[jira] [Resolved] (NIFI-3116) Remove Jasypt library

["Joseph Witt (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

     [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NIFI-3116?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel ]

Joseph Witt resolved NIFI-3116.
-------------------------------
       Resolution: Fixed
    Fix Version/s: 1.5.0

+1 merged to master.

[~jtstorck] if you are in a position to include this in 1.4.0 please do so . If you do choose to do so please change the fix version from 1.5.0 to 1.4.0.  Thanks

> Remove Jasypt library
> ---------------------
>
>                 Key: NIFI-3116
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NIFI-3116
>             Project: Apache NiFi
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>          Components: Core Framework
>    Affects Versions: 1.1.0
>            Reporter: Andy LoPresto
>            Assignee: Andy LoPresto
>              Labels: encryption, kdf, pbe, security
>             Fix For: 1.5.0
>
>
> The [Jasypt|http://www.jasypt.org/index.html] library is used internally by NiFi for String encryption operations (specifically password-based encryption (PBE) in {{EncryptContent}} and sensitive processor property protection). I feel there are a number of reasons to remove this library from NiFi and provide centralized symmetric encryption operations using Java cryptographic primitives (and BouncyCastle features where necessary). 
> * The library was last updated February 25, 2014. For comparison, BouncyCastle has been [updated 5 times|https://www.bouncycastle.org/releasenotes.html] since then
> * {{StandardPBEStringEncryptor}}, the high-level class wrapped by NiFi's {{StringEncryptor}} is final. This makes it, and features relying on it, difficult to test in isolation
> * Jasypt encapsulates many decisions about {{Cipher}} configuration, specifically salt-generation strategy. This can be a valuable feature for pluggable libraries, but is less than ideal when dealing with encryption and key derivation, which are in constant struggle with evolving attacks and improving hardware. There are hard-coded constants which are not compatible with better decisions available now (i.e. requiring custom implementations of the {{SaltGenerator}} interface to provide new derivations). The existence of these values was opaque to NiFi and led to serious compatibility issues [NIFI-1259], [NIFI-1257], [NIFI-1242], [NIFI-1463], [NIFI-1465], [NIFI-3024]
> * {{StringEncryptor}}, the NiFi class wrapping {{StandardPBEStringEncryptor}} is also final and does not expose methods to instantiate it with only the relevant values (i.e. {{algorithm}}, {{provider}}, and {{password}}) but rather requires an entire {{NiFiProperties}} instance. 
> * {{StringEncryptor.createEncryptor()}} performs an unnecessary "validation check" on instantiation, which was one cause of reported issues where a secure node/cluster blocks on startup on VMs due to lack of entropy in {{/dev/random}}
> * The use of custom salts with PBE means that the internal {{Cipher}} object must be re-created and initialized and the key re-derived from the password on every decryption call. Symmetric keyed encryption with a strong KDF (order of magnitude higher iterations of a stronger algorithm) and unique initialization vector (IV) values would be substantially more resistant to brute force attacks and yet more performant at scale. 
> I have already implemented backwards-compatible code to perform the actions of symmetric key encryption using keys derived from passwords in both the {{ConfigEncryptionTool}} and {{OpenSSLPKCS5CipherProvider}} and {{NiFiLegacyCipherProvider}} classes, which empirical tests confirm are compatible with the Jasypt output. 
> Additional research on some underlying/related issues:
> * [Why does Java allow AES-256 bit encryption on systems without JCE unlimited strength policies if using PBE?|https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/107321/why-does-java-allow-aes-256-bit-encryption-on-systems-without-jce-unlimited-stre]
> * [How To Decrypt OpenSSL-encrypted Data In Apache NiFi|https://community.hortonworks.com/articles/5319/how-to-decrypt-openssl-encrypted-data-in-apache-ni.html]
> * [dev@nifi.apache.org "Passwords in EncryptContent"|https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/b93ced98eff6a77dd0a2a2f0b5785ef42a3b02de2cee5c17607a8c49@%3Cdev.nifi.apache.org%3E]



--
This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA
(v6.4.14#64029)