x.509 Mutual Authentication

Learn how to implement mutual authentication using SSL and X.509 certificates.

Authors: Burt Beckwith

Micronaut Version: 3.9.2

1. Getting Started

In this guide, we will create a Micronaut application with X.509 authentication written in Groovy.

2. What you will need

To complete this guide, you will need the following:

Some time on your hands
A decent text editor or IDE
JDK 1.8 or greater installed with JAVA_HOME configured appropriately
OpenSSL installed

3. Solution

We recommend that you follow the instructions in the next sections and create the application step by step. However, you can go right to the completed example.

Download and unzip the source

4. X.509 Mutual Authentication

As of Micronaut Security version 3.3, applications can use X.509 client certificates when using SSL to enable mutual authentication, i.e., in addition to the client verifying the server identity with its SSL certificate, the server can verify the client identity with a client certificate.

5. Create certificates for testing

First, we’ll need a Certificate Authority (CA), an SSL certificate for the server, and an X.509 certificate for each application user who will be using mutual authentication. You can use an existing CA, server certificate, and/or client certificate if you already have them; otherwise create your own as described below.

5.1. Create a Certificate Authority (CA)

Start by creating a self-signed CA with OpenSSL:

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 \
        -keyout cacert.key -out cacert.pem

You will be asked for a CA password ("PEM pass phrase") and a few values for the CA. Most are optional and are useful for identifying a particular certificate; for our needs only the Common Name (CN) is important though - enter a domain name or other identifying value, e.g., "micronaut.guide.x509":

This will create two files, cacert.pem (the CA in PEM format) and cacert.key (the private key).

You can verify and inspect the CA with

openssl x509 -in cacert.pem -text
openssl x509 -purpose -in cacert.pem -inform PEM

5.2. Create a Server SSL Certificate

Next we’ll create an SSL certificate for the server. This involves creating a certificate signing request (CSR) and creating the certificate by signing the CSR with the CA we created.

5.2.1. Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout server.key -out server.csr

You will be asked for a password ("PEM pass phrase") and a few values for the certificate. Enter "localhost" for the Common Name (CN); the rest are optional:

This will create two files, server.csr (the CSR) and server.key (the private key).

You can verify and inspect the CSR with

openssl req -noout -text -in server.csr

5.2.2. Sign the Server CSR with the CA

Next, sign the CSR with the CA to create the server certificate. Create a configuration file server.conf with this content:

server.conf

authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer
basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
subjectAltName = @alt_names
[alt_names]
DNS.1 = localhost

and generate the certificate:

openssl x509 -req -CA cacert.pem -CAkey cacert.key \
        -in server.csr -out server.pem -days 365 \
        -CAcreateserial -extfile server.conf

You will be asked for the CA password that you chose earlier. Everything else is provided via the command line or server.conf:

This will create server.pem (the server certificate).

You can verify and inspect the certificate with

openssl x509 -in server.pem -text
openssl x509 -purpose -in server.pem -inform PEM

5.3. Create a Keystore Containing the Server Certificate

5.3.1. Create server.p12

Bundle the server certificate and private key in PKCS #12 format:

openssl pkcs12 -export -out server.p12 -name "localhost" \
        -inkey server.key -in server.pem

You will be asked for the server certificate password that you chose earlier and a new password ("Export Password") for the PKCS #12 archive:

This will create server.p12. You can verify and inspect the archive with

openssl pkcs12 -in server.p12 -noout -info

5.3.2. Create keystore.p12

Create keystore.p12 containing server.p12 using the keytool utility from your JDK:

keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore server.p12 \
        -srcstoretype pkcs12 -destkeystore keystore.p12 \
        -deststoretype pkcs12

You will be asked for the server.p12 password that you chose earlier and a new password for the keystore:

This will create keystore.p12. You can verify and inspect the archive with

openssl pkcs12 -in keystore.p12 -noout -info

5.4. Create a Truststore Containing the CA

Create truststore.jks containing the CA:

keytool -import -trustcacerts -noprompt -alias ca \
        -ext san=dns:localhost,ip:127.0.0.1 \
        -file cacert.pem -keystore truststore.jks

You will be asked for a new password ("keystore password") for the truststore:

5.5. Create a Client X.509 Certificate

5.5.1. Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

Similar to what we did earlier for the server certificate, create a CSR for the client certificate:

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -keyout client.key -out client.csr

For this certificate we’ll skip the password (via the -nodes command line flag), but you can omit the flag and enter a password if you prefer.

