+.section "TLS Resumption" "SECTresumption"
+.cindex TLS resumption
+TLS Session Resumption for TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 connections can be used (defined
+in RFC 5077 for 1.2). The support for this requires GnuTLS 3.6.3 or OpenSSL 1.1.1
+(or later).
+
+Session resumption (this is the "stateless" variant) involves the server sending
+a "session ticket" to the client on one connection, which can be stored by the
+client and used for a later session. The ticket contains sufficient state for
+the server to reconstruct the TLS session, avoiding some expensive crypto
+calculation and (on TLS1.2) one full packet roundtrip time.
+
+.ilist
+Operational cost/benefit:
+
+ The extra data being transmitted costs a minor amount, and the client has
+ extra costs in storing and retrieving the data.
+
+ In the Exim/Gnutls implementation the extra cost on an initial connection
+ which is TLS1.2 over a loopback path is about 6ms on 2017-laptop class hardware.
+ The saved cost on a subsequent connection is about 4ms; three or more
+ connections become a net win. On longer network paths, two or more
+ connections will have an average lower startup time thanks to the one
+ saved packet roundtrip. TLS1.3 will save the crypto cpu costs but not any
+ packet roundtrips.
+
+.cindex "hints database" tls
+ Since a new hints DB is used on the TLS client,
+ the hints DB maintenance should be updated to additionally handle "tls".
+
+.next
+Security aspects:
+
+ The session ticket is encrypted, but is obviously an additional security
+ vulnarability surface. An attacker able to decrypt it would have access
+ all connections using the resumed session.
+ The session ticket encryption key is not committed to storage by the server
+ and is rotated regularly (OpenSSL: 1hr, and one previous key is used for
+ overlap; GnuTLS 6hr but does not specify any overlap).
+ Tickets have limited lifetime (2hr, and new ones issued after 1hr under
+ OpenSSL. GnuTLS 2hr, appears to not do overlap).
+
+ There is a question-mark over the security of the Diffie-Helman parameters
+ used for session negotiation.
+
+.next
+Observability:
+
+ The &%log_selector%& "tls_resumption" appends an asterisk to the tls_cipher "X="
+ element.
+
+ The variables &$tls_in_resumption$& and &$tls_out_resumption$&
+ have bits 0-4 indicating respectively
+ support built, client requested ticket, client offered session,
+ server issued ticket, resume used. A suitable decode list is provided
+ in the builtin macro _RESUME_DECODE for in &%listextract%& expansions.
+
+.next
+Control:
+
+The &%tls_resumption_hosts%& main option specifies a hostlist for which
+exim, operating as a server, will offer resumption to clients.
+Current best practice is to not offer the feature to MUA connection.
+Commonly this can be done like this:
+.code
+tls_resumption_hosts = ${if inlist {$received_port}{587:465} {:}{*}}
+.endd
+If the peer host matches the list after expansion then resumption
+is offered and/or accepted.
+
+The &%tls_resumption_hosts%& smtp transport option performs the
+equivalent function for operation as a client.
+If the peer host matches the list after expansion then resumption
+is attempted (if a stored session is available) or the information
+stored (if supplied by the peer).
+
+
+.next
+Issues:
+
+ In a resumed session:
+.ilist
+ The variables &$tls_{in,out}_cipher$& will have values different
+ to the original (under GnuTLS).
+.next
+ The variables &$tls_{in,out}_ocsp$& will be "not requested" or "no response",
+ and the &%hosts_require_ocsp%& smtp trasnport option will fail.
+. XXX need to do something with that hosts_require_ocsp
+.endlist
+
+.endlist
+
git://git.exim.org / exim.git / blobdiff