Protocol security

About 9 min

Protocol security

EventStoreDB supports gRPC and the proprietary TCP protocol for high-throughput real-time communication. It also has some HTTP endpoints for the management operations like scavenging, creating projections and so on. EventStoreDB also uses HTTP for the gossip seed endpoint, both for the cluster gossip, and for clients that connect to the cluster using discovery mode.

All those protocols support encryption with TLS and SSL. You can only use one set of certificates for both TLS and HTTPS.

The protocol security configuration depends a lot on the deployment topology and platform. We have created an interactive configuration tool, which also has instructions on how to generate and install the certificates and configure EventStoreDB nodes to use them.

Certificates configuration

In this section, you can find settings related to configuring the certificates for protocol security (HTTPS and TLS).

Certificate common name

SSL certificates can be created with a common name (CN), which is an arbitrary string. Usually it contains the DNS name for which the certificate is issued.

When cluster nodes connect to each other, they need to ensure that they indeed talk to another node and not something that pretends to be a node. To achieve that, EventStoreDB authenticates a connecting node by ensuring that it supplies a trusted client certificate having a CN that matches exactly with the CN in its own certificate. This essentially means that the CN must be the same across all node certificates by default. For example, when using the Event Store certificate generator, the CN is set to eventstoredb-node in all node certificates.

Note

Prior to version 23.10.0, the CertificateReservedNodeCommonName setting needed to be configured if a user had certificates with a CN other than eventstoredb-node. EventStoreDB will now, by default, automatically read the CN from the node's certificate and use it as the CertificateReservedNodeCommonName. However, if you still choose to specify the CertificateReservedNodeCommonName in your configuration, it will take precedence.

In practice, it's not always possible to obtain certificates where the CN is the same across all nodes. For instance, when using a public CA, single-domain certificates are very common and these certificates cannot be used on multiple nodes as they are valid for exactly one host. In this case, the CertificateReservedNodeCommonName setting can be configured with a wildcard as per the following example:

If the domains are node1.esdb.mycompany.org, node2.esdb.mycompany.org and node3.esdb.mycompany.org, then CertificateReservedNodeCommonName must be set to *.esdb.mycompany.org.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-reserved-node-common-name`
YAML	`CertificateReservedNodeCommonName`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_RESERVED_NODE_COMMON_NAME`

Warning

Server certificates must have the internal and external IP addresses (ReplicationIp and NodeIp respectively) or DNS names as subject alternative names.

Trusted root certificates

When getting an incoming connection, the server needs to ensure if the certificate used for the connection can be trusted. For this to work, the server needs to know where trusted root certificates are located.

EventStoreDB will use the default trusted root certificates location of /etc/ssl/certs when running on Linux only. So if you are running on Windows or a platform with a different default certificates location, you'd need to explicitly tell the node to use the OS default root certificate store. For certificates signed by a private CA, you just provide the path to the CA certificate file (but not the filename).

If you are running on Windows, you can also load the trusted root certificate from the Windows Certificate Store. The available options for configuring this are described below.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--trusted-root-certificates-paths`
YAML	`TrustedRootCertificatesPath`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_TRUSTED_ROOT_CERTIFICATES_PATH`

Default: n/a on Windows, /etc/ssl/certs on Linux

Certificate file

The CertificateFile setting needs to point to the certificate file, which will be used by the cluster node.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-file`
YAML	`CertificateFile`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_FILE`

If the certificate file is protected by password, you'd need to set the CertificatePassword value accordingly, so the server can load the certificate.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-password`
YAML	`CertificatePassword`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD`

If the certificate file doesn't contain the certificate private key, you need to tell the node where to find the key file using the CertificatePrivateKeyFile setting. The private key can be in RSA, or PKCS8 format.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-private-key-file`
YAML	`CertificatePrivateKeyFile`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE`

