Tag: mqconsole

Why cant I logoff from mqconsole?

If you are using mqweb using certificates to identify yourself, if you logoff, or close the tab, then open a new tab, you will get a session using the same certificate as before.

This little problem has been a tough one to investigate, and turns out to be lack of function in Chromium browser.

The scenario is you connect to mqweb using a digital certificate. You want to logoff and logon again with a different certificate, for example you do most of your work with a read only userid, and want to logon with a more powerful id to make a change.  You click logoff, and your screen flashes and logs you on again with the same userid as before.

At first glance this may look like a security hole, but if someone has access to your web browser, then the can click on the mqweb site, and just pick a certificate – so it is no different.

Under the covers,  the TLS handshake can pass up the previous session ID.   If the server  recognises this, then it is a short handshake instead of a full hand shake, so helping performance.

To reset the certificate if you are using Firefox

To clear your SSL session state in Firefox choose History -> Clear Recent History… and then select “Active Logins” and click “OK”. Then the next time you connect to your SSL server Firefox will prompt for which certificate to use, you may need to reset the URL.

You should check Firefox preferences, certificates, “Ask you every time” is selected, rather than “Select one automatically”.

Chrome does not support this reset of the certificate.

There has been discussion over the last 9 years along the lines of, seeing as Internet Explorer, and Firefox have there, should we do it to met the end user demand?

If you set up an additional browser instance, you get the same problem. With Chrome you have to close down all instances of the browser and restart chrome to be able to select a different certificate.

It looks like there is code which has a cache of url, and certificate to use.   If you open up another tab using the same IP address you will reuse the same certificate.

If you localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 – it will prompt for certificate, and then cache it, so you can have one tab open with one certificate, and another tab, with a different URL and another certificate.

Setting up the end user self signed certificate for mqweb

This post describes how to set up self signed certificates to authenticate end user’s access to mqweb.

You can use self signed, which is fine for test and small environments, or use signed certificate which are suitable for production,  and typical environments.  Using certificates means you do not need to specify userid and password.

The userid is taken from the CN part of the subject, and this userid is used to grant access depending on the configuration in the mqwebuser.xml file.

Information about certificates used for authentication are stored in the trust store.  For a CA signed certificate, you only need the CA certificates, not the individual certificates.  With self signed, you need a copy of the individual self signed certificate in the mqweb trust store.

Create the trust store if required.

/opt/mqm/bin/runmqckm -keydb -create -db trust.jks -pw zpassword -type jks

You need to do this once.

Create the self signed certificate for the end user

openssl req -x509 -config openssl-client2.cnf -newkey rsa:2048 -out testuser.pem -keyout testuser.key.pem -subj “/C=GB/O=aaaa/CN=testuser” -extensions ss_extensions -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file

  • openssl req -x509  –x509 makes this a self signed request
  • -config openssl-client2.cnf – use this config file
  • -newkey rsa:2048 – create a new private key with 2048 bits rsa key
  • -out testuser.pem – put the request in this file
  • -outform PEM – with this format
  • -keyout testuser.key.pem – put the key in this file
  • -subj “/C=GB/O=aaaa/CN=testuser” – this is the DN.   The CN= is the userid used by mqweb to determine the role.  It must match the case of userid
  • -extensions ss_extensions – see below
  • -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file – passwords are in this file
[  ss_extensions  ]

subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
#Note: there is a bug in Chrome where it does 
# not accept certificates if basicConstraints
# is specified
# basicConstraints   = CA:false
subjectAltName       = DNS:localhost, IP:127.0.0.1
nsComment            = "OpenSSL Self signed Client"
keyUsage             = critical, keyEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage     = critical, clientAuth

Create an intermediate pkcs12 keystore so it can be imported to your browser.

You need to import the certificate and private key into the browser’s keystore.   The only way I found of doing this was via an intermediate pkcs12 keystore (with extension .p12).   If you import the certificate and key from the web browser, it will expect a .p12 file.

openssl pkcs12 -export -in testuser.pem -inkey testuser.key.pem -out testuser.p12 -name “testuser” -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file

  • openssl pkcs12 – request to process a pkcs12 keystore
  • -export – to create it
  • -inkey testuser.key.pem – this private key
  • -in testuser.pem – this certificate returned from the CA
  • -out ssks.p12 – the name of the key store which is created
  • -name testuser – create this name in the keystore
  • -passout file:password.file -passin file:password.file – use these passwords

Import the intermediate keystore into the trust store

/opt/mqm/bin/runmqckm -cert -import -target trust.jks -target_type jks -file testuser.p12 -label testuser -pw password -target_pw zpassword

  • /opt/mqm/bin/runmqckm – run this command
  • -cert – we want to process a certificate
  • -import – w want to import a file
  • -target trust.jks – this is the mqweb trust store
  • -target_type jks – it is a jks store
  • -file testuser.p12 – input file
  • -label testuser – this is the label in the trust.jks keystore
  • -pw password – the password of the testuser.p12
  • -target_pw zpassword – the password of the trust.jks keystore

In the message.log I had

E CWPKI0022E: SSL HANDSHAKE FAILURE: A signer with SubjectDN CN=testuser, O=aaaa, C=GB was sent from the target host. The signer might need to be added to local trust store /home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/trust.jks, located in SSL configuration alias defaultSSLConfig. The extended error message from the SSL handshake exception is: PKIX path validation failed: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: The certificate issued by CN=testuser, O=aaaa, C=GB is not trusted; internal cause is:
java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Certificate chaining error

When I restarted mqweb and the certificate was accepted.

