1 Using Exim 4.80+ with GnuTLS
2 ============================
4 (1) I'm having problems building with GnuTLS 1, why?
7 "(gnutls_handshake): A TLS packet with unexpected length was received"
9 (4) What's the deal with MD5?
10 (5) What happened to gnutls_require_kx / gnutls_require_mac /
11 gnutls_require_protocols?
12 (6) What's the deal with tls_dh_max_bits? What's DH?
13 (7) What's a Priority String?
14 (8) How do I use tls_require_ciphers?
15 (9) How do I test STARTTLS support?
19 (1): I'm having problems building with GnuTLS 1, why?
20 -----------------------------------------------------
22 GnuTLS's library interface has changed and Exim uses the more current
23 interface. Since GnuTLS is security critical code, you should probably update
24 to a supported release.
26 If updating GnuTLS is not an option, then build Exim against OpenSSL instead.
28 If neither is an option, then you might build Exim with the rule
29 "SUPPORT_TLS=yes" commented out in "Local/Makefile", so that your Exim build
30 no longer has TLS support.
32 If you need to keep TLS support, and you can't use OpenSSL, then you'll have
33 to update the GnuTLS you have installed. Sorry.
35 We've tested the build of Exim back as far as GnuTLS 2.8.x; most development
36 work is done with 2.12 and tested on 2.10 and 3.x.
38 If you have to pick a version to upgrade to, use GnuTLS 3.x if available. The
39 GnuTLS developers took advantage of the version bump to add an error code
40 return value which makes debugging some problems a lot easier.
44 (2): What changed? Why?
45 ------------------------
47 The GnuTLS provider integration in Exim was overhauled, rewritten but with
48 some copy/paste, because building Exim against more current releases of GnuTLS
49 was issuing deprecation warnings from the compiler.
51 When a library provider marks up the include files so that some function calls
52 will cause the compiler/linker to emit deprecation warnings, it's time to pay
53 serious attention. A future release might not work at all. Using the new
54 APIs may mean that Exim will *stop* working with older releases of GnuTLS.
55 The GnuTLS support in Exim was overhauled in Exim 4.80. In prior releases,
56 Exim hard-coded a lot of algorithms and constrained what could happen. In
57 Exim 4.79, we added to the hard-coded list just enough to let TLSv1.1 and
58 TLSv1.2 be negotiated, but not actually support the mandatory algorithms of
59 those protocol versions. When Exim's GnuTLS integration was originally
60 written, there was no other choice than to make Exim responsible for a lot of
61 this. In the meantime, GnuTLS has improved.
63 With the rewrite, we started using the current API and leaving a lot more
64 responsibility for TLS decisions to the library.
66 The GnuTLS developers added "priority strings" (see Q7), which provide an
67 interface exposed to the configuration file for a lot of the tuning.
69 The GnuTLS policy is to no longer support MD5 in certificates. Exim had
70 previously been immune to this policy, but no longer. See Q4.
74 (3): I'm seeing "A TLS packet with unexpected length was received". Why?
75 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
77 The most likely reason is that the client dropped the connection during
78 handshake, because their library disliked some aspect of the negotiation.
80 In GnuTLS 2, an EOF on the connection is reported with an error code for
81 packets being too large, and the above is the string returned by the library
82 for that error code. In GnuTLS 3, there's a specific error code for EOF and
83 the diagnostic will be less confusing.
85 Most likely cause is an MD5 hash used in a certificate. See Q4 below.
86 Alternatively, the client dislikes the size of the Diffie-Hellman prime
87 offered by the server; if lowering the value of the "tls_dh_max_bits" Exim
88 option fixes the problem, this was the cause. See Q6.
92 (4): What's the deal with MD5?
93 ------------------------------
95 MD5 is a hash algorithm. Hash algorithms are used to reduce a lot of data
96 down to a fairly short value, which is supposed to be extremely hard to
97 manipulate to get a value of someone's choosing. Signatures, used to attest
98 to identity or integrity, rely upon this manipulation being effectively
99 impossible, because the signature is the result of math upon the hash result.
100 Without hash algorithms, signatures would be longer than the text being
103 MD5 was once very popular. It still is far too popular. Real world attacks
104 have been proven possible against MD5. Including an attack against PKI
105 (Public Key Infrastructure) certificates used for SSL/TLS. In that attack,
106 the attackers got a certificate for one identity but were able to then publish
107 a certificate with the same signature but a different identity. This
108 undermines the whole purpose of having certificates.
