication only, import the trusted CA to your trust store and pass the following arguments to the Java JVM when starting your client:
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/home/bob/ssl_test/certstore.jks
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=password
Java clients must use the SSL option in the connection URL to enable SSL encryption, e.g.
amqp://username:password@clientid/test?brokerlist='tcp://localhost:5672?ssl='true''
If you need to debug problems in an SSL connection, enable Java's SSL debugging by passing the argument -Djavax.net.debug=ssl to the Java JVM when starting your client.