I had the same message when I did not import the certificate into the trust store.

Import the temporary keystore into the Chrome keystore

pk12util -i testuser.p12 -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb/ -W password

  • pk12util   – this command
  • -i  testuser.p12  – from this keystore
  • -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/971/.pki/nssdb/ – into this key store
  • -W password  – using this password (for the temporary .p12 file)

Remove the intermediate file

rm testuser.p12

Update the mqweb configuration

<webAppSecurity allowFailOverToBasicAuth="false" />
<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/mqweb.p12" 
          type="pkcs12" 
          password="password"/>

<keyStore id="defaultTrustStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/trust.jks" 
          type="JKS" 
          password="password"/>

<ssl     id="defaultSSLConfig" 
         keyStoreRef="defaultKeyStore" serverKeyAlias="mqweb" 
         trustStoreRef="defaultTrustStore" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2"
         clientAuthentication="true" 
         clientAuthenticationSupported="true" 
/>

Stop mqweb

You need to restart mqweb so it picks up any changes to the trust store.

/opt/mqm/bin/endmqweb

Start mqweb

/opt/mqm/bin/strmqweb

No messages are produced in  /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/messages.log if the trust store was opened successfully.

Use a command like grep ” E ” messages.log  and check for messages like

CWPKI0033E: The keystore located at /home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/trust.jks did not load because of the following error: Keystore was tampered with, or password was incorrect

Try using it in Chrome

You need to restart Chrome to pick up the changes to its keystore.  Use the url chrome://restart/

Use the url chrome://settings/certificates , to check your certificate is present under “Your certificates”. If not use url chrome://version to display the profile being used, and that it matches the store used in the pk12util command above.

Try connecting to mqweb using a url like https://127.0.0.1:9443/ibmmq/console/ .

You should be logged on with no password request. In the top right hand corner of the screen you should have a black circle with a white “i” in it.   This shows you are logged on with certificates.

Setting up the end user CA signed certificate for mqweb

You want to use certificates to authenticate access to a mqweb server.  You can use self signed, which is fine for test and small environments, or use signed certificate which are suitable for production,  and typical environments.  Using certificates means you do not need to specify userid and password.

The userid is taken from the CN part of the subject, and this userid is used to grant access depending on the configuration in the mqwebuser.xml file.

This section assumes you have set up your mqweb using a certificate authority.

Information about certificates used for authentication are stored in the trust store.  For a CA signed certificate, you only need the CA certificates, not the individual certificates.  With self signed, you need a copy of the individual self signed certificate.

Create the trust store if required.

/opt/mqm/bin/runmqckm -keydb -create -db trust.jks -pw zpassword -type jks

You need to do this once.

Add the CA certificate to the trust store

/opt/mqm/bin/runmqckm -cert -add -db trust.jks -file cacert.pem -label CACert -type jks -pw zpassword

You need to do this for each CA certificate you want to add, giving each CA a unique label.

You need to restart mqweb so it picks up any changes to the trust store, but as you will be changing the mqwebuser.xml – the restart can wait will later.

Create the certificate request for the end user

openssl req -config client.cnf -newkey rsa:2048 -out colinpaice.csr -outform PEM -keyout colinpaice.key.pem -subj “/C=GB/O=cpwebuser/CN=colinpaice” -extensions client_extensions -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file

  • openssl req – the absence of -x509 makes this a certificate request
  • -config client.cnf – use this config file
  • -newkey rsa:2048 – create a new private key with 2048 bits rsa key
  • -out colinpaice.csr – put the request in this file
  • -outform PEM – with this format
  • -keyout colinpaice.key.pem – put the key in this file
  • -subj “/C=GB/O=cpwebuser/CN=colinpaice” – this is the DN.   The CN= is the userid used by mqweb to determine the role.  It must match the case of userid
  • -extensions client_extensions – see below
  • -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file – passwords are in this file
[ client_extensions ]

subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
# basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
subjectAltName       = DNS:localhost, IP:127.0.0.1
nsComment = "OpenSSL ColinClient"
keyUsage = critical, nonRepudiation,digitalSignature,
extendedKeyUsage = critical, clientAuth

You need to do this for each user.