110 So GnuTLS stopped trusting any certificate with an MD5-based hash used in it.
111 The world has been hurriedly moving away from MD5 in certificates for a while.
112 If you still have such a certificate, you should move too.
114 If you paid someone for your certificate, they should be willing to reissue
115 the certificate with a different algorithm, for no extra money. If they try
116 to charge money to replace their defective product, buy from someone else
117 instead. Part of the reason for paying money on a recurring basis is to cover
118 the ongoing costs of proving a trust relationship, such as providing
119 revocation protocols. This is just another of those ongoing costs you have
124 (5): ... gnutls_require_kx / gnutls_require_mac / gnutls_require_protocols?
125 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
127 These Exim options were used to provide fine-grained control over the TLS
128 negotiation performed by GnuTLS. They required explicit protocol knowledge
129 from Exim, which vastly limited what GnuTLS could do and involved the Exim
130 maintainers in decisions which aren't part of their professional areas of
131 expertise. The need for Exim to be able to do this went away when GnuTLS
132 introduced Priority Strings (see Q7).
134 If you were using these options before, then you're already an expert user and
135 should be able to easily craft a priority string to accomplish your goals.
136 Set the Exim "tls_require_ciphers" value accordingly. There is a main section
137 option of this name, used for Exim receiving inbound connections, and an SMTP
138 driver transport option of this name, used for Exim establishing outbound
143 (6): What's the deal with tls_dh_max_bits? What's DH?
144 ------------------------------------------------------
146 You can avoid all of the tls_dh_max_bits issues if you leave "tls_dhparam"
147 unset, so that you get one of the standard built-in primes used for DH.
150 DH, Diffie-Hellman (or Diffie-Hellman-Merkle, or something naming Williamson)
151 is the common name for a way for two parties to a communication stream to
152 exchange some private random data so that both end up with a shared secret
153 which no eavesdropper can get. It does not provide for proof of the identity
154 of either party, so on its own is subject to man-in-the-middle attacks, but is
155 often combined with systems which do provide such proof, improving them by
156 separating the session key (the shared secret) from the long-term identity,
157 and so protecting past communications from a break of the long-term identity.
159 To do this, the server sends to the client a very large prime number; this is
160 in the clear, an attacker can see it. This is not a problem; it's so not a
161 problem, that there are standard named primes which applications can use, and
162 which Exim now supports.
164 The size of the prime number affects how difficult it is to break apart the
165 shared secret and decrypt the data. As time passes, the size required to
166 provide protection against an adversary climbs: computers get more powerful,
167 mathematical advances are made, and so on.
169 Estimates of the size needed are published as recommendations by various
170 groups; a good summary of sizes currently recommended, for various
171 cryptographic primitives, is available at:
173 http://www.keylength.com/en/3/
175 The GnuTLS folks think the ECRYPT II advice is good. They know far more of
176 such matters than the Exim folks, we just say "er, what they said".
178 One of the new pieces of the GnuTLS API is a means for an application to ask
179 it for guidance and advice on how large some numbers should be. This is not
180 entirely internal to GnuTLS, since generating the numbers is slow, an
181 application might want to use a standard prime, etc. So, in an attempt to get
182 away from being involved in cryptographic policy, and to get rid of a
183 hard-coded "1024" in Exim's source-code, we switched to asking GnuTLS how many
184 bits should be in the prime number generated for use for Diffie-Hellman. We
185 then give this number straight back to GnuTLS when generating a DH prime.
186 We can ask for various sizes, and did not expose this to the administrator but
187 instead just asked for "NORMAL" protection.
190 dh_bits = gnutls_sec_param_to_pk_bits(GNUTLS_PK_DH, GNUTLS_SEC_PARAM_NORMAL);
192 This API is only available as of GnuTLS 2.12. Prior to that release, we stuck
193 with the old value, for compatibility, so "1024" is still hard-coded.
194 Reviewing the page above, you'll see that this is described as "Short-term
195 protection against medium organizations, medium-term protection against small
198 So if you are using an old release of GnuTLS, you can either add to
199 Local/Makefile a different value of "EXIM_SERVER_DH_BITS_PRE2_12" or accept
200 that your protection might not be adequate to your needs. We advise updating
201 to a more current GnuTLS release and rebuilding Exim against that.
203 Unfortunately, some TLS libraries have the client side bound how large a DH
204 prime they will accept from the server. The larger the number, the more
205 computation required to work with it and the slower that things get. So they
206 pick what they believe to be reasonable upper bounds, and then typically
207 forget about it for several years.
