Information on OCSP and CRL

Zeek
1

I am looking for additional information on utilizing OCSP and CRL in Bro NSM. I would like to know if certificates from clients can be checked in real-time or near real-time against a CRL? Also, can Bro NSM perform a OCSP request to a RA and check a certificate to determine if it is valid? If this is the case where in Bro NSM do you set the address for the RA or CRL responder?

CB97AD91-2E15-43EE-A2B4-B3542935CCB5[8].png

2

Tony,

There's an optional script for OCSP validation:

To use:

@load protocols/ssl/validate-ocsp

  --Vlad

Tony Waller <twaller@bivio.net> writes:

3

To expand a bit on this...

there is a policy script to perform certificate validation, just load
policy/protocols/ssl/validate-certs.bro. Note that this uses plain OpenSSL
for validation and might not be able to validate a few cases which
browsers can validate.

For OCSP, the situation is a bit less optimal. The script that Vlad
mentioned performs OCSP validation, but _only_ in case that the OCSP
response is sent stapled in the TLS handshake - which is rather rare.

Outside of this, Bro currently does not support OCSP validatiob.

Johanna

4

Johanna,

Thank you for the update. Do you see any plans for Bro to be able to leverage a OCSP client soon? If not, is this something that could be added to the code-base by the community?

Sincerely,

Tony

Tony Waller, CPO (USN-Ret.)
CISSP
Director, Systems Engineering
Bivio Networks, Inc.
“Powering Advanced Cyber Operations” (TM)
Mobile (443) 994-0936

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    To expand a bit on this...
    
    there is a policy script to perform certificate validation, just load
    policy/protocols/ssl/validate-certs.bro. Note that this uses plain OpenSSL
    for validation and might not be able to validate a few cases which
    browsers can validate.
    
    For OCSP, the situation is a bit less optimal. The script that Vlad
    mentioned performs OCSP validation, but _only_ in case that the OCSP
    response is sent stapled in the TLS handshake - which is rather rare.
    
    Outside of this, Bro currently does not support OCSP validatiob.
    
    Johanna

5

Hello Tony,

Bro will get the capability to parse OCSP requests and replies that are being sent over the network soon (as in - the ones that you see in HTTP, not just the ones in the stapled ocsp extension of the TLS handshake). You should be able to map that to certificates seen in the network traffic, and to validate them; however, this only will be possible for certificates for which network clients perform OCSP requests by themselves.

Apart from that, there are currently no plans to add any OCSP support to Bro; there especially are no plans to make Bro able to perform OCSP queries itself.

If you want to add that - you should be able to just write a couple of bifs and add them as a package :slight_smile:

Johanna