Sign it

Send the certificate request to your CA.  You can use the following command to sign it.

openssl ca -config openssl-ca-user.cnf -policy signing_policy -extensions signing_req -md sha256 -keyfile cacert.key.pem -out colinpaice.pem -infiles colinpaice.csr

  • openssl ca – the signing request
  • -config openssl-ca-user.cnf – use this config file
  • -policy signing_policy – defines the requirements for the DN.  See below
  • -extensions signing_req – see below
  • -md sha256 – what encryption to be used for the message digest
  • -keyfile cacert.key.pem – the CA authorities private key
  • -out colinpaice.pem – where the output goes
  • -infiles colinpaice.csr – the input file that needs signing

Send the *.pem file back to the requestor.

You need to do this for each user.

The signing policy allows the CA administrator to define which elements are required in the DN.

[ signing_policy ]
organizationName = supplied
commonName = supplied

The certificate needs extensions which say how the certificate can be used.

[ signing_req ]
subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
authorityKeyIdentifier = keyid,issuer
basicConstraints    = CA:FALSE
keyUsage            = digitalSignature
extendedKeyUsage    =  clientAuth

Create an intermediate pkcs12 keystore so certificate can be imported

You need to import the certificate and private key into the browser’s keystore.   The only way I found of doing this was via an intermediate pkcs12 keystore (with extension .p12).   If you import the certificate and key from the web browser, it will expect a .p12 file.

openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey colinpaice.key.pem -in colinpaice.pem -out colinpaice.p12 -CAfile cacert.pem -chain -name colinpaice -passout file:password.file -passin file:password.file

  • openssl pkcs12 – request to process a pkcs12 keystore
  • -export – to create it
  • -inkey colinpaice.key.pem – this private key
  • -in colinpaice.pem – this certificate returned from the CA
  • -out colinpaice.p12 – the name of the temporary key store which is created
  • -CAfile cacert.pem – use this CA certificate
  • -chain – include any CA certificates with the certificate and key
  • -name colinpaice – create this name in the keystore
  • -passout file:password.file -passin file:password.file – use these passwords

Import the temporary keystore into the Chrome keystore

pk12util -i colinpaice.p12 -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb/ -W password

  • pk12util   – this command
  • -i  colinpaice.p12  – from the temporary keystore you just created
  • -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb/ – into this key store
  • -W password  – using this password (for the temporary .p12 file)

Remove the intermediate file

rm colinpaice.p12

You do not need to import the certificate into the mqweb trust store.

Update the mqweb configuration if required

<webAppSecurity allowFailOverToBasicAuth="false" />
<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/mqweb.p12" 
          type="pkcs12" 
          password="password"/>

<keyStore id="defaultTrustStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/trust.jks" 
          type="JKS" 
          password="password"/>

<ssl     id="defaultSSLConfig" 
         keyStoreRef="defaultKeyStore" serverKeyAlias="mqweb" 
         trustStoreRef="defaultTrustStore" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2"
         clientAuthentication="true" 
         clientAuthenticationSupported="true" 
/>

Stop mqweb

It is better to stop and restart mqweb if you change the xml config files, otherwise you can get strange errors.

/opt/mqm/bin/endmqweb

Start mqweb

/opt/mqm/bin/strmqweb

No messages are produced in  /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/messages.log if the trust store was opened successfully.

Use a command like grep ” E ” messages.log  and check for messages like

CWPKI0033E: The keystore located at /home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/trust.jks did not load because of the following error: Keystore was tampered with, or password was incorrect

Try using it in Chrome

You need to restart Chrome to pick up the changes to its keystore.  Use the url chrome://restart/

Use the url chrome://settings/certificates , to check your certificate is present under “Your certificates”. If not use url chrome://version to display the profile being used, and that it matches the store used in the pk12util command above.

Try connecting to mqweb using a url like https://127.0.0.1:9443/ibmmq/console/ .

You should be logged on with no password request. In the top right hand corner of the screen you should have a black circle with a white “i” in it.   This shows you are logged on with certificates.  Click on this to show how you are logged on.

Setting up a self signed certificate for the mqweb server end

When using mqweb with certificates you can use

  • a self signed certificate to identify the server
  • a CA signed certificate to identify the server

You can use certificates to authenticate…

  • a self signed certificate at the client end
  • a CA signed certificate at the client end

This post explains how I set up mqweb to use a self  signed certificate at the server, and to import the certificate into my Chrome browser.

The tasks are

  • create the self signed certificate
  • create the keystore and import the certificate
  • update the mqwebuser.xml file
  • import the certificate into the browser keystore

Create the openssl config file

You configure parameters in sections in a config file, and use a command parameter to identify which sections to use.

