NIST SPECIAL PUBLICATION 1800-16

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Securing Web Transactions

Securing Web Transactions

TLS Server Certificate Management

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Includes Executive Summary (A); Approach, Architecture, and Security Risks and Recommended Best Practices (B); Approach, Architecture, and Security Characteristics (C); and How-To Guides (D)

Mehwish Akram

William C. Barker

Rob Clatterbuck

Donna Dodson

Brandon Everhart

Jane Gilbert

William Haag

Brian Johnson

Alexandros Kapasouris

Dung Lam

Brett Pleasant

Mary Raguso

Murugiah Souppaya

Susan Symington

Paul Turner

Clint Wilson

Final

This publication is available free of charge from: http://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.1800-16

The first draft of this publication is available free of charge from: https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/tls-server-certificate-management

NIST SPECIAL PUBLICATION 1800-16

Securing Web Transactions

Includes Executive Summary (A); Approach, Architecture, and Security Risks and Recommended Best Practices (B); Approach, Architecture, and Security Characteristics (C); and How-To Guides (D)

Donna Dodson

William Haag

Murugiah Souppaya

NIST

Paul Turner

Venafi

William C. Barker

Strativia

Clint Wilson

Digicert

Dung Lam

F5

Alexandros Kapasouris

Symantec

Rob Clatterbuck

Jane Gilbert

Thales Trusted Cyber Technologies

Mehwish Akram

Brandon Everhart

Brian Johnson

Brett Pleasant

Mary Raguso

Susan Symington

The MITRE Corporation

Final

June 2020

U.S. Department of Commerce

Wilbur Ross, Secretary

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Walter G. Copan, Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Director

Volume A

• Executive Summary
  • Challenge
  • Solution
  • Share Your Feedback
  • Technology Partners/Collaborator

Volume B

• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Objective
  • 1.2 Scope
• 2 TLS Server Certificate Background
  • 2.1 Certificate Authorities
  • 2.2 Certificate Request and Installation Process
• 3 TLS Server Certificate Risks
  • 3.1 Outages Caused by Expired Certificates
  • 3.2 Server Impersonation
  • 3.3 Lack of Crypto-Agility
  • 3.4 Encrypted Threats
• 4 Organizational Challenges
  • 4.1 Certificate Owners
  • 4.2 Certificate Services Team
• 5 Recommended Best Practices
  • 5.1 Establishing TLS Server Certificate Policies
    • 5.1.1 Inventory
    • 5.1.2 Ownership
    • 5.1.3 Approved CAs
    • 5.1.4 Validity Periods
    • 5.1.5 Key Length
    • 5.1.6 Signing Algorithms
    • 5.1.7 Subject DN and SAN Contents
    • 5.1.8 Automation
    • 5.1.9 Certificate Request Reviews – Registration Authority (RA)
    • 5.1.10 Private Key Security
    • 5.1.11 Rekey/Rotation upon Reassignment/Terminations
    • 5.1.12 Proactive Certificate Renewal
    • 5.1.13 Crypto-Agility
    • 5.1.14 Revocation
    • 5.1.15 Continuous Monitoring
    • 5.1.16 Logging TLS Server Certificate Management Operations
    • 5.1.17 TLS Traffic Monitoring
    • 5.1.18 Certificate Authority Authorization
    • 5.1.19 Certificate Transparency
    • 5.1.20 CA Trust by Relying Parties
  • 5.2 Establish a Certificate Service
    • 5.2.1 CAs
    • 5.2.2 Inventory
    • 5.2.3 Discovery and Import
    • 5.2.4 Management Interfaces
    • 5.2.5 Automated Enrollment and Installation
    • 5.2.6 RA/Approvals
    • 5.2.7 Reporting and Analytics
    • 5.2.8 Passive Decryption Support
    • 5.2.9 Continuous Monitoring
    • 5.2.10 Education
    • 5.2.11 Help Desk
  • 5.3 Terms of Service
  • 5.4 Auditing
• 6 Implementing a Successful Program
• Appendix A List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Appendix B Glossary
• Appendix C Mapping to the Cybersecurity Framework
• Appendix D Special Publication 800-53 Controls Applicable to Best Practices for TLS Server Certificate Management
• Appendix E References