Enter a username (e.g., "myusername") for the Common Name (CN); the rest are optional:

This will create two files, client.csr (the CSR) and client.key (the private key).

You can verify and inspect the CSR with

openssl req -noout -text -in client.csr

5.5.2. Sign the Client CSR with the CA

Sign the client CSR with the CA:

openssl x509 -req -CA cacert.pem -CAkey cacert.key \
        -in client.csr -out client.pem -days 365 -CAcreateserial

You will be asked for the CA password that you chose earlier.

This will create client.pem (the client certificate).

You can verify and inspect the client certificate with

openssl x509 -in client.pem -text

5.5.3. Create client.p12

Bundle the client certificate and private key in PKCS #12 format:

openssl pkcs12 -export -out client.p12 -name "client" \
        -inkey client.key -in client.pem

You will be asked for a new password for the PKCS #12 archive:

This will create client.p12. You can verify and inspect the archive with

openssl pkcs12 -in client.p12 -noout -info

6. Writing the Application

Create an application using the Micronaut Command Line Interface or with Micronaut Launch.

mn create-app example.micronaut.micronautguide \
   --features=security,reactor \
   --build=gradle --lang=groovy

If you don’t specify the --build argument, Gradle is used as the build tool.
If you don’t specify the --lang argument, Java is used as the language.

The previous command creates a Micronaut application with the default package example.micronaut in a directory named micronautguide.

If you have an existing Micronaut application and want to add the functionality described here, you can view the dependency and configuration changes from the specified features and apply those changes to your application.

Setup IntelliJ IDEA to develop Micronaut Applications.

6.1. Copy Certificates

Create the src/main/resources/ssl directory and copy the keystore (keystore.p12) and truststore (truststore.jks) that you created earlier into it.

6.2. Configuration

Replace the generated application.yml with this:

src/main/resources/application.yml

micronaut:
  application:
    name: micronautguide

  security:
    x509:
      enabled: true (1)

  ssl:
    enabled: true (2)

  server:
    ssl:
      client-authentication: want (3)
      key-store:
        path: classpath:ssl/keystore.p12 (4)
        password: (5)
        type: PKCS12 (6)
      trust-store:
        path: classpath:ssl/truststore.jks (7)
        password: (8)
        type: JKS (9)

1	Enable X.509 support
2	Enable SSL/TLS at the server
3	Set `client-authentication` to `want`, i.e., accept a client certificate if available, but don’t block access without one. To require a client certificate for all requests, change to `need`
4	Specify the location of the keystore
5	Set this value with the password you used when creating the keystore
6	Specify the keystore type as PKCS #12
7	Specify the location of the truststore
8	Set this value with the password you used when creating the truststore
9	Specify the truststore type as JKS (Java Key Store)

6.3. HelloController

Create HelloController to test using client X.509 certificates:

src/main/groovy/example/micronaut/HelloController.groovy

package example.micronaut

import io.micronaut.core.annotation.Nullable
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Controller
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Get
import io.micronaut.security.annotation.Secured
import io.micronaut.security.authentication.Authentication
import io.micronaut.security.x509.X509Authentication

import static io.micronaut.http.MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN
import static io.micronaut.security.rules.SecurityRule.IS_ANONYMOUS

@Controller
class HelloController {

    @Secured(IS_ANONYMOUS) (1)
    @Get(produces = TEXT_PLAIN) (2)
    String hello(@Nullable X509Authentication x509Auth, (3)
                 @Nullable Authentication authentication) { (4)
        if (!x509Auth && !authentication) {
            return "Hello unknown!"; (5)
        }
        if (!x509Auth) {
            return "ERROR: Authentication is present but not X509Authentication"; (6)
        }
        if (!x509Auth.is(authentication)) {
            return "ERROR: Authentication and X509Authentication should be the same instance"; (7)
        }
        "Hello ${x509Auth.name} (X.509 cert issued by ${x509Auth.certificate.issuerX500Principal.name})"; (8)
    }
}