For the self signed certificiate I set up ss_extensions

[ ss_extensions ]

subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
#Note: there is a bug in Chrome where it does 
# not accept certificates if basicConstraints
# is specified
# basicConstraints = CA:false

subjectAltName = DNS:localhost, IP:127.0.0.1
nsComment = "OpenSSL ColinClientSS28"
keyUsage = critical, keyEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage = critical, serverAuth

Create the self signed certificate

I set up a shell script to automate the tasks

Create the self signed certificate

openssl req -x509 -config openssl-client2.cnf -newkey rsa:2048 -out ss.pem -keyout ss.key.pem -subj “/C=GB/O=aaaa/CN=colinpaice” -extensions ss_extensions -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file

  • -config openssl-client2.cnf  – the location of the openssl configutation file ( see -extensions)
  • -newkey rsa:2048 – define a self signed certiticate
  • -out ss.pem – where the certificate is stored
  • -keyout ss.key.pem– where the private key is stored
  • -subj “/C=GB/O=aaaa/CN=colinpaice” – this is the DN of the certificate.  I Used O=aaaa so it was at the top of any list of certificates
  • -extensions ss_extensions see above
  • -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file – openssl uses passwords. The file has two lines each with a password in it.

delete the old keystore

rm ssks.p12

  • delete the old keystore

create the keystore and import the certificate

openssl pkcs12 -export -in ss.pem -inkey ss.key.pem -out ssks.p12 -name “server” -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file

  • pkcs12 -export – create the pkcs12 keystore
  • -in ss.pem -inkey ss.key.pem – the two files which are imported into the keystore
  • -out ssks.p12 – this is the keystore used by mqweb
  • -name “server”– this is the label given to the certificate in the keystore, used in serverKeyAlias in the mqweb xml configuration
  • -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file – this gives the passwords to use

Other commands I used, to display information about the certificate

  • openssl x509 -purpose -in ss.pem -inform PEM -nocert
  • openssl x509 -in ss.pem -noout -ext subjectAltName
  • openssl x509 -in ss.pem -noout -ext keyUsage
  • openssl x509 -in ss.pem -noout -ext extendedKeyUsage

Update the mqweb configutation file

<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/ssks.p12"  
          type="pkcs12" 
          password="password"/> 
<!-- this is used for authentication with user certificates
<keyStore id="defaultTrustStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/key.jks" 
          type="JKS" 
          password="zpassword"/>
-->
<ssl id="defaultSSLConfig" 
     keyStoreRef="defaultKeyStore" 
     serverKeyAlias="server" 
     clientAuthentication="false" 
     clientAuthenticationSupported="false" 
/>
<!--trustStoreRef="defaultTrustStore" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2"
-->

Stop mqweb

/opt/mqm/bin/endmqweb

Start mqweb

/opt/mqm/bin/strmqweb

Check /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/messages.log for messages like

[14/01/20 09:12:15:730 GMT] 00000024 com.ibm.ws.ssl.config.WSKeyStore E CWPKI0033E: The keystore located at /home/colinpaice/ssl/ssks.p12 did not load because of the following error: keystore password was incorrect.

Import it into Chrome

If you do not import it into the web browser, the web browser will complain and give you the option to accept it as untrusted.  If this is just a test system this may be acceptable.  If you want to be able to trust the web server, you need to import the certificate into the browser’s keystore, as trusted.

I have several profiles for Chrome.  At one point it hickuped and created a new profile.

Find the keystore

In Chrome use the url chrome://version/ this gives the profile path, for example /home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.config/chromium/Default

Remove the old certificate

certutil -D -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb -n server

  • certutil -D – delete the certificate
  • -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb – from this keystore directory
  • -n server with this name

Add the new certificate

certutil -A -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb -t “P,,” -n server -i $name.pem

  • certutil -A – add a certificate
  • -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb – into this keystore directory
  • -t “P,,” – give it these permissions.
    • P says Trusted Peer certificate.   The certificate appears in Chrome under “servers”
  • -n server – with this name
  • -i ss.pem – and this certificate

Tell Chrome to pickup the changes

Use the url chrome://restart to restart chrome

Try using it

use the url like https://127.0.0.1:9443/ibmmq/console/

You should get the IBM MQ Console – login

 

Certificates in Chrome

You can import certificates without using the certutil command.

You can display the certificates in Chrome using the url chrome://settings/certificates .

If you click on “Your certificates” or “Servers”, and then click on import, you can import a certificate.

I selected the directory, and then the ss.pem file.   The certificate ended up in “Others” under

org-aaaa

  • UNTRUSTED colinpaice

Use the url chrome://restart to restart chrome

Use the url like https://127.0.0.1:9443/ibmmq/console/

This gave me the “Your connection is not private”,  NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID.

The only way I found of making it trusted was to use the certutil command

certutil -L -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb

This listed the certificates in the store.   The one I had just added was colinpaice #2

certutil -M -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb -n “colinpaice #2” -t P,,

This modifies the certificate to be a Trusted Peer.  Restart Chrome, and the certificate appeared in the “Servers” section.