Volume C

• 1 Summary
  • 1.1 Challenge
  • 1.2 Solution
  • 1.3 Benefits
• 2 How to Use This Guide
  • 2.1 Typographic Conventions
• 3 Approach
  • 3.1 Audience
  • 3.2 Scope
  • 3.3 Assumptions
  • 3.4 Risk Assessment
    • 3.4.1 Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Risks
    • 3.4.2 Security Categorization and NIST SP 800-53 Controls
    • 3.4.3 Security Control Map
• 4 Architecture
  • 4.1 Logical Architecture
    • 4.1.1 External Systems
    • 4.1.2 Internal Systems
  • 4.2 Physical Architecture
  • 4.3 Technologies
    • 4.3.1 Certificate Manager and Internal TLS Certificate Network Scanning Tool
      • 4.3.1.1 Venafi Trust Protection Platform
    • 4.3.2 Internal TLS Certificate Network Scanning Tool
      • 4.3.2.1 Venafi TPP for Certificate Network Scanning
    • 4.3.3 Internal Root CA
    • 4.3.4 Internal Issuing CA
    • 4.3.5 Certificate Database
      • 4.3.5.1 Venafi TPP Database
    • 4.3.6 TLS Inspection Appliance
      • 4.3.6.1 Symantec SSL Visibility Appliance
    • 4.3.7 Hardware Security Module
      • 4.3.7.1 Thales TCT Luna SA 1700 HSM
    • 4.3.8 External Certificate Authority
      • 4.3.8.1 DigiCert External CA
    • 4.3.9 Load Balancer
      • 4.3.9.1 F5 Networks BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
    • 4.3.10 DevOps Framework
      • 4.3.10.1 Kubernetes
    • 4.3.11 Automated Certificate Management Frameworks
      • 4.3.11.1 Jetstack Cert-Manager
      • 4.3.11.2 Certbot
    • 4.3.12 TLS Servers
      • 4.3.12.1 Microsoft IIS–Remote Agentless Management
      • 4.3.12.2 Microsoft IIS with Thales TCT HSM–Remote Agentless Management
      • 4.3.12.3 Apache–Remote Agentless Management
      • 4.3.12.4 Apache–ACME Protocol
      • 4.3.12.5 NGINX on Kubernetes–DevOps Plug-In
    • 4.3.13 Application Servers
• 5 Security Characteristic Analysis
  • 5.1 Assumptions and Limitations
  • 5.2 Functional Capabilities Demonstration
    • 5.2.1 Definitions
    • 5.2.2 Functional Capabilities
    • 5.2.3 Mapping to NIST SP 1800-16B Recommendations
  • 5.3 Scenarios and Findings
    • 5.3.1 Demonstration Scenario
    • 5.3.2 Findings
• 6 Future Build Considerations
• Appendix A List of Acronyms
• Appendix B Glossary
• Appendix C References

