Security: HTTPS, WSS, PFS and E2EE with Phoenix framework

Eiji

At start some definitions:

HTTPS (is a protocol for secure communication over a computer network which is widely used on the Internet) - see HTTPS Wikipedia article
WSS (secured WebSocket protocol) - see WebSocket Wikipedia article
PFS (is a property of secure communication protocols in which compromise of long-term keys does not compromise past session keys) - see Perfect Forward Secrecy Wikipedia article.
E2EE (a cryptographic paradigm involving uninterrupted protection of data traveling between two communicating parties) - see End-to-end encryption Wikipedia article

Summary:

HTTPS, WSS protocols can be set in configuration
PFS can be set in configuration too and need more attention (ciphers, SSL version)
E2EE - to setup this we need choose algorithm(s) to generate, export, import, encrypt and decrypt for Web Cryptography API; time between generate new keys depends on what is used in application

Helpful sources:

Mozilla wiki article describes SSL configuration and splits it by client support.
SSL configuration could be set in standard nginx way or in cowboy/phoenix configuration.
An examples of using Web Cryptography API

18 comments

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2021-02-18 05:08:23 UTC

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Nicd

Phoenix has HTTPS and WSS support builtin, see http://www.phoenixframework.org/docs/configuration-for-ssl

For PFS I believe you need to configure your server to use specific key exchange algorithms (i.e. it’s not a matter of the certificate). I don’t know how to do that with Phoenix. Personally I terminate TLS with Nginx and proxy it to Phoenix.

HTTPS and WSS are end-to-end encrypted, one end being the client’s browser and the other end being the server.

For free certificates, take a look at https://letsencrypt.org/

Post #1

Eiji

First link describes only https or it will work also with WebSocket?
You reminded me that I already have seen that this is a matter of configuration algorithm. To summarize answer what was encryption algorithm name in PFS?
Summary:
I need any valid SSL certificate + configure ssl in phoenix + configure encryption algorithm that provide PFS, right?

Post #2

Nicd

It should also enable WSS as far as I know.

Yes, but I don’t know how to do the last part. Maybe someone else can help.

Post #3

Eiji

I found interesting article from Mozilla Wiki.
What do you think about it?
Is Modern configuration robust enough?

Post #4

Nicd

That’s a good article, I’ve followed it in my own configurations. You need to decide for yourself which configuration you can use based on the clients you need to support.

Post #5

Eiji

My demo site (in future) will support only modern standards. I do not want to support M$ standards, IE and other old leafs of web programming. I decide to CSS3/Ecmascript6/HTML5 in fronted and Elixir/Phoenix + my libs in backend, so I want Modern configuration. Is this configuration describes all SSL configuration must-have or you know more SSL configuration options that should be set (of course we need to generate certificate and add configuration to generated files)?

Post #6

Nicd

I think that’s pretty comprehensive but I’m not an expert by any means.

Post #7

Eiji

Ok, thx - here I will summarize all info:

HTTPS, WSS protocols are configurable
WSS is already provided in above protocols
PFS is configurable too and need more attention (ciphers, SSL version)

Mozilla wiki article describes SSL configuration and splits it by client support.
SSL configuration could be set in standard nginx way or in cowboy/phoenix configuration.

Post #8

Qqwy

TypeCheck Core Team

And just a note about end-to-end encryption: This is a whole different beast. Usually it means that you have to use a JavaScript cryptography library, which is used to encrypt data before it is sent towards the server, and to decrypt certain data coming from the server (at a later time, or for a different user). Because usually with end-to-end encryption the server is ‘in the middle’, there are no special settings for the server software (such as Phoenix) to work with it.

Post #9