Using the mqweb url now worked successfully

Setting up a CA signed certificate for the mqweb server end

When using mqweb with certificates you can use

  • a self signed certificate to identify the server
  • a CA signed certificate to identify the server

You can use certificates to authenticate…

  • a self signed certificate at the client end
  • a CA signed certificate at the client end

This post explains how I set up mqweb to use a CA  signed certificate at the server, and to import the CA into my Chrome browser.

The steps are

  • Create your certificate authority certificate
  • Create the certificate request for mqweb server
  • Sign the request
  • Create the mqweb keystore and import the mqweb certificate
  • Import the CA into the web browser keystore if required

Create your certificate authority certificate

If you do not already have a certificate authority and a process for signing certificates you need to set these up.   To do it properly, you should create a certificate request and have an external CA sign it.

The following command creates a self signed certificate.   This is your CA authority certificate and private key.

openssl req -x509 -config openssl-ca.cnf -newkey rsa:4096 -subj “/C=GB/O=SSS/OU=CA/CN=SSCA” -nodes  -out cacert.pem -keyout cacert.key.pem -outform PEM

  • openssl req -x509 – create a self signed certificate request.  -x509 says self signed.
  • -config openssl-ca.cnf – use this file for the definitions
  • -newkey rsa:4096 – generate a new key
  • -nodes  – do not encrypt the private keys.  I do not know if this should be specified or not.
  • -subj “/C=GB/O=SSS/OU=CA/CN=SSCA” –  with this DN
  • -out cacert.pem – output the certificate.   This is used when signing.    This file is sent to all users.
  • -keyout cacert.key.pem – output the private key.  This is used when signing.  This files stays on the machine.
  • -outform PEM – in this format

In the config file, the important options I had were

[ req_extensions ]
subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
authorityKeyIdentifier = keyid:always, issuer
basicConstraints = critical,CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
keyUsage = keyCertSign, digitalSignature

You need to distribute the cacert.pem certificate to all your users, so they import it into their keystores.

Create the certificate request for mqweb server

The following command creates a certificate request which will be sent to the CA to sign.

openssl req -config mqwebserver.config -newkey rsa:2048 -out mqweb.csr -outform PEM -keyout mqweb.key.pem -subj “/C=GB/O=cpwebuser/CN=mqweb” -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file

  • openssl req – as this request does not have -x509 specified it is for a certificate request
  • -config mqwebserver.config – use definitions in the specified  file
  • -newkey rsa:2048 – create a new  certificate request and private key with a 2048 bit  RSA key
  • -out mqweb.csr – use this output file for the request to be sent to the CA
  • -outform PEM – use pem format
  • -keyout mqweb.key.pem – put the private key in this file
  • -subj “/C=GB/O=cpwebuser/CN=mqweb” – with this distinguished name. It can have any values which meet your enterprise standards.
  • -passin file:password.file -passout file:password.file – use the passwords in the file(s).  The file:… says use this file. You can specify a password instead.  As the same file is used twice, two lines in the file are used.

In the config file, the important options were

[ req_extensions ]
subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
subjectAltName = DNS:localhost, IP:127.0.0.1
nsComment = "OpenSSL mqweb server"
keyUsage = critical, nonRepudiation, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage = critical, serverAuth

Sign the request

Send the *.csr file to your CA.

Initial setup of ca signing process

If this is the first time you are using your CA you need to set up some files.  The files are referred to in the config file used by openssl ca command

touch index.txt
echo '01' > serial.txt
  • index.txt  is the certificate database index file.  This name is used in the config file option database =… .  For the format of this file see here. 
  • serial.txt contains the current serial number of the certificate. This name is used in the config file option serial =… .

Sign the certificate request

This takes the .csr file and signs it.

openssl ca -config casign.config -md sha384 -out mqweb.pem -cert cacert.pem -keyfile cacert.key.pem -infiles mqweb.csr

  • openssl ca – do the ca signing
  • -config casign.config – using the specified config file
  • -md sha384 – what message digest strength to use
  • -out mqweb.pem – put the signed certificate in this file
  • -cert cacert.pem – sign it with this ca file
  • -keyfile cacert.key.pem – sign it with this ca private  file
  • -infiles mqweb.csr – this is the input certificate request file

This displays the certificate, so check it is correct.  You get prompted

  • Sign the certificate? [y/n]:y
  • 1 out of 1 certificate requests certified, commit? [y/n]y

In the config file the important section is

[ ca_extensions ]
subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
authorityKeyIdentifier = keyid,issuer
basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
keyUsage = keyEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth

Send the signed certificate back to the requestor.

Create the keystore to be used by mqweb and import the certificate

You can delete the certificate in the keystore using runmqckm -cert -delete -db mqweb.p12 -pw password -label mqweb .  This is not required.

openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey mqweb.key.pem -in mqweb.pem -out mqweb.p12 -CAfile cacert.pem -chain -name mqweb -passout file:password.file -passin file:password.file

This command creates the keystore (if requried) and imports the signed certificate and private key into the store with the specified name.   If a certificate exists with the same name, it is replaced.

