DCMTK Version 3.7.0 OFFIS DICOM Toolkit

certificate and certification authority management in dcmtls

# System certificate and private key

The TLS protocol requires that a server (that is, an application that accepts incoming TLS network connections) must identify itself cryptographically using a certificate and a private key, whereas a client (an application that initiates outgoing TLS network connections) may identify itself using a certificate and a private key, or may remain anonymous.

All DCMTK tools that support TLS encrypted network connections offer command line options for selecting unencrypted network communication, TLS with certificates, or (in the case of client applications) TLS in anonymous mode:

      -tls  --disable-tls
              use normal TCP/IP connection (default)

      +tls  --enable-tls  [p]rivate key file, [c]ertificate file: string
              use authenticated secure TLS connection

      +tla  --anonymous-tls
              use secure TLS connection without certificate

Two different file formats are supported for certificates, private keys and other cryptographic material: The text-based PEM ("Privacy Enhanced Mail") format, which is the default, and binary ASN.1 files in DER encoding ("Distinguished Encoding Rules"). The file format can be selected through the following options:

      -pem  --pem-keys
              read keys and certificates as PEM file (default)

      -der  --der-keys
              read keys and certificates as DER file

Note that the PEM format supports multiple certificates in a single file, which is an important feature when certificates issued by an intermediate CA are used with TLS. The DER format only supports a single certificate per file.

In many cases, the private key is stored in encrypted form and a password is needed to decrypt the private key file. In this case the following options are provided:

      +ps   --std-passwd
              prompt user to type password on stdin (default)

      +pw   --use-passwd  [p]assword: string
              use password specified on the command line

      -pw   --null-passwd
              use empty string as password

# Security profiles

The DICOM standard defines a number of security profiles for the use of the DICOM network protocol over TLS. DCMTK supports the following profiles:

      +pg   --profile-8996
              BCP 195 RFC 8996 TLS Profile (default)

      +pm   --profile-8996-mod
              Modified BCP 195 RFC 8996 TLS Profile

              # only available if underlying TLS library supports
              # all TLS features required for this profile

      +py   --profile-bcp195-nd
              Non-downgrading BCP 195 TLS Profile (retired)

      +px   --profile-bcp195
              BCP 195 TLS Profile (retired)

      +pz   --profile-bcp195-ex
              Extended BCP 195 TLS Profile (retired)

      +pb   --profile-basic
              Basic TLS Secure Transport Connection Profile (retired)

              # only available if underlying TLS library supports 3DES

      +pa   --profile-aes
              AES TLS Secure Transport Connection Profile (retired)

      +pn   --profile-null
              Authenticated unencrypted communication
              (retired, was used in IHE ATNA)

The BCP 195 RFC 8996 TLS Profile, which is selected by default, is a secure choice while providing backward compatibility with the earlier BCP 195 profiles. It does not support backward compatibility with the older profiles. It uses either TLS version 1.2 or 1.3 and will default to TLS 1.3 when possible.

The Non-downgrading BCP 195 TLS Profile, which was the default in DCMTK 3.6.7, also disables older protocol versions and cipher suites. It does, however, support DHE ciphersuites, whereas RFC 9325 recommends that these should not be used. It uses either TLS version 1.2 or 1.3 and will default to TLS 1.3 when possible.

The BCP 195 TLS Profile, which was the default up to DCMTK 3.6.6, will try to negotiate cryptographic algorithms that are currently considered secure, but provides backward compatibility to older applications implementing the retired AES or Basic TLS profile. This profile is no longer compliant with BCP 195 as amended by RFC 8996 (2021).

The Extended BCP 195 TLS Profile is similar to the Non-downgrading BCP 195 TLS Profile, but uses a more restricted selection of cipher suites and is restricted to TLS version 1.2.

The AES TLS Secure Transport Connection Profile uses AES encryption and TLS version 1.0 and newer and has been retired from the DICOM standard. It should only be used where backward compatibility with devices implementing this profile is required.

The Basic TLS Secure Transport Connection Profile uses Triple DES encryption and TLS version 1.0 and newer and has also been retired from the DICOM standard. It should only be used where backward compatibility with devices implementing this profile is required, in particular since the effective key length of 112 bits is not sufficiently secure against brute force attacks anymore.

Authenticated unencrypted communication finally is a retired profile that was defined in older versions of the IHE Audit Trail and Node Authentication profile. It uses an unencrypted communication with cryptographic checksums. This profile should be avoided.

It should be noted that support for the Basic TLS profile will only be available when the OpenSSL library has been compiled such that support for Triple DES is enabled, which is not the default anymore.

The list of TLS ciphersuites offered during the TLS handshake can be extended using the following option:

      +cs   --cipher  [c]iphersuite name: string
              add ciphersuite to list of negotiated suites

The list of supported TLS 1.0-1.2 ciphersuites can be printed using the following option:

      +cc   --list-ciphers
              list supported TLS ciphersuites and exit

Option `--cipher` can be specified more than once to add multiple ciphersuites.

# Peer authentication

By default, the TLS implementation in dcmtls will require both client and server to provide a certificate as proof of identity, and will verify the validity and trustworthiness of the certificate. This process has several steps:

- The TLS handshake will require a proof that the application has access to the private key belonging to the public key encoded in the certificate.
- The digital signature in the certificate will be verified.
- The validity period of the certificate will be checked.
- It will be checked whether the certificate was issued by a trusted Certification Authority (CA) (see Certification authority).
- Depending on the command line options, the Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) of all CAs up to the root CA may be checked to see if any certificate in the certificate chain has been revoked (see Certificate revocation lists).

