Using an SSL connection v41

EDB*Plus can connect to the EDB Postgres Advanced Server database using secure sockets layer (SSL) connectivity.

Using SSL requires various prerequisite configuration steps performed on the database server involved with the SSL connection as well as creating the Java truststore and keystore on the host that runs EDB*Plus.

The Java truststore is the file containing the certificate authority (CA) certificates. The Java client (EDB*Plus) uses the certificate to verify the authenticity of the server to which it is initiating an SSL connection.

The Java keystore is the file containing private and public keys and their corresponding certificates. The keystore is required for client authentication to the server, which is used for the EDB*Plus connection.

Refer to this material for guidance in setting up the SSL connections:

• For information on setting up SSL connectivity to the EDB Postges Advanced Server database, see Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL in the PostgreSQL core documentation.

• For information on JDBC client connectivity using SSL, see Configuring the Client in the PostgreSQL JDBC Interface documentation.

Configuring SSL on EDB Postgres Advanced Server

This example configures SSL on a database server to show the use of SSL with EDB*Plus. A self-signed certificate is used for this purpose.

Step 1: Create the certificate signing request (CSR).

In the following example, the generated certificate signing request file is server.csr. The private key is generated as file server.key.

$ openssl req -new -nodes -text -out server.csr \
> -keyout server.key -subj "/CN=enterprisedb"
Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
.............................+++
....................................................................+++
writing new private key to 'server.key'
-----

In addition, you can use user name maps as defined in the pg_ident.conf file to permit more flexibility for the common name and database user name, described in later steps.

Step 2: Generate the self-signed certificate.

The following generates a self-signed certificate to file server.crt using the certificate signing request file, server.csr, and the private key, server.key, as input.

$ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key \
> -out server.crt
Signature ok
subject=/CN=enterprisedb
Getting Private key

Step 3: Make a copy of the server certificate (server.crt) to use as the root certificate authority (CA) file (root.crt).

$ cp server.crt root.crt

Step 4: Delete the now redundant certificate signing request (server.csr).

$ rm -f server.csr

Step 5: Move or copy the certificate and private key files to the EDB Postgres Advanced Server data directory (for example, /var/lib/edb/as15/data).

$ mv root.crt /var/lib/edb/as15/data
$ mv server.crt /var/lib/edb/as15/data
$ mv server.key /var/lib/edb/as15/data

Step 6: Set the file ownership and permissions on the certificate files and private key file.

Set the ownership to the operating system account that owns the data subdirectory of the database server. Set the permissions so that no groups or accounts other than the owner can access these files.

$ chown enterprisedb root.crt server.crt server.key
$ chgrp enterprisedb root.crt server.crt server.key
$ chmod 600 root.crt server.crt server.key
$ ls -l
total 152
        .
        .
        .
-rw------- 1 enterprisedb enterprisedb 985 Aug 22 11:00 root.crt
-rw------- 1 enterprisedb enterprisedb 985 Aug 22 10:59 server.crt
-rw------- 1 enterprisedb enterprisedb 1704 Aug 22 10:58 server.key

Step 7: In the postgresql.conf file, make the following changes.

ssl = on
ssl_cert_file = 'server.crt'
ssl_key_file = 'server.key'
ssl_ca_file = 'root.crt'

Step 8: Modify the pg_hba.conf file to enable SSL use on the database to which you want EDB*Plus to make the SSL connection.

In the pg_hba.conf file, the hostssl type indicates the entry is used to validate SSL connection attempts from the client (EDB*Plus).

The authentication method is set to cert with the option clientcert=verify-full. This setting requires an SSL certificate from the client against which authentication is performed using the common name of the certificate (enterprisedb in this example).

The map=sslusers option specifies to use a mapping named sslusers defined in the pg_ident.conf file for authentication. This mapping allows a connection to the database if the common name from the certificate and the database user name attempting the connection match the SYSTEM-USERNAME/PG-USERNAME pair listed in the pg_ident.conf file.

The following is an example of the settings in the pg_hba.conf file if the database (edb) must use SSL connections.

# TYPE  DATABASE      USER          ADDRESS                 METHOD

# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all           all                                   md5
# IPv4 local connections:
hostssl   edb         all  192.168.2.0/24   cert clientcert=verify-full map=sslusers

Step 9: The following shows the username maps in the pg_ident.conf file related to the pg_hba.conf file by the map=sslusers option. These username maps permit you to specify database user names edbuser, postgres, or enterprisedb when connecting with EDB*Plus.

