nats.docs/nats-server/configuration/securing_nats/tls.md

Enabling TLS

The NATS server uses modern TLS semantics to encrypt client, route, and monitoring connections. Server configuration revolves around a tls map, which has the following properties:

Property	Description
cert_file	TLS certificate file.
key_file	TLS certificate key file.
ca_file	TLS certificate authority file. When not present, default to the system trust store.
cipher_suites	When set, only the specified TLS cipher suites will be allowed. Values must match the golang version used to build the server.
curve_preferences	List of TLS cipher curves to use in order.
insecure	Skip certificate verification. NOT Recommended
timeout	TLS handshake timeout in fractional seconds. Default set to 0.5 seconds.
verify	If true, require and verify client certificates. To support use by Browser, this option does not apply to monitoring.
verify_and_map	If true, require and verify client certificates and map certificate values for authentication purposes. Does not apply to monitoring either.

The simplest configuration:

tls: {
  cert_file: "./server-cert.pem"
  key_file: "./server-key.pem"
}

Or by using server options:

> nats-server --tls --tlscert=./server-cert.pem --tlskey=./server-key.pem
[21417] 2019/05/16 11:21:19.801539 [INF] Starting nats-server version 2.0.0
[21417] 2019/05/16 11:21:19.801621 [INF] Git commit [not set]
[21417] 2019/05/16 11:21:19.801777 [INF] Listening for client connections on 0.0.0.0:4222
[21417] 2019/05/16 11:21:19.801782 [INF] TLS required for client connections
[21417] 2019/05/16 11:21:19.801785 [INF] Server id is ND6ZZDQQDGKYQGDD6QN2Y26YEGLTH6BMMOJZ2XJB2VASPVII3XD6RFOQ
[21417] 2019/05/16 11:21:19.801787 [INF] Server is ready

Notice that the log indicates that the client connections will be required to use TLS. If you run the server in Debug mode with -D or -DV, the logs will show the cipher suite selection for each connected client:

[22242] 2019/05/16 11:22:20.216322 [DBG] 127.0.0.1:51383 - cid:1 - Client connection created
[22242] 2019/05/16 11:22:20.216539 [DBG] 127.0.0.1:51383 - cid:1 - Starting TLS client connection handshake
[22242] 2019/05/16 11:22:20.367275 [DBG] 127.0.0.1:51383 - cid:1 - TLS handshake complete
[22242] 2019/05/16 11:22:20.367291 [DBG] 127.0.0.1:51383 - cid:1 - TLS version 1.2, cipher suite TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

When a tls section is specified at the root of the configuration, it also affects the monitoring port if https_port option is specified. Other sections such as cluster can specify a tls block.

TLS Timeout

The timeout setting enables you to control the amount of time that a client is allowed to upgrade its connection to tls. If your clients are experiencing disconnects during TLS handshake, you'll want to increase the value, however, if you do be aware that an extended timeout exposes your server to attacks where a client doesn't upgrade to TLS and thus consumes resources. Conversely, if you reduce the TLS timeout too much, you are likely to experience handshake errors.

tls: {
  cert_file: "./server-cert.pem"
  key_file: "./server-key.pem"
  # clients will fail to connect (value is too low)
  timeout: 0.0001
}

Self Signed Certificates for Testing

Explaining Public key infrastructure, Certificate Authorities (CA) and x509 certificates fall well outside the scope of this document. So does an explanation on how to obtain a properly trusted certificates.

If anybody outside your organization needs to connect, get certs from a public certificate authority. Think carefully about revocation and cycling times, as well as automation, when picking a CA. If arbitrary applications inside your organization need to connect, use a cert from your in-house CA. If only resources inside a specific environment need to connect, that environment might have its own dedicated automatic CA, eg in Kubernetes clusters, so use that.

Only for testing purposes does it makes sense to generate self signed certificates, even your own CA. This is a short guide on how to do just that and what to watch out for.

DO NOT USE these certificates in production!!!

Problems With Self Signed Certificates

Missing in Relevant Trust Stores

As they should, these are not trusted by the system your server or clients are running on.

One option is to specify the CA in every client you are using. In case you make use of verify and verify_and_map you need to specify ca_file in the server. If you are having a more complex setup involving cluster, gateways or leaf nodes, ca_file needs to be present in tls maps used to connect to the server with self signed certificates. While this works for server and libraries from the NATS eco system, you will experience issues when connecting with other tools such as your Browser.

Another option is to configure your system's trust store to include self signed certificate(s). Which trust store needs to be configured depends on what you are testing.

• This may be your OS for server and certain clients.
• The runtime environment for other clients like Java or Python.
• Your browser for monitoring endpoints and websockets.

Please check your system's documentation on how to trust a particular self signed certificate.

Missing Subject Alternative Name

Another common problem is failed identity validation. The IP or DNS name to connect to needs to match a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) inside the certificate. Meaning, if a client/browser/server connect via tls to 127.0.0.1, the server needs to present a certificate with a SAN containing the IP 127.0.0.1 or the connection will be closed with a handshake error.

Creating Self Signed Certificates for Testing

The simplest way to generate a CA as well as client and server certificates is mkcert. This zero config tool generates and installs the CA into your local system trust store(s) and makes providing SAN straight forward. Here is an example:

Generate a CA and output the location of the root CA cert file rootCA.pem. Next generate a certificate, valid for use by localhost and the IP ::1(-cert-file and -key-file overwrite default file names). Then start a nats server using the generated certificate.

mkcert -install
mkcert -CAROOT
mkcert -cert-file server-cert.pem -key-file server-key.pem localhost ::1
nats-server --tls --tlscert=server-cert.pem --tlskey=server-key.pem -ms 8222

Now you should be able to access the monitoring endpoint https://localhost:8222 with your browser.
https://127.0.0.1:8222 however should result in an error as 127.0.0.1 is not listed as SAN. You will not be able to establish a connection from another computer either. For that to work you have to provide appropriate DNS and/or IP SAN(s)

To generate certificates that work with verify provide the -client option. This will cause it to add an appropriate key usage for client authentication. Please note that client refers to connecting process, not necessarily a NATS client. Also add a SAN email for usage as user name in verify_and_map.

mkcert -client -cert-file client-cert.pem -key-file client-key.pem localhost ::1 email@localhost

Once you are done testing, remove the CA from your local system trust store(s).

mkcert -uninstall

Alternatively, you can also use openssl to generate certificates. This tool allows a lot more customization of the generated certificates. It is a lot more complex and does not manage installation into the system trust store(s).

However, for inspecting certificates it is quite handy. To inspect the certificates from the above example execute these commands:

openssl x509 -noout -text -in server-cert.pem
openssl x509 -noout -text -in client-cert.pem