GNU bug report logs - #13374
24.?; open-gnutls-stream insecurity

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Ted Zlatanov <tzz <at> lifelogs.com>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#15792: closed (24.3; Builtin TLS support should enable
 certificate verification support by default)
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 22:50:04 +0000

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Your message dated Wed, 18 Dec 2013 17:50:39 -0500
with message-id <87r499ixj4.fsf <at> flea.lifelogs.com>
and subject line Re: bug#13374: 24.?; open-gnutls-stream insecurity
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #13374,
regarding 24.3; Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by default
to be marked as done.

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help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


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13374: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13374
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From: Vincent Bernat <bernat <at> luffy.cx>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 24.3;
 Builtin TLS support should enable certificate verification support by
 default
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 16:05:21 +0100

Hi!

New builtin TLS support disables certificate verification by
default. This is a very bad practice and the default should be to check
for certificate validity.

Moreover, the end-user of a package using this builtin support has no
easy way to enable the verification of TLS certificates. For example,
Gnus does not provide anything to enable this and as a simple user, it
seems quite difficult to ensure that certificates are verified. And each
package has the responsability to enable this option. This is
cumbersome.

Previously, enabling/disabling certificate verification was easy. You
set `tls-program` variable to something that checks or don't check for
certificates. For gnutls-client, this was a matter of using or not using
the `--insecure` switch.

I didn't find a way to disable the builtin TLS support (other than to
recompile Emacs).

I propose:

 1. Verify the certificates by default.
 2. Prompt the user if there is a problem.
 3. Add the possibility to not check for certificates by default.

I can provide a patch for the first step but I have little Emacs-fu for
the other two parts (all the more that most of the code is in C).
-- 
Use variable names that mean something.
            - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plauger)

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From: Ted Zlatanov <tzz <at> lifelogs.com>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: Oleksii Shevchuk <alxchk <at> gmail.com>,
 Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>, 13374-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#13374: 24.?; open-gnutls-stream insecurity
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 17:50:39 -0500

On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:06:08 -0500 Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca> wrote: 

>>> It should default to nil (in other words, we'll ship 24.3 with the same
>>> insecure behavior it has right now).  But we can recommend to the users
>>> to turn it on, and see how well it works in practice, and write the
>>> necessary prompts and customization logic that Lars outlined.
>> I think we should just leave things as is for 24.3, since it's too close
>> to release, and fix this properly for 24.5.

SM> I tend to agree, although, if the patch is sufficiently trivial, it
SM> could be accepted (e.g. define a new custom var, with nil default value
SM> and splice it somewhere in the code where nil makes no difference).

>> Instituting an option like that (which will have to be abandoned
>> later) as a stop-gap I feel isn't all that helpful.

SM> If the option will have to be abandoned, then it's indeed a loser, but
SM> I thought the idea is that this option will stay and the added code in
SM> 24.4 will "simply" be handling errors more cleverly and prompting the
SM> user to update this option on-the-fly.

This is done for the upcoming release.  Marking this as done.

Ted

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