1	Allow authenticated and non-authenticated requests
2	By default, a Micronaut response uses `application/json` as `Content-Type`. We are returning a String, not a JSON object, so we set it to `text/plain`.
3	Bind the `X509Authentication` if present, but allow null when not authenticated
4	Redundantly bind the `Authentication` to verify that it’s the same instance as the `X509Authentication`
5	Default the username for non-authenticated requests
6	Sanity check that there’s no `Authentication` if there’s no `X509Authentication`
7	Sanity check that the `Authentication` is the `X509Authentication`
8	Build the response as the username plus info about the certificate CA for the authenticated user

6.4. Writing Tests

Create a test to verify that X.509 authentication works:

src/test/groovy/example/micronaut/X509Spec.groovy

package example.micronaut

import io.micronaut.http.client.HttpClient
import io.micronaut.http.client.annotation.Client
import io.micronaut.test.extensions.spock.annotation.MicronautTest
import jakarta.inject.Inject
import spock.lang.Specification

@MicronautTest (1)
class X509Spec extends Specification {

    @Inject
    @Client('/') (2)
    HttpClient httpClient

    void 'test client cert'() {
        given:
        String expected = 'Hello myusername (X.509 cert issued by CN=micronaut.guide.x509)'

        when:
        String response = httpClient.toBlocking().retrieve('/') (3)

        then:
        expected == response (4)
    }
}

1	Annotate the class with `@MicronautTest` so the Micronaut framework will initialize the application context and the embedded server. More info.
2	Inject the `HttpClient` bean and point it to the embedded server.
3	Make a request to the controller
4	Verify the response is correct

Create application-test.yml in src/test/resources with this content:

src/test/resources/application-test.yml

micronaut:
  ssl:
    port: -1 (1)
  http:
    client:
      ssl:
        key-store:
          path: classpath:ssl/client.p12 (2)
          password: secret (3)
          type: PKCS12 (4)
        insecureTrustAllCertificates: true (5)

1	Start the server on a random unused SSL port
2	Specify the location of the client keystore
3	Change this value to the password you used when creating the client keystore
4	Specify the keystore type as PKCS #12

7. Testing the Application

To run the tests:

./gradlew test

Then open build/reports/tests/test/index.html in a browser to see the results.

8. Running the Application

To run the application, use the ./gradlew run command, which starts the application on port 8443.

8.1. Testing with cURL

You can run some cURL requests to test the application. First, make a request without presenting a client certificate:

curl -i --cacert cacert.pem https://localhost:8443/

The output should look similar to this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
date: Thu, 28 Oct 2021 01:03:40 GMT
Content-Type: text/plain
content-length: 14
connection: keep-alive

Hello unknown!

Next, make a request with a client certificate:

curl -i --cert client.pem --key client.key \
     --cacert cacert.pem https://localhost:8443/

The output should look similar to this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
date: Thu, 28 Oct 2021 01:05:25 GMT
Content-Type: text/plain
content-length: 63
connection: keep-alive

Hello myusername (X.509 cert issued by CN=micronaut.guide.x509)

8.2. Testing with a Web Browser

To make requests in a web browser, you must import the CA and the client certificate into the browser.

8.2.1. Import Certificates Into Firefox

To do this in Firefox, navigate to about:preferences#privacy and scroll down to the Certificates section, then click "View Certificates":

Go to the "Authorities" tab and click "Import…":

Navigate to the cacert.pem CA certificate you created earlier and import it. Check the "Trust this CA to identify websites" checkbox and click OK:

The CA will appear as a "Software Security Device" under "micronaut.guide.x509":

Go to the "Your Certificates" tab and click "Import…":

Navigate to the client.p12 archive you created earlier and import it. The certificate will appear as a "Software Security Device" under "myusername":

8.2.2. Import Certificates Into Chrome

To do this in Chrome, navigate to chrome://settings/certificates and go to the "Authorities" tab, then click "Import":

Navigate to the cacert.pem CA certificate you created earlier and import it. Check the "Trust this certificate for identifying websites" checkbox and click OK:

The CA will appear under "org-micronaut.guide.x509":

Go to the "Your certificates" tab and click "Import…":

Navigate to the client.p12 archive you created earlier and import it. The certificate will appear under "org-myusername":

8.2.3. Make a secure request

Navigate to https://localhost:8443 and choose the client certificate you imported earlier when prompted. The response should look like this:

9. Next steps

Explore more features with Micronaut Guides.

See the Micronaut documentation on using HTTPS.

Also check out Micronaut Acme, a convenient way to configure and refresh SSL certificates using Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME)

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