209 Worse, in TLS the DH negotiation happens after a ciphersuite has been chosen,
210 so if the client dislikes the value then a different ciphersuite avoiding DH
211 can not be negotiated! The client typically drops the connection, resulting
212 in errors to the user and errors in the Exim logs. With GnuTLS 3, you'll see
213 the EOF (End-Of-File) error message in Exim's logs, reported as being part of
214 "gnutls_handshake", but with GnuTLS 2 you'll see a log message about a packet
215 with an unexpected size. Unless the client software is written intelligently
216 enough to be able to adapt and reconnect forbidding DH, the client will never
217 be able to negotiate TLS.
219 This time around, we discovered that the NSS library used by various Mozilla
220 products, Chrome, etc, and most particularly by the Thunderbird mail client,
221 has the lowest cap. In fact, prior to recent updates, their upper limit was
222 lower than the value returned by GnuTLS for "NORMAL". The most recent NSS
223 library release raises this, but the most recent Thunderbird release still has
226 So Exim had to get involved in cryptography policy decisions again. We added
227 the "tls_dh_max_bits" global option, to set a number used in both OpenSSL and
228 GnuTLS bindings for Exim. In GnuTLS, it clamps the value returned by
229 gnutls_sec_param_to_pk_bits(), so that if the returned value is larger than
230 tls_dh_max_bits then tls_dh_max_bits would be used instead.
232 Our policy decision was to default the value of tls_dh_max_bits to the maximum
233 supported in the most recent Thunderbird release, and to make this an
234 administrator-available option so that administrators can choose to trade off
235 security versus compatibility by raising it.
237 A future release of Exim may even let the administrator tell GnuTLS to ask for
238 more or less than "NORMAL".
240 To add to the fun, the size of the prime returned by GnuTLS when we call
241 gnutls_dh_params_generate2() is not limited to be the requested size. GnuTLS
242 has a tendency to overshoot. 2237 bit primes are common when 2236 is
243 requested, and higher still have been observed. Further, there is no API to
244 ask how large the prime bundled up inside the parameter is; the most we can do
245 is ask how large the DH prime used in an active TLS session is. Since we're
246 not able to use GnuTLS API calls (and exporting to PKCS3 and then calling
247 OpenSSL routines would be undiplomatic, plus add a library dependency), we're
248 left with no way to actually know the size of the freshly generated DH prime.
250 Thus we check if the the value returned is at least 10 more than the minimum
251 we'll accept as a client (EXIM_CLIENT_DH_MIN_BITS, see below, defaults to
252 1024) and if it is, we subtract 10. Then we reluctantly deploy a strategy
253 called "hope". This is not guaranteed to be successful; in the first code
254 pass on this logic, we subtracted 3, asked for 2233 bits and got 2240 in the
257 If you see Thunderbird clients still failing, then as a user who can see into
258 Exim's spool directory, run:
260 $ openssl dhparam -noout -text -in /path/to/spool/gnutls-params-2236 | head
262 Ideally, the first line will read "PKCS#3 DH Parameters: (2236 bit)". If the
263 count is more than 2236, then remove the file and let Exim regenerate it, or
264 generate one yourself and move it into place. Ideally use "openssl dhparam"
265 to generate it, and then wait a very long time; at least this way, the size
268 The use of "hope" as a strategy was felt to be unacceptable as a default, so
269 late in the RC series for 4.80, the whole issue was side-stepped. The primes
270 used for DH are publicly revealed; moreover, there are selection criteria for
271 what makes a "good" DH prime. As it happens, there are *standard* primes
272 which can be used, and are specified to be used for certain protocols. So
273 these primes were built into Exim, and by default exim now uses a 2048 bit
274 prime from section 2.2 of RFC 5114.
277 A TLS client does not get to choose the DH prime used, but can choose a
278 minimum acceptable value. For Exim, this is a compile-time constant called
279 "EXIM_CLIENT_DH_MIN_BITS" of 1024, which can be overruled in "Local/Makefile".
283 (7): What's a Priority String?
284 ------------------------------
286 A priority string is a way for a user of GnuTLS to tell GnuTLS how it should
287 make decisions about what to do in TLS; it includes which algorithms to make
288 available for various roles, what compatibility trade-offs to make, which
289 features to enable or disable.
291 It is exposed to the Mail Administrator in Exim's configuration file as the
292 "tls_require_ciphers" option, which exists as a main section option for use in
293 Exim as a server, accepting connections, and as an option on Transports using
294 the SMTP driver, for use in Exim as a client. The main section option is
295 *not* the default for the transport option, they are entirely independent.