If the private key file is an encrypted PKCS #8 file, then you need to provide the password with the CertificatePrivateKeyPassword option.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-private-key-password`
YAML	`CertificatePrivateKeyPassword`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD`

Certificate store (Windows)

The certificate store location is the location of the Windows certificate store, for example CurrentUser.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-store-location`
YAML	`CertificateStoreLocation`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_STORE_LOCATION`

The certificate store name is the name of the Windows certificate store, for example My.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-store-name`
YAML	`CertificateStoreName`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_STORE_NAME`

You can load a certificate using either its thumbprint or its subject name. If using the thumbprint, the server expects to only find one certificate file matching that thumbprint in the cert store.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-thumbprint`
YAML	`CertificateThumbprint`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_THUMBPRINT`

The subject name matches any certificate that contains the specified name. This means that multiple matching certificates could be found. To match any certificate made by the es-gencert-cli tool, you can set the subject name to eventstoredb-node.

If multiple matching certificates are found, then the certificate with the latest expiry date will be selected.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--certificate-subject-name`
YAML	`CertificateSubjectName`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_CERTIFICATE_SUBJECT_NAME`

When you are loading your node certificates from the Windows cert store, you are likely to want to load the trusted root certificate from the cert store as well. The options to configure this are similar to the ones for node certificates.

The trusted root certificate store location is the location of the Windows certificate store in which the trusted root certificate is installed, for example CurrentUser.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--trusted-root-certificate-store-location`
YAML	`TrustedRootCertificateStoreLocation`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_TRUSTED_ROOT_CERTIFICATE_STORE_LOCATION`

The trusted root certificate store name is the name of the Windows certificate store in which the trusted root certificate is installed, for example Root.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--trusted-root-certificate-store-name`
YAML	`TrustedRootCertificateStoreName`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_TRUSTED_ROOT_CERTIFICATE_STORE_NAME`

Trusted root certificates can also be loaded using either its thumbprint or its subject name. If using the thumbprint, the server expects to only find one trusted root certificate file matching that thumbprint in the cert store.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--trusted-root-certificate-thumbprint`
YAML	`TrustedRootCertificateThumbprint`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_TRUSTED_ROOT_CERTIFICATE_THUMBPRINT`

The subject name matches any certificate that contains the specified name. This means that multiple matching certificates could be found. To match any root certificate made through the es-gencert-cli tool, you can set the Subject Name to EventStoreDB CA.

If multiple matching root certificates are found, then the root certificate with the latest expiry date will be selected.

Format	Syntax
Command line	`--trusted-root-certificate-subject-name`
YAML	`TrustedRootCertificateSubjectName`
Environment variable	`EVENTSTORE_TRUSTED_ROOT_CERTIFICATE_SUBJECT_NAME`

Certificate generation tool

Event Store provides the interactive Certificate Generation CLI, which creates certificates signed by a private, auto-generated CA for EventStoreDB. You can use the configuration wizard, that will provide you exact CLI commands that you need to run to generate certificates matching your configuration.

Getting started

The CLI is available from its GitHub Repository. The latest release can be found under the GitHub releases page.

We're releasing binaries for Windows, Linux and macOS. We also publish the tool as a Docker image.

Basic usage for the Certificate Generation CLI:

./es-gencert-cli [options] <command> [args]

Getting help for a specific command:

./es-gencert-cli -help <command>

Warning

If you are running EventStoreDB on Linux, remember that all certificate files should have restrictive rights, otherwise the OS won't allow using them. Usually, you'd need to change rights for each certificate file to prevent the "permissions are too open" error.

You can do it by running the following command:

chmod 600 [file]

Generating the CA certificate

As the first step CA certificate needs to be generated. It'll need to be trusted for each of the nodes and client environment.

By default, the tool will create the ca directory in the certs directory you created. Two keys will be generated:

ca.crt - public file that need to be used also for the nodes and client configuration,
ca.key - private key file that should be used only in the node configuration. Do not copy it to client environment.

