Month: August 2021

Cannot load modules/mod_fcgid.so into server: undefined symbol: ap_unixd_setup_child

Posted on by mario

I got the following error message after compiling apache against the latest OpenSSL version.
Cannot load modules/mod_fcgid.so into server: undefined symbol: ap_unixd_setup_child
It looks like a compiler error that happened, but it isn’t. In fact, there are two options why there is this error message appears.
One mod_unixd isn’t loaded or loaded after mod_fcgid. Two mod_fcgid can’t create a directory for the socket or the socket itself. aka file permissions.
That error message could be much better. It is misleading. This error does not happen on Windows. It comes from the old Unix philosophy: “Everything is a file”. This lead to a ton of code in the kernels. Even more, code exists for block devices in /dev. All that symlinks and magic directories. I wonder when “Everything is a file” will have exceptions everyone agrees on.

Choosing the right cipher / alias crypto wars part twelve

Posted on by mario

Choosing the right cipher for your server.

The wanted options:

  • Only 256 bit
  • Only Mac AEAD[1]  since in TLS 1.3 that is only allowed.
  • Kx (Key exchange) and Au (Authentication) PSK (pre-shared key) is not an option for a webserver
  • DSS cipher is for key auth
  • Kx=DH without an EC ( Elliptic curves) is not secure enough
  • Kx=RSA is weak
  • AESCCM is also a Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)
  • Aria is for Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP)
  • DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 and DHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 have no EC (elliptic curves)
/opt/openssl/bin/openssl ciphers -v ALL:COMPLEMENTOFALL | grep -v "(128)" | grep "Mac=AEAD" | grep -v "Kx=PSK" | \
grep -v "Au=PSK" | grep -v "Kx=RSAPSK" | grep -v "Au=DSS" | grep -v "Kx=RSA" | grep -v "Enc=AESCCM" | \
grep -v "Enc=ARIAGCM" | grep -v "Au=None" | grep -v "Kx=DH"

The Output

TLS 1.3
TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLSv1.3 Kx=any Au=any Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLSv1.3 Kx=any Au=any Enc=CHACHA20/POLY1305(256) Mac=AEAD

TLS 1.2
ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH Au=ECDSA Enc=CHACHA20/POLY1305(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH Au=ECDSA Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH Au=RSA Enc=CHACHA20/POLY1305(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH Au=RSA Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD

At last POLY over AES for speed, and ECDSA over RSA also for speed.

SSLCipherSuite SSL ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
SSLCipherSuite TLSv1.3 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

This was done with the current latest OpenSSL version 1.1.1l

Only for the completeness, GCM is Galois/Counter Mode[2]

 

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticated_Encryption
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galois/Counter_Mode

Enable hibernate / suspend to disk on Windows 10

Posted on by mario

I don’t know why, but the admins tend to disable hibernate via group policies from time to time. It is pretty simple to enable, but you need admin permissions.
This script first forces UAC and then enables hibernation.

@echo off

:: BatchGotAdmin
:-------------------------------------
REM  --> Check for permissions
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"

REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
    echo Requesting administrative privileges...
    goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )

:UACPrompt
    echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~s0", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"

    "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
    exit /B

:gotAdmin
    if exist "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ( del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" )
    pushd "%CD%"
    CD /D "%~dp0"
:--------------------------------------

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

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