# MAPNAME   SYSTEM-USERNAME   PG-USERNAME
 sslusers   enterprisedb      edbuser
 sslusers   enterprisedb      postgres
 sslusers   enterprisedb      enterprisedb

Step 10: Restart the database server.

Configuring SSL for the EDB*Plus client

After you configure SSL on the database server, this example shows how to generate certificate and keystore files for EDB*Plus (the JDBC client).

Step 1: Using files server.crt and server.key located under the database server data subdirectory, create copies of these files and move them to the host for EDB*Plus.

Store these files in the directory to contain the trusted certificate and keystore files you generate. The suggested location is to create a .postgresql subdirectory under the home user account that invokes EDB*Plus. Thus, these files are under the ~/.postgresql directory of the user account that runs EDB*Plus.

For this example, assume file edb.crt is a copy of server.crt and edb.key is a copy of server.key.

Step 2: Create an additional copy of edb.crt.

$ cp edb.crt edb_root.crt
$ ls -l
total 12
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  985   Aug 22 14:17  edb.crt
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  1704  Aug 22 14:18  edb.key
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  985   Aug 22 14:19  edb_root.crt

Step 3: Create a distinguished encoding rules (DER) format of file edb_root.crt. The generated DER format of this file is edb_root.crt.der. The DER format of the file is required for the keytool program used next.

$ openssl x509 -in edb_root.crt -out edb_root.crt.der -outform der
$ ls -l
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  985  Aug 22 14:17  edb.crt
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  1704 Aug 22 14:18  edb.key
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  985  Aug 22 14:19  edb_root.crt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  686  Aug 22 14:21  edb_root.crt.der

Step 4: Use the keytool program to create a keystore file (postgresql.keystore) using edb_root.crt.der as the input. This process adds the certificate of the Postgres database server to the keystore file.

For Windows only: The path is %APPDATA%\.postgresql\postgresql.keystore

The keytool program can be found under the bin subdirectory of the Java Runtime Environment installation.

You are prompted for a new password. Save this password as you must specify it with the PGSSLCERTPASS environment variable.

$ /usr/java/jdk1.8.0_131/jre/bin/keytool -keystore postgresql.keystore \
> -alias postgresqlstore -import -file edb_root.crt.der
Enter keystore password:
Re-enter new password:
Owner: CN=enterprisedb
Issuer: CN=enterprisedb
Serial number: c60f40256b0e8d53
Valid from: Tue Aug 22 10:59:25 EDT 2017 until: Wed Aug 22 10:59:25 EDT 2018
Certificate fingerprints:
      MD5:  85:0B:E9:A7:6E:4F:7C:B0:9B:D6:3A:44:55:E2:E9:8E
      SHA1: DD:A6:71:24:0B:6C:F8:BC:7A:4C:89:9B:DC:22:6A:6C:B0:F5:3F:7C
      SHA256:
DC:02:64:E2:B0:E9:6F:1C:FC:4F:AE:E6:18:85:0B:79:57:43:C3:C5:AE:43:0D:37
:49:53:6D:11:69:06:46:48
      Signature algorithm name: SHA1withRSA
      Version: 1
Trust this certificate? [no]:  yes
Certificate was added to keystore

Step 5: Create a PKCS #12 format of the keystore file (postgresql.p12) using files edb.crt and edb.key as input.

For Windows only: The path is %APPDATA%\.postgresql\postgresql.p12

You're prompted for a new password. Save this password as you must specify it with the PGSSLKEYPASS environment variable.

$ openssl pkcs12 -export -in edb.crt -inkey edb.key -out postgresql.p12
Enter Export Password:
Verifying - Enter Export Password:
$ ls –l
total 24
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  985 Aug 24 12:18 edb.crt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 1704 Aug 24 12:18 edb.key
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  985 Aug 24 12:20 edb_root.crt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  686 Aug 24 12:20 edb_root.crt.der
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  758 Aug 24 12:26 postgresql.keystore
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 2285 Aug 24 12:28 postgresql.p12

Step 6: If the postgresql.keystore and postgresql.p12 files aren't already in the ~/.postgresql directory, move or copy them to that location.