CA certificate will be generated with pre-defined CN eventstoredb-node.

To generate CA certificate run:

./es-gencert-cli create-ca

You can customise generated cert by providing following params:

Param	Description
`-days`	The validity period of the certificate in days (default: 5 years)
`-out`	The output directory (default: ./ca)

Example:

./es-gencert-cli create-ca -out ./es-ca

Generating the Node certificate

You need to generate certificates signed by the CA for each node. They should be installed only on the specific node machine.

By default, the tool will create the ca directory in the certs directory you created. Two keys will be generated:

node.crt - the public file that needs to be also used for the nodes and client configuration,
node.key - the private key file that should be used only in the node's configuration. Do not copy it to client environment.

To generate node certificate run command:

./es-gencert-cli -help create_node

You can customise generated cert by providing following params:

Param	Description
`-ca-certificate`	The path to the CA certificate file (default: `./ca/ca.crt`)
`-ca-key`	The path to the CA key file (default: `./ca/ca.key`)
`-days`	The output directory (default: `./nodeX` where X is an auto-generated number)
`-out`	The output directory (default: `./ca`)
`-ip-addresses`	Comma-separated list of IP addresses of the node
`-dns-names`	Comma-separated list of DNS names of the node

Warning

While generating the certificate, you need to remember to pass internal end external:

IP addresses to -ip-addresses: e.g. 127.0.0.1,172.20.240.1 and/or
DNS names to -dns-names: e.g. localhost,node1.eventstore that will match the URLs that you will be accessing EventStoreDB nodes.

Sample:

./es-gencert-cli-cli create-node \
    -ca-certificate ./es-ca/ca.crt \
    -ca-key ./es-ca/ca.key \
    -out ./node1 \
    -ip-addresses 127.0.0.1,172.20.240.1 \
    -dns-names localhost,node1.eventstore

Running with Docker

You could also run the tool using Docker interactive container:

docker run --rm -i eventstore/es-gencert-cli <command> <options>

One useful scenario is to use the Docker Compose file tool to generate all the necessary certificates before starting cluster nodes.

Sample:

version: "3.5"

services:
  setup:
    image: eventstore/es-gencert-cli:1.0.2
    entrypoint: bash
    user: "1000:1000"
    command: >
      -c "mkdir -p ./certs && cd /certs
      && es-gencert-cli create-ca
      && es-gencert-cli create-node -out ./node1 -ip-addresses 127.0.0.1,172.20.240.1 -dns-names localhost,node1.eventstore
      && es-gencert-cli create-node -out ./node1 -ip-addresses 127.0.0.1,172.20.240.2 -dns-names localhost,node2.eventstore
      && es-gencert-cli create-node -out ./node1 -ip-addresses 127.0.0.1,172.20.240.3 -dns-names localhost,node3.eventstore
      && find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 666"
    container_name: setup
    volumes:
      - ./certs:/certs

See more in the complete sample of docker-compose secured cluster configuration.

Certificate installation on a client environment

To connect to EventStoreDB, you need to install the auto-generated CA certificate file on the client machine (e.g. machine where the client is hosted, or your dev environment).

Linux

Copy auto-generated CA file to dir /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/, e.g. using command:

sudo cp ca.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/event_store_ca.crt

Update the CA store:

sudo update-ca-certificates

Windows

You can manually import it to the local CA cert store through Certificates Local Machine Management Console. To do that select Run from the Start menu, and then enter certmgr.msc. Then import certificate to Trusted Root Certification.
You can also run the PowerShell script instead:

Import-Certificate -FilePath ".\certs\ca\ca.crt" -CertStoreLocation Cert:\CurrentUser\Root

macOS

In the Keychain Access app on your Mac, select either the login or System keychain. Drag the certificate file onto the Keychain Access app. If you're asked to provide a name and password, type the name and password for an administrator user on this computer.
You can also run the bash script:

sudo security add-certificates -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain ca.crt

Intermediate CA certificates

Intermediate CA certificates are supported by loading them from a PEM or PKCS #12 bundle specified by the CertificateFile configuration parameter. To make sure that the configuration is correct, the certificate chain is validated on startup with the node's own certificate.

