Configure TLS protocol versions on an ASM gateway - Alibaba Cloud Service Mesh

To mitigate security risks from outdated transport layer security (TLS) protocols, you can configure your ASM gateway to enforce modern security standards. By disabling insecure versions such as TLS 1.0 and 1.1 and enabling stronger protocols such as TLS 1.2 and later, you can effectively guard against man-in-the-middle attacks and data breaches, ensuring robust and secure HTTPS connections between your services and clients.

Prerequisites

An ASM Enterprise Edition or Ultimate Edition instance of version 1.14 or later has been created. For more information, see Create an ASM instance and Upgrade an ASM instance.
The cluster is added to the ASM instance.
An ingress gateway is deployed. For more information, see Create an ingress gateway.
An application is deployed in the cluster that is added to the ASM instance. For more information, see Deploy an application to an ASM-associated cluster.

Background information

Early TLS versions, including TLS v1.0, have known vulnerabilities that can lead to data breaches during transmission. As a security best practice, you should disable outdated TLS versions (v1.0 and v1.1) and enable only TLS 1.2 or later. It is also important to disable weak ciphers within TLS 1.2.

Step 1: Prepare the certificate and private key

This topic uses the domain aliyun.com as an example. Generate a certificate and a private key for the gateway and save them as a Secret. If you already have a certificate and private key for aliyun.com, name the private key aliyun.com.key and the certificate aliyun.com.crt. Otherwise, use openssl to generate them.

Run the following command to create a root certificate and a private key.

openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -subj '/O=myexample Inc./CN=aliyun.com' -keyout aliyun.root.key -out aliyun.root.crt

Run the following commands to generate a certificate and a private key for the aliyun.com server.

openssl req -out aliyun.com.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout aliyun.com.key -subj "/CN=aliyun.com/O=myexample organization"
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -CA aliyun.root.crt -CAkey aliyun.root.key -set_serial 0 -in aliyun.com.csr -out aliyun.com.crt

Create a Secret or a certificate based on your ASM instance version.

For an ASM instance earlier than 1.17

Connect to the cluster where your ingress gateway pod is running by using its KubeConfig. Then, run the following command to create a Secret that contains the certificate and private key in the istio-system namespace.
```
kubectl create -n istio-system secret tls myexample-credential --key=aliyun.com.key --cert=aliyun.com.crt
```
Important
The Secret name cannot start with istio or prometheus and cannot contain the token field.

For an ASM instance of version 1.17 or later

Log on to the ASM console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Service Mesh > Mesh Management.
On the Mesh Management page, click the name of the target instance. In the left-side navigation pane, choose ASM Gateways > Certificate Management.

On the Certificate Management page, click Create. In the Certificate Information panel, configure the parameters and click OK.

Parameter	Description
Name	Enter a name for the certificate. In this example, use myexample-credential.
Public Key Certificate	The content of the `aliyun.com.crt` file generated in Step 1.2.
Private Key	The content of the `aliyun.com.key` file generated in Step 1.2.

Step 2: Create a gateway rule

Log on to the ASM console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Service Mesh > Mesh Management.
On the Mesh Management page, click the name of the ASM instance. In the left-side navigation pane, choose ASM Gateways > Gateway. On the page that appears, click Create from YAML.

On the Create page, select the target namespace and a template, and then configure the following YAML.

This example uses the default namespace. In the YAML configuration, the minProtocolVersion parameter is set to TLSV1_2. This setting disables TLS v1.0 and TLS v1.1.

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: mysdsgateway
spec:
  selector:
    istio: ingressgateway
  servers:
    - hosts:
        - '*'
      port:
        name: https
        number: 443
        protocol: HTTPS
      tls:
        credentialName: myexample-credential
        minProtocolVersion: TLSV1_2
        mode: SIMPLE

Step 3: Create a virtual service

On the details page of the ASM instance, choose Traffic Management Center > VirtualService in the left-side navigation pane. On the page that appears, click Create from YAML.

On the Create page, select the target namespace and a template, and then configure the following YAML.