For Windows only: The directory is %APPDATA%\.postgresql

Step 7: If the default location ~/.postgresql isn't used, then you must set the full path (including the file name) to the postgresql.keystore file with the PGSSLCERT environment variable. You must also set the full path (including the file name) to file postgresql.p12 with the PGSSLKEY environment variable before invoking EDB*Plus.

In addition, if the generated file from Step 4 wasn't named postgresql.keystore or postgresql.jks, then use the PGSSLCERT environment variable to set the file name and its location. Similarly, if the generated file from Step 5 wasn't named postgresql.p12, then use the PGSSLKEY environment variable to set the file name and its location.

Requesting an SSL connection between EDB*Plus and the EDB Postgres Advanced Server database

To perform an SSL connection, be sure to address the following:

• The trusted certificate and keystore files were generated for both the database server and the client host invoking EDB*Plus.
• The postgresql.conf file for the database server contains the updated configuration parameters.
• The pg_hba.conf file for the database server contains the required entry for permitting the SSL connection.
• For the client host, either the client’s certificate and keystore files were placed in the user account’s ~/.postgresql directory or the environment variables PGSSLCERT and PGSSLKEY were set before invoking EDB*Plus.
• The PGSSLCERTPASS environment variable is set with a password.
• The PGSSLKEYPASS environment variable is set with a password

When invoking EDB*Plus, include the ?ssl=true parameter in the database connection string as shown for the connectstring option in Using EDB*Plus.

The following is an example in which EDB*Plus is invoked from a host that's remote to the database server.

The postgresql.conf file of the database server contains the following modified parameters:

ssl = on
ssl_cert_file = 'server.crt'
ssl_key_file = 'server.key'
ssl_ca_file = 'root.crt'

The pg_hba.conf file of the database server contains the following entry for connecting from EDB*Plus on the remote host:

# TYPE  DATABASE        USER          ADDRESS                 METHOD

# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all             all                                   md5
# IPv4 local connections:
hostssl   edb           all           192.168.2.24/32 cert clientcert=verify-full

On the remote host where EDB*Plus is invoked, the Linux user account named user contains the certificate and keystore files in its ~/.postgresql directory:

[user@localhost ~]$ whoami
user
[user@localhost ~]$ cd .postgresql
[user@localhost .postgresql]$ pwd
/home/user/.postgresql
[user@localhost .postgresql]$ ls -l
total 8
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  758 Aug 24 12:37 postgresql.keystore
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 2285 Aug 24 12:37 postgresql.p12

Logged into Linux with the account named user, EDB*Plus is successfully invoked with the ssl=true parameter:

$ export PGSSLCERTPASS=keypass
$ export PGSSLKEYPASS=exppass
$ cd /usr/edb/edbplus
$ ./edbplus.sh enterprisedb/password@192.168.2.22:5444/edb?ssl=true
Connected to EnterpriseDB 14.0.0 (192.168.2.22:5444/edb) AS enterprisedb

EDB*Plus: Release 14 (Build 40.0.1)
Copyright (c) 2008-2021, EnterpriseDB Corporation. All rights reserved.

SQL>

Alternatively, without placing the certificate and keystore files in ~/.postgresql but in a different directory, you can invoke EDB*Plus in the following manner:

$ export PGSSLCERT=/home/user/ssl/postgresql.keystore
$ export PGSSLKEY=/home/user/ssl/postgresql.p12
$ export PGSSLCERTPASS=keypass
$ export PGSSLKEYPASS=exppass
$ cd /usr/edb/edbplus
$ ./edbplus.sh enterprisedb/password@192.168.2.22:5444/edb?ssl=true
Connected to EnterpriseDB 14.0.0 (192.168.2.22:5444/edb) AS enterprisedb

EDB*Plus: Release 14 (Build 40.0.1)
Copyright (c) 2008-2021, EnterpriseDB Corporation. All rights reserved.

SQL>

In both cases the database user name used to log into EDB*Plus is enterprisedb, as this is the user specified for the common name field when creating the certificate in Step 1 of Configuring SSL on EDB Postgres Advanced Server.

You can use other database user names if the pg_hba.conf file with the map option and the pg_ident.conf file are used as described in Steps 8 and 9 of Configuring SSL on EDB Postgres Advanced Server.

• On this page
• Configuring SSL on EDB Postgres Advanced Server
• Configuring SSL for the EDB*Plus client
• Requesting an SSL connection between EDB*Plus and the EDB Postgres Advanced Server database