If you've used the certificate generation tool with the default settings to generate your CA and node certificates, then you're not using intermediate CA certificates.

However, if you're using a public certificate authority (e.g Let's Encrypt) to generate your node certificates there is a chance that you're using intermediate CA certificates without knowing. This is due to the Authority Information Access (AIA) extension which allows intermediate certificates to be fetched from a remote server.

To verify if your certificate is using the AIA extension, you need to verify if there is a section named: Authority Information Access in the certificate.

Linux

Use openssl to find the section in the certificate file:

openssl x509 -in /path/to/node.crt -text | grep 'Authority Information Access' -A 1

Windows

Open the certificate, go to the Details tab and look for the Authority Information Access field.

If the extension is present, you can manually download the intermediate certificate from the URL present under the CA Issuers entry. Note that you will usually need to convert the downloaded certificate from the DER to the PEM format.

This can be done with the following openssl command:

openssl x509 -inform der -in /path/to/cert.der > /path/to/cert.pem

or with an online service if you don't have openssl installed.

It's possible that there are more than one intermediate CA certificates in the chain - so you need to verify if the certificate you've just downloaded also uses the AIA extension. If yes, you need to download the next intermediate CA certificate in the chain by repeating the same process above until you eventually reach a publicly trusted root certificate (i.e. the Subject and Issuer fields will match). In practice, there'll usually be at most two intermediate certificates in the chain.

Bundling the intermediate certificates

The node's certificate should be first in the bundle, followed by the intermediates. Intermediates can be in any order but it would be good to keep it from leaf to root, as per the usual convention. The root certificate should not be bundled.

In the examples below, intermediate certificates are numbered from 1 to N starting from the leaf and going up.

PEM format

If your node's certificate and the intermediate CA certificates are both PEM formatted, that is they begin with -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and end with -----END CERTIFICATE----- then you can simply append the contents of the intermediate certificate files to the end of the node's certificate file to create the bundle.

Linux

cat /path/to/intermediate1.crt >> /path/to/node.crt
...
cat /path/to/intermediateN.crt >> /path/to/node.crt

Windows

type C:\path\to\intermediate1.crt >> C:\path\to\node.crt
...
type C:\path\to\intermediateN.crt >> C:\path\to\node.crt

PKCS #12 format

If you want to generate a PKCS #12 bundle from PEM formatted certificate files, please follow the steps below.

cat /path/to/intermediate1.crt >> ./ca_bundle.crt
...
cat /path/to/intermediateN.crt >> ./ca_bundle.crt

openssl pkcs12 -export -in /path/to/node.crt -inkey /path/to/node.key -certfile ./ca_bundle.crt -out /path/to/node.p12 -passout pass:<password>

Adding intermediate certificates to the certificate store

Intermediate certificates also need to be added to the current user's certificate store.

This is required for two reasons:
i) For the full certificate chain to be sent when TLS connections are established
ii) To improve performance by preventing certificate downloads if your certificate uses the AIA extension

Linux

The following script assumes EventStoreDB is running under the eventstore account.

sudo su eventstore --shell /bin/bash
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-certificate-tool
 ~/.dotnet/tools/certificate-tool add -s CertificateAuthority -l CurrentUser --file /path/to/intermediate.crt

Windows

To import the intermediate certificate in the Intermediate Certification Authorities certificate store, run the following PowerShell command under the same account as EventStoreDB is running:

Import-Certificate -FilePath .\path\to\intermediate.crt -CertStoreLocation Cert:\CurrentUser\CA

Optionally, to import the intermediate certificate in the Local Computer store, run the following as Administrator:

Import-Certificate -FilePath .\ca.crt -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\CA