Volume D

• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Practice Guide Structure
  • 1.2 Build Overview
    • 1.2.1 Usage Scenarios
      • 1.2.1.1 Building the Inventory
      • 1.2.1.2 Automation
      • 1.2.1.3 Continuous Monitoring
      • 1.2.1.4 Disaster Recovery
      • 1.2.1.5 Logging
      • 1.2.1.6 Passive Inspection
    • 1.2.2 Logical Architecture
  • 1.3 Build Architecture Summary
  • 1.4 Typographic Conventions
  • 1.5 Supporting Infrastructure
    • 1.5.1 Lab Backbone
    • 1.5.2 Supporting Infrastructure Operating Systems
      • 1.5.2.1 Microsoft Windows
      • 1.5.2.2 Linux
    • 1.5.3 Supporting Infrastructure Component Services
      • 1.5.3.1 Microsoft Active Directory and Domain Services Installation and Configuration
      • 1.5.3.2 ADS and DNS Installation
      • 1.5.3.3 Certificate Authority Services
    • 1.5.4 Database Services
      • 1.5.4.1 Microsoft SQL Database Services
      • 1.5.4.2 MariaDB Database Services
    • 1.5.5 TLS Web Services
      • 1.5.5.1 Microsoft Internet Information Services
      • 1.5.5.2 IIS Installation
      • 1.5.5.3 Apache Web Services
      • 1.5.5.4 Drupal Web Content Management Services
      • 1.5.5.5 Mail Services
      • 1.5.5.6 Log Aggregation and Correlation Services
    • 1.5.6 DevOps Services
      • 1.5.6.1 Kubernetes Installation and Configuration
      • 1.5.6.2 Weave
      • 1.5.6.3 Docker Installation and Configuration
      • 1.5.6.4 Jetstack Cert-Manager Installation and Configuration
      • 1.5.6.5 NGINX Installation and Configuration
• 2 Product Installation and Configuration Guides
  • 2.1 Product Installation Sequence (Example Build)
  • 2.2 Thales TCT Luna SA 1700 Hardware Security Module
    • 2.2.1 Day 0: Product Installation and Standard Configuration
      • 2.2.1.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.2.1.2 Rack-Mount the Appliance
      • 2.2.1.3 Initial Appliance Configuration
      • 2.2.1.4 HSM Initialization
    • 2.2.2 Day 1: Product Integration Configuration
      • 2.2.2.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.2.2.2 Network Trust Link
      • 2.2.2.3 ADCS Integration Configuration
      • 2.2.2.4 IIS Integration Configuration
      • 2.2.2.5 Venafi Integration Configuration
    • 2.2.3 Day N: Ongoing Security Management and Maintenance
      • 2.2.3.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.2.3.2 Remote System Logging
      • 2.2.3.3 Audit Logging
  • 2.3 DigiCert Certificate Authority
    • 2.3.1 Day 0: Installation and Standard Configuration
      • 2.3.1.1 Certificate Prerequisites for Domain Validation and Organization Validation
      • 2.3.1.2 Standard Configuration
    • 2.3.2 Day 1: Integration Configuration
      • 2.3.2.1 Generate API Key
      • 2.3.2.2 Venafi Integration (Automated)
      • 2.3.2.3 Order Certificate Directly Through CertCentral (Manual Process)
      • 2.3.2.4 Order an OV Single- or Multi-Domain TLS Certificate
      • 2.3.2.5 Manage Order Within CertCentral (Manual)
      • 2.3.2.6 Download a Certificate from the CertCentral Account
    • 2.3.3 Day N: Ongoing Security Management and Maintenance
      • 2.3.3.1 Ongoing Auditing
      • 2.3.3.2 Run an Audit
      • 2.3.3.3 Set Up Audit Log Notifications
      • 2.3.3.4 Notification Management
      • 2.3.3.5 Managing Custom Order Fields
      • 2.3.3.6 User Management
      • 2.3.3.7 Revalidation Processes
  • 2.4 F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)
    • 2.4.1 Day 0: Installation and Standard Configuration