VirtualService YAML

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: bookinfo-tlsversion-sample
spec:
  gateways:
    - mysdsgateway-tlsversion-sample
  hosts:
    - '*'
  http:
    - match:
        - uri:
            exact: /productpage
        - uri:
            prefix: /static
        - uri:
            exact: /login
        - uri:
            exact: /logout
        - uri:
            prefix: /api/v1/products
      route:
        - destination:
            host: productpage
            port:
              number: 9080

Step 4: Verify the TLS version

testssl.sh is a free command-line tool that can check a server's services on any port for supported TLS/SSL ciphers, protocols, and cryptographic flaws. This topic uses testssl.sh to verify the TLS version.

Run the following command to run testssl.sh in a container.

docker run --rm -ti  registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/testssl.sh https://<gateway_address>/productpage

Expected output

Testing protocols via sockets except NPN+ALPN

SSLv2      not offered (OK)
SSLv3      not offered (OK)
TLS 1      not offered
TLS 1.1    not offered
TLS 1.2    offered (OK)
TLS 1.3    offered (OK): final

......
Running client simulations (HTTP) via sockets

Browser                      Protocol  Cipher Suite Name (OpenSSL)       Forward Secrecy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Android 6.0                  TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
Android 7.0 (native)         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
Android 8.1 (native)         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Android 9.0 (native)         TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Android 10.0 (native)        TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Android 11 (native)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Android 12 (native)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Chrome 79 (Win 10)           TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Chrome 101 (Win 10)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Firefox 66 (Win 8.1/10)      TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Firefox 100 (Win 10)         TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
IE 6 XP                      No connection
IE 8 Win 7                   No connection
IE 8 XP                      No connection
IE 11 Win 7                  No connection
IE 11 Win 8.1                No connection
IE 11 Win Phone 8.1          No connection
IE 11 Win 10                 TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
Edge 15 Win 10               TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Edge 101 Win 10 21H2         TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Safari 12.1 (iOS 12.2)       TLSv1.3   TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256      253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Safari 13.0 (macOS 10.14.6)  TLSv1.3   TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256      253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Safari 15.4 (macOS 12.3.1)   TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Java 7u25                    No connection
Java 8u161                   TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
Java 11.0.2 (OpenJDK)        TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            256 bit ECDH (P-256)
Java 17.0.3 (OpenJDK)        TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
go 1.17.8                    TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
LibreSSL 2.8.3 (Apple)       TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
OpenSSL 1.0.2e               TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
OpenSSL 1.1.0l (Debian)      TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
OpenSSL 1.1.1d (Debian)      TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
OpenSSL 3.0.3 (git)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
Apple Mail (16.0)            TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
Thunderbird (91.9)           TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)

The expected output shows that TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are not offered, which indicates that these versions are disabled. TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 are offered, which indicates that these versions are supported.

The client simulation results also show that only clients that support TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 can establish a connection.

Optional: To restrict connections to only TLS 1.2, follow these steps.

Modify the gateway rule by using the following YAML configuration. Set both maxProtocolVersion and minProtocolVersion to TLSV1_2.

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: mysdsgateway
  namespace: default
spec:
  selector:
    istio: ingressgateway
  servers:
    - hosts:
        - '*'
      port:
        name: https
        number: 443
        protocol: HTTPS
      tls:
        credentialName: myexample-credential
        maxProtocolVersion: TLSV1_2
        minProtocolVersion: TLSV1_2
        mode: SIMPLE

Run the following command to run the verification test.

docker run --rm -ti  registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/testssl.sh https://<gateway_address>/productpage

Expected output

 Testing protocols via sockets except NPN+ALPN

 SSLv2      not offered (OK)
 SSLv3      not offered (OK)
 TLS 1      not offered
 TLS 1.1    not offered
 TLS 1.2    offered (OK)
 TLS 1.3    not offered and downgraded to a weaker protocol