  • openssl pkcs12 -export – this says a pkcs12 file will be created
  • -inkey mqweb.key.pem – using this private key file
  • -in mqweb.pem – and this signed certificate
  • -out mqweb.p12 – output put it to this pkcs12 keystore, used by mqweb
  • -CAfile cacert.pem – using this CA certificate
  • -chain – include all of the certificates needed when adding the certificate to the key store
  • -name mqweb – create this name in the keystore.  It is used to identify the key in the key store.
  • -passout file:password.file -passin file:password.file – use these password files

There is no config file for this operation.

Use chmod and chown to protect this keystore file from unauthorised access.

Change the mqweb configuration file.

<keyStore id="defaultKeyStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/mqweb.p12"  
          type="pkcs12" 
          password="password"/> 
<!-- the trust store is used when authenticating 
<keyStore id="defaultTrustStore" 
          location="/home/colinpaice/ssl/key.jks" 
          type="JKS" 
          password="zpassword"/>
-->
<ssl id="defaultSSLConfig" 
     keyStoreRef="defaultKeyStore" 
     serverKeyAlias="mqweb" 
     clientAuthentication="false" 
     clientAuthenticationSupported="false" 
/>
<!--trustStoreRef="defaultTrustStore" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2"
-->

The keystore name and server key alias which identifies which certificate to use,  are highlighted.

Stop mqweb

/opt/mqm/bin/endmqweb

Start mqweb

/opt/mqm/bin/strmqweb

Check /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/messages.log for

Successfully loaded default keystore: /home/colinpaice/ssl/ssl2/mqweb.p12 of type: pkcs12.   This means it has successfully opened the keystore.

If you do not get this message use a command like grep ” E ” messages.log  and check for messages like

E CWPKI0033E: The keystore located at …. did not load because of the following error: keystore password was incorrect.

Import the CA certificate into Chrome

You need to do this once for every CA certificate

I have several profiles for Chrome.  At one point it hickup-ed and created a new profile, my scripts carried on updating the old profile until I realized a different profile was now being used.

Find the keystore

In Chrome use the url chrome://version/ this gives the profile path, for example /home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.config/chromium/Default

You can remove the old certificate CA

certutil -D -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb -n myCACert

  • certutil -D – delete the certificate
  • -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb – from this keystore directory
  • -n  myCACertr with this name

Add the new CA certificate

certutil -A -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb -t “C,,”  -i cacert.pem -n myCACert

  • certutil -A – add a certificate
  • -d sql:/home/colinpaice/snap/chromium/986/.pki/nssdb – into this keystore directory
  • -t “C,,” – give it these permissions.
    • C says Trusted CA.   The certificate appears in Chrome under “certificate authorities”
  • -i cacert.pem – import this certificate
  • -n myCACert – with this name

Tell Chrome to pickup the changes

Use the url chrome://restart to restart chrome

Try using it.   Use the url like https://127.0.0.1:9443/ibmmq/console/

You should get the IBM MQ Console – login

Getting MQConsole (brower interface to administer MQ via mqweb) working

It was a new year, as I sat in my basement cave while the gale force winds blow around the house, I thought I would try to use the new MQWeb and MQConsole, and see how it stands up to “the Paice treatement”.    The MQWeb allows you to administer MQ from a web browser, or a rest interface (for example using CURL or Python).  This technology has been around for a few years now.  I know it is being enhanced every few months through the continuous delivery channel.

The installation and getting started reminded me of an old car belonging to my father.  The car was not easy to get started (it had a starting handle!), but once it was started it worked pretty well.

Getting it up and running in a test sandbox took about 1 hour.   It took me about two week to get mqweb set up properly using digital certificates, and to document how I did it.  Being security related, there must be a team which tries to make it as hard as possible to diagnose problems so as not to provide useful information to a hacker.  It also took a while to  work out how to use mqweb  in an enterprise where you have multiple machines and have to support many users.  It also feels a bit buggy and some of it was frustrating, but as it is being continuously improved, I am sure it will get better.

Ive written some blog posts

I had MQ 9.1.3 running on my laptop running Ubuntu 18.04.

Getting it installed and up and running.

Initially I followed the  9.1 instructions here.   After lots of clicking and guessing I got to this page which gave me some instructions (but they were not very helpful). There are various mistakes on the page such as var/mqm/web should be /var/mqm/web.  I ignored the instructions and simply used sudo apt install /home/colinpaice/…/ibmmq-web_9.1.3.0_amd64.deb to install it.

The configuration file /opt/mqm/web/mq/samp/configuration/basic_registry.xml has predefined userids and the configuration is suitable to have an initial look at the MQWEB.

I used

cp /opt/mqm/web/mq/samp/configuration/basic_registry.xml 
/var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/mqwebuser.xml

to copy the configuration file.