      • 2.4.1.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.4.1.2 Download the Virtual Appliance
      • 2.4.1.3 Deploying the BIG-IP OVA
      • 2.4.1.4 Assigning a Management IP Address to a BIG-IP VE Virtual Machine
      • 2.4.1.5 Log in to BIG-IP for the First Time
      • 2.4.1.6 BIG-IP Configuration Utility
      • 2.4.1.7 Configure NTP
      • 2.4.1.8 Configure SMTP
      • 2.4.1.9 Configure Syslog
      • 2.4.1.10 Secure BIG-IP to NIST SP 800-53
    • 2.4.2 Day 1: Product Integration Configuration
      • 2.4.2.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.4.2.2 Venafi Integration
      • 2.4.2.3 Load Balance Web Servers
    • 2.4.3 Day N: Ongoing Security Management and Maintenance
      • 2.4.3.1 Software Updates
      • 2.4.3.2 License and Entitlement
      • 2.4.3.3 Backup and Data Recovery
      • 2.4.3.4 Log Files and Alerts
      • 2.4.3.5 Technical Support
  • 2.5 Symantec SSL Visibility Appliance
    • 2.5.1 Day-0: Install and Standard Configuration
      • 2.5.1.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.5.1.2 Unpacking the Appliance
      • 2.5.1.3 Rack-Mount the Appliance
      • 2.5.1.4 Connect Cables
      • 2.5.1.5 Power on the Appliance and Verify LEDs
      • 2.5.1.6 Initial Appliance Configuration
      • 2.5.1.7 Date and Time (NTP)
      • 2.5.1.8 Additional Configuration
      • 2.5.1.9 Broadcom Account Creation
      • 2.5.1.10 License the SSL Visibility Appliance
    • 2.5.2 Day 1: Product Integration Configuration
      • 2.5.2.1 Prerequisites
      • 2.5.2.2 Venafi Integration
      • 2.5.2.3 Ruleset Creation
      • 2.5.2.4 Segment Creation
      • 2.5.2.5 Verification
    • 2.5.3 Day N: Ongoing Security Management and Maintenance
      • 2.5.3.1 Alerting & Monitoring
      • 2.5.3.2 Software Update
  • 2.6 Venafi Trust Protection Platform (TPP)
    • 2.6.1 Prerequisites
    • 2.6.2 Installation
    • 2.6.3 CA Integration
      • 2.6.3.1 DigiCert
      • 2.6.3.2 Active Directory Certificate Services
    • 2.6.4 Folder Creation
    • 2.6.5 Custom Fields
    • 2.6.6 Assigning Certificate Owners
      • 2.6.6.1 Contacts
      • 2.6.6.2 Permissions
    • 2.6.7 Setting Policies
    • 2.6.8 Establishing a Domain Allowlist
    • 2.6.9 Workflow – RA Reviews
    • 2.6.10 CA Import
    • 2.6.11 Network Discovery
      • 2.6.11.1 Venafi TPP Server
      • 2.6.11.2 Scanafi
    • 2.6.12 Identify Certificate Risks/Vulnerabilities
    • 2.6.13 Automate Management
      • 2.6.13.1 F5 BIG-IP LTM
      • 2.6.13.2 Microsoft IIS – Agentless
      • 2.6.13.3 Microsoft IIS with Thales TCT HSM – Agentless
      • 2.6.13.4 Apache – Agentless
      • 2.6.13.5 Apache – ACME
      • 2.6.13.6 Configuring Venafi TPP for ACME
      • 2.6.13.7 Configuring Certbot for Apache
      • 2.6.13.8 Kubernetes
      • 2.6.13.9 Symantec SSL Visibility
    • 2.6.14 Continuous Monitoring
      • 2.6.14.1 Regular Network Scanning
      • 2.6.14.2 Certificate Expiration Monitoring
      • 2.6.14.3 Certificate Operation Monitoring
      • 2.6.14.4 Logging of Certificate-related Security Events
• Appendix A Passive Inspection
• Appendix B Hardening Guidance
• Appendix C Venafi Underlying Concepts
  • C.1 Venafi TPP Object Model
  • C.2 Certificate Metadata in Venafi TPP
  • C.3 Custom Fields
  • C.3.1 Organizing Certificate Inventory
  • C.3.2 Policy Enforcement
  • C.4 The Domain Allowlist
  • C.4.1 Certificate Owner Assignment
  • C.4.2 Permissions
  • C.4.3 Contacts
• Appendix D List of Acronyms
• Appendix E Glossary
• Appendix F References
• Appendix G Supplemental Architecture Configurations
  • G.1 Mail Server Configuration Files