......
 Running client simulations (HTTP) via sockets

 Browser                      Protocol  Cipher Suite Name (OpenSSL)       Forward Secrecy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Android 6.0                  TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Android 7.0 (native)         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Android 8.1 (native)         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 9.0 (native)         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 10.0 (native)        TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 11 (native)          TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 12 (native)          TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Chrome 79 (Win 10)           TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Chrome 101 (Win 10)          TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Firefox 66 (Win 8.1/10)      TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Firefox 100 (Win 10)         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 IE 6 XP                      No connection
 IE 8 Win 7                   No connection
 IE 8 XP                      No connection
 IE 11 Win 7                  No connection
 IE 11 Win 8.1                No connection
 IE 11 Win Phone 8.1          No connection
 IE 11 Win 10                 TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Edge 15 Win 10               TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Edge 101 Win 10 21H2         TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Safari 12.1 (iOS 12.2)       TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Safari 13.0 (macOS 10.14.6)  TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Safari 15.4 (macOS 12.3.1)   TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Java 7u25                    No connection
 Java 8u161                   TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Java 11.0.2 (OpenJDK)        TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Java 17.0.3 (OpenJDK)        TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 go 1.17.8                    TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 LibreSSL 2.8.3 (Apple)       TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 OpenSSL 1.0.2e               TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 OpenSSL 1.1.0l (Debian)      TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 OpenSSL 1.1.1d (Debian)      TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 OpenSSL 3.0.3 (git)          TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305       253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Apple Mail (16.0)            TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Thunderbird (91.9)           TLSv1.2   ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256       253 bit ECDH (X25519)

The expected output shows that TLS 1 and TLS 1.1 are not offered, and TLS 1.3 is not offered and downgraded to a weaker protocol, which indicates that these three versions are disabled, whereas TLS 1.2 is offered, which indicates that only TLS 1.2 is supported.

The client simulation results also show that only clients that support TLS 1.2 can establish a connection.

Optional: To restrict connections to only TLS 1.3, follow these steps.

Modify the gateway rule by using the following YAML configuration. Set both maxProtocolVersion and minProtocolVersion to TLSV1_3.

apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: mysdsgateway
  namespace: default
spec:
  selector:
    istio: ingressgateway
  servers:
    - hosts:
        - '*'
      port:
        name: https
        number: 443
        protocol: HTTPS
      tls:
        credentialName: myexample-credential
        maxProtocolVersion: TLSV1_3
        minProtocolVersion: TLSV1_3
        mode: SIMPLE

Run the following command to run the verification test.

docker run --rm -ti  registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/testssl.sh https://<gateway_address>/productpage

Expected output

Testing protocols via sockets except NPN+ALPN

SSLv2      not offered (OK)
SSLv3      not offered (OK)
TLS 1      not offered
TLS 1.1    not offered
TLS 1.2    not offered
TLS 1.3    offered (OK): final

......
Running client simulations (HTTP) via sockets

 Browser                      Protocol  Cipher Suite Name (OpenSSL)       Forward Secrecy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Android 6.0                  No connection
 Android 7.0 (native)         No connection
 Android 8.1 (native)         No connection
 Android 9.0 (native)         TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 10.0 (native)        TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 11 (native)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Android 12 (native)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Chrome 79 (Win 10)           TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Chrome 101 (Win 10)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Firefox 66 (Win 8.1/10)      TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Firefox 100 (Win 10)         TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 IE 6 XP                      No connection
 IE 8 Win 7                   No connection
 IE 8 XP                      No connection
 IE 11 Win 7                  No connection
 IE 11 Win 8.1                No connection
 IE 11 Win Phone 8.1          No connection
 IE 11 Win 10                 No connection
 Edge 15 Win 10               No connection
 Edge 101 Win 10 21H2         TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Safari 12.1 (iOS 12.2)       TLSv1.3   TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256      253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Safari 13.0 (macOS 10.14.6)  TLSv1.3   TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256      253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Safari 15.4 (macOS 12.3.1)   TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Java 7u25                    No connection
 Java 8u161                   No connection
 Java 11.0.2 (OpenJDK)        TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            256 bit ECDH (P-256)
 Java 17.0.3 (OpenJDK)        TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 go 1.17.8                    TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 LibreSSL 2.8.3 (Apple)       No connection
 OpenSSL 1.0.2e               No connection
 OpenSSL 1.1.0l (Debian)      No connection
 OpenSSL 1.1.1d (Debian)      TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 OpenSSL 3.0.3 (git)          TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384            253 bit ECDH (X25519)
 Apple Mail (16.0)            No connection
 Thunderbird (91.9)           TLSv1.3   TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256            253 bit ECDH (X25519)

As shown in the expected output, the TLS 1, TLS 1.1, and TLS 1.2 versions are not offered, which indicates that these three versions are disabled. The TLS 1.3 version is offered, which indicates that only the TLS 1.3 version is supported.

The client simulation results also show that only clients that support TLS 1.3 can establish a connection.