Enforcing the use of a security protocol or set of ciphers

For security reasons, ensure that all SSL connections to and from the HCL Launch server uses the TLSv1.2 protocol. Support for TLSv1.0 and TLSv1.1 is deprecated. To configure SSL globally, follow these instructions under jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms here.

About this task

The HCL Launch Server uses different communication protocols that rely on SSL at the transport level:

HTTPS for displaying the user interface
LDAP to connect to LDAP and Active Directory servers
JDBC to connect to the database containing the schema of the HCL Launch server application

The material that follows explains how to enforce the usage of TLSv1.2.

Environment

Enforcing TLS 1.2 is possible if the HCL Launch server, relay, and agent are running a JVM version that supports this protocol. For more information on such JVM versions, see: Oracle JRE and JDK Cryptographic Roadmap. For connections to external tools (LDAP servers, Database servers, and middleware that the plug-ins deploy to), consider that the connections fail if those external tools do not support TLSv1.2 after you enforce it as the only supported protocol in HCL Launch.

HCL Launch Server: HTTPS protocol

The HTTPS protocol is configured in this file: <server>/opt/tomcat/conf/server.xml.

This file contains the following relevant entries:

    <Connector port="${install.server.web.https.port}"
               address="${install.server.web.ip}"
               server="SERVER"
               maxThreads="150"
               enableLookups="false"
               acceptCount="100"
               debug="0"
               connectionTimeout="20000"
               disableUploadTimeout="true"
               compression="1024"
               noCompressionUserAgents="gozilla, traviata"
               compressableMimeType="text/html,text/xml,text/javascript,text/css,text/plain,application/json"
               algorithm="${install.server.ssl.algorithm}"
               SSLEnabled="true"
               scheme="https"
               secure="true"
               clientAuth="false"
               URIEncoding="UTF-8"
               ciphers="${install.server.ssl.enabledCiphers}"
               sslEnabledProtocols="${install.server.ssl.enabledProtocols}"
               keystoreFile="${tomcat.keystore.file}"
               keyAlias="${tomcat.key.alias}"
               keystorePass="${tomcat.keystore.password}" />

To enforce TLSv1.2, add or modify the install.server.ssl.enabledProtocols=TLSv1.2 property in this file:<server>/conf/server/installed.properties. Note that this property might be missing, or it might be present and have a different value, including an empty value. The property is referred to as: ${install.server.ssl.enabledProtocols} in the server.xml and installed.properties files.

HCL Launch Server: LDAP integration

The HCL Launch server uses the LDAP client that is contained in the JRE that is running on the server. You must specify a URL for the LDAP server, which uses the ldaps:// protocol that uses port 636 but dault to connect through SSL or TLS.

Note: The install.server.ssl.enabledProtocols file changes the SSLContext which might affect the LDAP connection that is opened.

HCL Launch Server: JDBC connection to the database server

JDBC is used to connect HCL Launch to the backend database.

DB2

See configuring SSL support in a DB2 instance. Configure the DB2 instance according to the instructions, and test after you compete the configuration.

Postgres

Connection string: connectionString=jdbc:postgresql://dbhost/dummy?ssl=true jdbcDriver=org.postgresql.Driver jdbcJar=C:\IBM\UCD\ucd6.2.3\623agent1\postgresql-42.1.4.jar.

Import the database certificate to the HCL Launch Agent Java keystore.

The latest available plug-in version is Version 11, see .

Microsoft SQL Server

Your Microsoft SQL Server must support TLS v1.2. You must have the right FixLevel and KB 3052404 installed.
Enable TLS v1.2.
1. Depending on the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC type 4 driver version you can pass in the JDBC a connection string that enforces the TLS 1.2 ;sslProtocol=TLSv1.2. protocol.
2. You can enforce TLS v1.2 on the JRE level that runs the HCL Launch server. Enabling TSLv1.2 has the following results:
  1. Outgoing connections to the LDAP database all are made with TLS v1.2.
  2. Incoming connections from HCL Launch agents, HCL Launch agent relays, and WebUI require TLS v1.2.
  These results can be undesirable if one of the involved components does not support TLS v1.2. You must make sure that the JDBC drivers support TLS v1.2. To ensure this support, change the jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms line in jre/lib/security/java.security to jdk.tls.disabledAlgorithms=SSLv3, TLSv1, TLSv1.1. You can also pass the ucd-server/bin/set_env JAVA_OPTS string through a java.security file.
  
  Note: You cannot disable the SSLv2Hello, because it is used as the initial handshake from the HCL Launch agents with the HCL Launch server.
For the JDBC connection string:
See understanding SSL Support.
The encrypt=true uses TLS/SSL.
Do not blanket trustServerCertificate=false. Every SSL certificate from Microsoft SQL server uses the default JRE's trust store jre/lib/security/cacerts.
Use hostNameInCertificate=yes to verify that DNS and SubjectAltName in the SSL certificate are the same.
For trustStore=/my/own/trustStore.jks, do not use the default JRE's trust store jre/lib/security/cacert, use a separate one.
The trustStorePassword=changeit is the password for the trust store.

Oracle

To enforce TLSv1.2 for Oracle12c:

Ensure that you have a JDBC driver version higher than 12.2.0.1
In the file <ucd-server>/bin/set_env.sh append the following -D argument -Doracle.net.ssl_version='1.2' in the value you currently set for JAVA_OPTS variable.
Restart HCL Launch server.

HCL Launch Agent

To add the protocol to HCL Launch agents using HTTPS to talk to the HCL Launch server:

Add new line -Djdk.tls.client.protocols=TLSv1.2 in agent-home/bin/worker-args.conf.

Step running on HCL Launch agent:

Add new line -Djdk.tls.client.protocols=TLSv1.2 to agent-home/conf/plugin-javaopts.conf.