This behavior can be modified with the following command line options:

      -rc   --require-peer-cert
              verify peer certificate, fail if absent (default)

      -vc   --verify-peer-cert
              verify peer certificate if present

      -ic   --ignore-peer-cert
              don't verify peer certificate

The first option will cause the connection to fail if the peer does not present a certificate (i.e. is working in anonymous mode) or if the certificate cannot be fully verified. The second option will perform a certificate verification if a certificate is present, but will also accept anonymous connections. The third option does not perform any certificate verification and also accepts anonymous connections.

It should be noted that the latter two modes are susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks and should thus be avoided.

The `--verify-peer-cert` option is not available in client applications, since TLS servers will always present a certificate.

# Certification authority

All tools in DCMTK that support TLS encrypted network connections need to have a list of trusted root certificates (i.e. self-signed certificates) that are used in the verification of the peer certificate when establishing the TLS connection.

There are two ways of managing this list of trusted certificates: file-based and directory-based. The command line tools in DCMTK offer the following command line options for this purpose:

      certification authority:
        +cf   --add-cert-file  [f]ilename: string
                add certificate file to list of certificates

        +cd   --add-cert-dir  [d]irectory: string
                add certificates in d to list of certificates

Both options can be specified more than once, also in combination.

## File-based management of trusted root certificates

The file-based option loads a file and adds all the certificates or CRLs present in that file into the pool of trusted certificates. File format is ASCII text containing concatenated PEM certificates and CRLs, unless ASN.1 DER format has been selected.

## Directory-based management of trusted root certificates

The directory-based option specifies a directory containing certificates and CRLs. These certificates and CRLs are loaded on demand, and cached in memory once they are loaded.

The directory should contain one certificate or CRL per file in PEM format, with a file name of the form hash.N for a certificate, or hash.rN for a CRL. The hash is computed from the subject name (for certificates) or the issuer name (for CRLs). The hash value can be obtained by calling the openssl command line tool:

      openssl x509 -hash -noout -in <infile.pem>

where <infile.pem> should be replaced by the filename of the certificate or CRL.

The .N or .rN suffix is a sequence number that starts at zero, and is incremented consecutively for each certificate or CRL with the same hash value. Gaps in the sequence numbers are not supported, it is assumed that there are no more objects with the same hash beyond the first missing number in the sequence.

Sequence numbers make it possible for the directory to contain multiple certificates with same subject name hash value. For example, it is possible to have in the store several certificates with same subject or several CRLs with same issuer (and, for example, different validity period).

## Intermediate CAs

In many cases, the system certificates are not directly signed by a root CA (that is, a CA using a self-signed certificate), but by an intermediate CA. The certificate of the intermediate CA will be signed by the root CA (or another level of intermediate CA).

In the TLS handshake, an application can provide more than one certificate: it can provide its certificate, followed by the certificates of any intermediate CAs up to and optionally including the root CA certificate.

DCMTK tools will provide such intermediate certificates during the TLS handshake if they are present in the same file as the system certificate, which is provided as the second parameter of the `--enable-tls` option. This requires the use of the PEM format, since DER does not support multiple certificates in one file.

The PEM format allows the certificates to simply be concatenated in a text file, starting with the system certificate, followed by intermediate CA certificates and optionally the root CA certificate. On Linux/Posix systems, such a file may be created as follows:

      cat system_cert.pem intermediate_ca.pem root_ca.pem > fullchain.pem

Users using LetsEncrypt certificates will notice that LetsEncrypt automatically provides a "fullchain.pem" file containing such a certificate chain.

The certificates defined as trustworthy using `--add-cert-file` or `--add-cert-dir` can only be root CA certificates. It is not possible to add intermediate CA certificates to the "trust store".

# Certificate revocation lists

The last, optional step in certificate verification is the look-up of the certificate revocation lists (CRLs) to check whether any certificate in the certificate chain has been revoked. CRLs cannot be transmitted in the TLS handshake, they must be pre-configured, and it should be noted that CRLs also have a limited validity period, defined in the file.

The following CRL options are available starting with DCMTK 3.6.7:

      +crl  --add-crl-file  [f]ilename: string
              add certificate revocation list file (implies --enable-crl-vfy)

      +crv  --enable-crl-vfy
              enable leaf CRL verification

      +cra  --enable-crl-all
              enable full chain CRL verification

The `--add-crl-file` option will load a CRL file that can be used for CRL look-up. This option can be specified more than once. Alternatively, CRL files can be located in the CA directory specified with `--add-cert-dir`. See Directory-based management of trusted root certificates for a discussion of how CRL files must be named in this case.

The `--enable-crl-vfy` option will enable a look-up of the CRL of the leaf CA, i.e. only a single CRL will be checked in order to determine whether or not the peer's system certificate is revoked. The `--enable-crl-all` option will enable a look-up of all CRLs up to the root CA, which will also cover the case where an intermediate CA certificate has been revoked.

Once CRL verification has been enabled, certificate verification will fail if one of the required CRLs is absent.

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