[openssl-users] forking server question

[Jakob Bohm]

On 06/05/2017 14:19, Salz, Rich via openssl-users wrote:
>> Please excuse what is a simple question: what is the proper way to clean up
>> in the parent and child when writing a forking server using OpenSSL?
> It's not simple.
>
> Can you have the parent just do socket stuff, and then accept/fork and have the child do all the OpenSSL calls?
That would violate best security practice regarding chroot()
calls and loading of private keys. (Because the secure sequence
is load private keys (possibly with one-time external decryption
assistance), bind to privileged port (such as 443 or 25),
chroot/drop all privileges, accept connection, fork(), handshake,
data exchange).

Things become even more complicated if a program wants to do a
second level of per message privilege drops, as seen in the exim4
mail server.
>
> Having two processes, both with OpenSSL state, are going to be hard to handle.
>
>
Make that N processes, and understand why this should be a FAQ.



Enjoy

Jakob
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Jakob Bohm, CIO, Partner, WiseMo A/S.  http://www.wisemo.com
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