Starting and stopping the mqweb

The strmqweb command failed for me.   This was strange  as commands like strmqm works.  This is because there is a symbolic link /usr/bin/strmqm which points to /opt/mqm/bin/strmqm, but no link for the mqweb commands.

See here  which explains there is a /usr/bin/strmqm → /opt/mqm/bin/strmqm , but not for the mqweb stuff. I think this is an IBM Whoops.

I created these myself using

sudo ln -s /opt/mqm/bin/dspmqweb /usr/bin/dspmqweb
sudo ln -s /opt/mqm/bin/endmqweb /usr/bin/endmqweb
sudo ln -s /opt/mqm/bin/setmqweb /usr/bin/setmqweb
sudo ln -s /opt/mqm/bin/strmqweb /usr/bin/strmqweb

The configuration file is deep down a directory tree.

I created  a symbolic link to the file using

ln -s /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/mqwebuser.xml web.xml

so I can do  gedit ~/web.xml

and if you forget where the file really is, use ls -l web.xml

I used the strmqweb command to start the mqweb server.

I used dspmqweb and got

MQWB1124I: Server ‘mqweb’ is running.

MQWB1123E: The status of the mqweb server applications cannot be determined.  A request was made to read the status of the deployed mqweb server applications, however the data appears corrupt. This may indicate that there is already an mqweb server started on this system, probably related to another IBM MQ instance.

The MQWB1123E message only happened occasionally – I think it is a timing problem and can be ignored.

I stopped the mqweb instance using endmqweb

Log files

There is a file /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/console.log  which has audit type statement in it.

There is a file /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/messages.log which has more messages (including time stamps).   This file is more useful.

I defined a symbolic link to this file, to make debugging easier.

ln -s/var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/logs/messages.log messages.log

When the strmqweb command is issued,

  • it deletes the previous console.log
  • it rename the messages.log to a file with a time stamp in the file name
  • it deletes any other message logs files.

After starting and stopping the web server several times the only files I had were

  • messages_20.01.05_15.18.50.0.log
  • messages.log
  • console.log

You may want to put the strmqweb command in a shell script which saves away any message and console files.

The command dspmqweb gives output like

MQWB1124I: Server 'mqweb' is running.
URLS:
  https://localhost:9443/ibmmq/rest/v1/
  https://localhost:9443/ibmmq/console/

This tells you which URL you need to use.

Note: port 9443 is the default port for WebSphere Liberty Profile.  If it is in use you will have to configure a different port.

First logon

I logged on to Firefox browser using the address https://localhost:9443/ibmmq/console/ .  Make sure you the https in https:… .  If you use http: without the https, the logon fails with message “The connection was reset”.

Using https:… gave me big error screen and

Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead 
localhost:9443 uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is not trusted because it is self-signed.
Error code: MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_SELF_SIGNED_CERT

While  you are exploring the mqconsole, you can accept this.  To fix it properly is a big piece of work.  See my other blog posts.

I signed on using userid mqadmin and password mqadmin and it showed the queue managers.

Select the row of an active queue manager. The table header changes to give options.  Select properties to display the queue manager properties.

The queue manager attributes do not refresh in real time

You have to go back to the queue manager table and re-display the data.   This is not a big problem as the attributes do not typically change frequently.  I noticed this when I changed an accounting parameter, and the attribute page did not show the change.

Adding widgets to the dashboard.

There are two ways of adding widgets for MQ objects.

  1. From the list of queue manages, select a queue manager, then on the title like, click on the “…”  (more actions) button and select “Add new dashboard tab”. This creates a dashboard with all of the MQ Objects defined, MQ Queues, client connections, MCA connections, listeners etc. You can select and delete widgets you do not need.
  2. Click on the “Add widget” button.

It may be quicker and easier to use the first option to add all widgets and delete the widgets you do not need.

Create more tabs

At the top of the browser window next to the “tab”,  click on the “+”. This defines a new dashboard, use the add widget button to select the widget you want to define.

Each userid has their own dashboard (tab layout and widget)

See the next topic if you want people to have the same dashboard.

Export the dashboard for enterprise deploy or backup

At the top of the screen is an icon with three vertical dots for dashboard settings. You can export the dashboard and widgets to a JSON file.

  • You can change the queue manager names and import it on another queue manager.  This is useful to enterprise users who have to support many queue managers in a similar environment.  Being a JSON file you can process the JSON to change queue manager names.  I could not find a way of importing it except from a web page.  This make it challenging to deploy automatically.
  • You can have another user import it, so they get the same dashboard.  If it changes, they have to import it manually.
  • You may want to export your dashboard every week and back it up.

Using the widgets

I clicked on the “Queue on …”  widget.

I clicked on the “Queue depth” column for queues, and it quickly sorted the queue depth.

I could see I had a total of 33 non system queues. By clicking on the settings wheel, I could select “show system objects”.

If you select the settings wheel, you can select a different queue manager.  By changing this you could have one tab showing queues on different queue managers on the machine, and another tab showing channels on different queue managers on the machine.  You could also have a tab per queue manager, and have queues and channels for one queue manager on that tab.