296 For both, the default value used by Exim is the string "NORMAL". (This is not
297 the same NORMAL as for DH prime bit size selection in Q6, but a different
300 The current documentation, for the most recent release of GnuTLS, is available
303 http://www.gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Priority-Strings.html
305 Beware that if you are not using the most recent GnuTLS release then this
306 documentation will be wrong for you! You should find the "info" documentation
307 which came with GnuTLS to review the available options. It's under "The TLS
310 $ pinfo --node="Priority Strings" gnutls
312 (This author is unable to persuade the "info" command-line tool to jump
313 straight to the required node, but "pinfo" works.)
315 To trade off some security for more compatibility, you might set a value of
316 "NORMAL:%COMPAT". See the documentation for more, including lowering security
317 even further for more security, forcing clients to use the server's protocol
318 suite, and ways to force selection of particular algorithms.
322 (8): How do I use tls_require_ciphers?
323 --------------------------------------
325 This is the name of two options in Exim. One is a main section option, used
326 by Exim as a server when a client initiates SSL/TLS negotiation, the other is
327 an option on transports which use "driver = smtp", used when Exim initiates
328 SSL/TLS as a client talking to a remote server.
330 The option is expanded and so can take advantage of any variables which have
331 been set. This includes the IP address of the remote side, the port upon
332 which a connection was accepted (when a server), and more. Currently it does
333 not have access to $tls_sni, whether as a client or as a server.
335 This example, for the main section's option, will let the library defaults be
336 permitted on the MX port, where there's probably no identity verification
337 anyway, and lowers security further by increasing compatibility; but this ups
338 the ante on the submission ports where the administrator might have some
339 influence on the choice of clients used:
341 tls_require_ciphers = ${if =={$received_port}{25}\
345 Note that during Exim start-up, when this option is sanity-checked, there will
346 be no value of $received_port. In the above example, the checked value will
347 thus be "SECURE128". Be careful to ensure that it always expands safely.
351 (9): How do I test STARTTLS support?
352 ------------------------------------
354 The best command-line client for debugging specifically SSL/TLS which this
355 author has encountered is part of the GnuTLS suite, and is called
356 "gnutls-cli". It's best because it's the only interactive tool which lets the
357 user start TLS handshake exactly when they wish, so can choose to use the
360 $ gnutls-cli --starttls --crlf --port 587 mail.example.org
362 After EHLO, to see the capabilities, enter STARTTLS, wait for the response,
363 then send EOF. Typically that's done by typing Ctrl-D at the start of a line.
364 The "gnutls-cli" tool will take over, set up TLS (or fail) and by the time it
365 returns to await more user input, you're using a secure connection and should
366 type your second EHLO.
368 The "--x509cafile" option may be helpful for checking certificates and
369 "--priority" to pass a priority string to the client tool for configuring it.
371 The --crlf is for strict protocol correctness, but Exim doesn't really need
372 it, so "gnutls-cli -s -p 587 mail.example.org" is shorter.
375 For debugging SMTP as a whole, we recommend swaks, "Swiss Army Knife SMTP", by
376 John Jetmore (one of the Exim Maintainers). This has some TLS tuning options;
379 http://www.jetmore.org/john/code/swaks/
382 For OpenSSL, the "openssl s_client" command helps; you can either set up Exim
383 with a listening port which is SSL-on-connect or tell s_client to use
386 For the former, use the "tls_on_connect_ports" option and the
387 "daemon_smtp_ports" option. Most clients for SSL-on-connect use the port
388 which was briefly registered with IANA for this purpose, 465. So you would
391 daemon_smtp_ports = 25 : 465 : 587
392 tls_on_connect_ports = 465
394 To use s_client with STARTTLS support, use "-starttls smtp" on the
395 command-line. Beware that older versions of OpenSSL did not wait for the SMTP
396 banner before sending EHLO, which will fall afoul of the protocol
397 synchronisation checks in Exim (used to trip up pump-and-dump spammers); also
398 you will not get control of the session until TLS is established. That said,
399 this tool provides more tuning hooks for adjusting how TLS will be set up than
402 *BEWARE* that by default, s_client will take any line starting with a capital
403 letter "R" to be a request to initiate TLS renegotiation with the server and
404 the line will not be sent. This may trip up "RCPT TO:<someone@example.org>"
405 lines in SMTP. SMTP is not case-sensitive, so type "rcpt to" instead.
406 Alternatively, invoke s_client with the "-ign_eof" option to disable this
407 R-filtering and a few other features.