Essential TLS Hardening for Better Web Security

No ratings

Presented at AppSecCali 2017 by

Given the ubiquitous nature of the web, security professionals must do everything they can to hasten the switchover to a TLS-everywhere world. Thankfully, what was previously an expensive and tedious task has become much easier and economical due to automated TLS certificate provisioning. Once certificates are in place, there are a multitude of configuration hardening measures available, each of which perform an important role in providing strong web security. Attendees of this hands-on talk will walk away with an in-depth understanding of the following topics, along with how they can be put to practical use. Automated TLS certificate provisioning ====================================== * Let’s Encrypt pros and cons * authenticator comparison: web root, DNS-01, standalone web server * automatic TLS certificate renewal via Certbot and cron * overview of third-party provisioning tools TLS-related configuration ========================= * trade-off between better security and backwards-compatibility with older browsers * protocol and cipher selection based on above trade-offs * recommended configuration profiles, along with feeds for automated comparison/notification Content Security Policy (CSP) ============================= * threat model: cross-site scripting and other code injection attacks * can have sharp edges, but a useful defensive measure * tools for drafting, validating, and reporting on content security policies Public Key Pinning (HPKP) ========================= * threat model: compromised or rogue certificate authorities * potentially hazardous and should be handled with care Certificate Transparency (CT) ============================= * threat model: helps detect faked/forged certificates * Chromium will require certificate transparency in October 2017 * Certbot to include “Signed Certificate Timestamps” (CST) in near future Other topics that will be covered include: * forward secrecy * strict transport security (HSTS) * OCSP stapling