Security

Quick Overview

Starting with v2.0.6, there is a new settings page that allows users to configure all security aspects of the product.

The old procedure is still supported and details can be found here.

Step by step guide for enabling HTTPS

1. Navigate to Settings → Security.

2. It is necessary to create an SSL/TLS certificate before activating HTTPS so please navigate to the Manage Certificates tab and click ADD CERTIFICATE. A panel will open to the side prompting for the required input. Fill out the required fields and click ADD. Note: Please refer to Information regarding certificates in order to obtain a certificate and certificate key.

3. The newly created certificate should now appear in the available certificates list.

4. Navigate back to the Configure tab and observe that it is now possible to enable HTTPS.

5. Fill in the desired settings in the configuration window. Note that you can find more information about each field below.

The table below describes in detail each setting:

6. Click UPDATE and wait to be redirected to the new URL.

Enforcing TLS version

If you're upgrading from a previous version or deliberately leave all TLS options unchecked that will instruct Vault to default to the following:

• for outbound connections (i.e requests made by Vault) will use the operating system default TLS protocol
• for inbound web requests Vault's web server (NGINX) will default to TLS v1.2 or TLS v1.3

If you wish to enforce a particular TLS version please select only that option.

Key rotation

By default the product uses a randomly generated cryptographic key to encrypt uploaded files.

In order to generate a new cryptographic key please follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Settings → Security → File Encryption.

2. Click on the Generate Key button.
3. A window will appear asking the client to confirm the action.

4. Selecting Cancel will abort the request and no new key will be generated. Selecting Confirm will lead to step 5.
5. The new cryptographic key has been generated.

6. User agent will prompt the client to store the newly generated key in a file. If the client dismisses this step by mistake, he/she must generate a new encryption key. The previous key will be removed automatically by the system.

The system uses the AES algorithm with CBC mode and PKCS7 padding to generate cryptographic keys. Newly created cryptographic keys are stored in the database as UTF8-encoded hexadecimal characters.

Once a new encryption key is generated, all subsequent file uploads will use the newly created key for encryption. Files that were uploaded prior to the creation of the new key will remain encrypted with the old encryption keys.

Note: It is not possible to manually retire previous encryption keys. The system will automatically remove obsolete keys when all files encrypted with those keys are deleted.

Example

1. File1 and File2 are encrypted with key A.
2. User generates key B => key A becomes obsolete.
3. User uploads File3.
4. File3 is encrypted with key B.
5. System does a cleanup check and sees that key A is obsolete but it is still used to encrypt files File1 and File2 so the key is not removed.
6. User generates key C => key B becomes obsolete like key A.
7. User deletes files File1 and File3.
8. System does a cleanup check and erases key B (obsolete + no encrypted files). Key A still has one file (File2) encrypted with it so is left alone. Key C has no files encrypted with it but is the active key so it is left alone.

Database credentials update

Vault systems that integrate with a remote Microsoft SQL Server are prompted at install time to provide the login credentials (username and password) used for the connection with the database server.

For security compliance, some Vault administrators may want to periodically update the login credentials of the Microsoft SQL Server.

In order to update the current login credentials please follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the new Microsoft SQL Server account has the minimum required roles. The SQL Server login must be created with at least the dbcreator server role. The login must map to users for the master, sft_data and sft_conn databases. The users must have the db_owner role.
2. Navigate to Settings → Security → Database Credentials.
3. In the first input field please provide the password used for the existing Microsoft SQL Server connection (in case this is the first time upgrading, please provide the password used at install time).
4. After providing the correct password, the input fields for the new credentials will be enabled.
5. Fill the input fields with the new username and the new password required for the SQL Server connection and click on the Update button.
6. A loading screen will appear instructing you to wait while the credentials are being updated and the Vault services are restarted. This action may last from 30 to 90 seconds. Please do not take any other actions in this meantime.
7. If the provided SQL Server login credentials are valid and the account has the required server roles, a success message will pop up stating that the credentials were updated. Otherwise, an error message will be presented indicating that the update was not possible.

Possible errors overview

• Current database password is invalid - the provided current password does not match the password that is used for the current SQL Server login.
• Invalid SQL Server login credentials - the connection with the SQL Server could not be established by using the newly provided credentials. In order to fix this, make sure that the new credentials correspond to an already existing login. Make sure that the login has the required server roles: public and dbcreator.

For other possible errors that might appear during the database credentials update procedure please check the opswat.vault.database.configuration.log file located in the Vault install folder under the path OPSWAT\MetaDefender Vault\Services\Logs .