I could refresh a widget by using the refresh icon.

There is a search box at the top of each widget. It searches for the value in any column. So typing in 003 gave me queue CP00003 and DEEPQ with depth 1000003.
At the bottom of the widget it said Total: 90 Filtered:2

If you select a row, the search box changes and give you a list of actions.

  • Delete queue
  • Properties
  • Put message
  • Browse message
  • More actions → Manage authority records
  • 1 item selected
  • Deselect

You can select all the objects in a widget by typing “a” , or to deselect using “shift a”.  Note: it selects all items – not just the filtered items. For example I typed “a” and the header line said “33 objects selected”. At the bottom of the widget is said total 33 filtered 8.  So be careful if you were thinking of doing bulk changes on all objects.

I was unable to select more than one object, using the cursor keys.

It was easy to delete widgets by selecting the X icon.

You can move the widgets around by grabbing the title line and dragging it.

If you hover on the title line of a widget, a pencil icon appears which allows you to rename the widget.

You can control how many widgets are displayed per line by clicking on the down arrow in the tab (at the top of the page) and selecting how many columns to use.  This is a not very smart.

  • I selected 5 column layout.
  • It did not reflow the widgets automatically.  Each line had 2 widgets and lots of space to the right.  I could drag a widget to the top line.  If I then went to 2 column layout, and back to 5 column layout – I got back to two widgets per line
  • If you select an item, the search box becomes a list of icons.  With a narrow widget, you only get the as many icons as fit in the space, for example you do not get the  “…” (more action) icon.
  • The formatting within a table is not very smart. I had a truncated queue name SYSTEM.ADMIN.CH and lots of space for the queue depth. I think the data is displayed in a table and the columns are the same width, and not changeable.

It may be better to have no more than 2 or 3 widgets per line.

Using operating system security.

The basic mqweb configuration file used hard coded userids mqadmin with password mqadmin. This is not very secure.

You can use the operating system userids and passwords using a different configuration file

I used

  • cp /opt/mqm/web/mq/samp/configuration/local_os_registry.xml  /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/mqwebuser.xml
  • chmod o+w /var/mqm/web/installations/Installation1/servers/mqweb/mqwebuser.xml
    • to give me update access to the file.

I changed my file to have

<enterpriseApplication id="com.ibm.mq.console">
  <application-bnd>
    <security-role name="MQWebAdmin">
      <user name="colinpaice" realm="defaultRealm"/>
    </security-role>

    <security-role name="MQWebAdminRO">
      <group name="test"/>
    </security-role>
   </application-bnd>
</enterpriseApplication>

Notes.

  • The realm=”defaultRealm” is to do with Jave Enterprise Edition security. Just specify it.
  • Each security-role name section must be unique. I specified <security-role name=”MQWebAdminRO”>… twice. Only the last one was used, I was hoping it would be cumulative.
  • You can specify multiple <user …> or <group… > lines.

See here  and here  for pointers to the IBM documentation.

Managing mqwebuser.xml

You can include files into the mqwebuser.xml files using the xml

<include optional="true" location="pathname/filename"/>
or
<include optional="true" location="url"/>

You can put groups of definitions in one file and have them included.

For example in the file payroll.xml have

<group name="mqsysprog"/>
<group name="payroll"/>

For each of the configuration files for the payroll queue managers have

<security-role name="MQWebAdmin">
  <include optional="true" location="payroll.xml"/> </security-role> <security-role name="MQWebAdminRO"> <group name="test"/> </security-role>

How do I check what role I have?

At the top right of your browser window is a porthole with a circle in it. Click on this, and then click on “about”. It gave me

Principal:colinpaice - Administrator (Password Authentication)
A different userid gave
Principal:testuser - Read-Only Administrator (Password Authentication)

Can I have the logon time out?

Yes, you set a time out value using the ltpaExpiration value. See here.

Use dspmqweb properties -a|grep ltpaEx  and note the ltpaExpiration value.

Use  setmqweb properties -k ltpaExpiration -v time    to set the time in minutes.

Note:

  • After you are logged on for this time period, your session is cancelled and you have to logon again, this happens whether the session is busy or idle.
  • The setmqweb command updates the mqwebuser.xml file on disk. If you were editing the file you will need to reload the file from disk and reapply the changes.
  • The above setmqweb command added <variable name=”ltpaExpiration” value=”10″/> to the mqwebuser.xml file. You could just update the file yourself and avoid this concurrent  update problem.

There is one timeout value for all users, so if you have a screen displaying charts from mqweb, this will also time out.

If you are using certificates to provide authentication

  • your session will be dropped, and automatically reconnected.
  • you cannot logoff – you have to drop the browser tab
  • in the top right of your page the icon will be a black circle with a which “i” in it.  If you are not using certificates this will be a porthole with a circle in it.