kennwhite

MongoDB Client-Side Field Level Encryption (CSFLE) Using KMIP or Local Master Key (with mongosh)

Assumptions

• You have an accessible MongoDB deployment already running and accessible (self-managed or in Atlas)
• You have the modern MongoDB Shell (mongosh) installed locally on your workstation
• You have a KMIP Server running and accessible, if you don't intend to use a local keyfile (for an example of running and configuring a Hashicorp Vault development instance, see: Hashicorp Vault Configuration For MongoDB KMIP Use)

Configure Local Workstation Context Files

kennwhite

#! /usr/bin/env sh
# Create unprivileged Alpine linux user. Run this script as root/sudo

# Don't prompt for password and make group same as username, default path & shell

adduser -D -g appuser appuser

# Set a decent random password (aiming for a 256 bit security level, but better than "monkey")
PW=$(head -c 32 /dev/urandom | base64) && echo -e "$PW\n$PW" | passwd appuser && unset PW

kennwhite

# WARNING: This is a demonstration only, not any kind of official build - use at your own risk


# Launched standard Alpine Linux AMI on an t2.micro instance configured w/ 8GB:
#  alpine-3.15.1-x86_64-bios-cloudinit-r0 - ami-0421638898b821bff
#
#  ssh -i mykey.pem alpine@[instance address]

# This demo runs as default non-root "alpine" user

kennwhite

/*
	Demonstration of AEAD_AES_256_CBC_HMAC_SHA_512, an authenticated encryption with associated
	data (AEAD) scheme using a composition of AES in the CBC mode of operation with an
	HMAC-SHA512 message authentication code, an Encrypt-Then-MAC construction.
	From IETF draft spec by McGrew, Foley, & Paterson:
	https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-mcgrew-aead-aes-cbc-hmac-sha2-05#section-2.7

	Disclaimer:
		This is strictly a proof of concept personal project and has not had any proper cryptography review.
		Do not use for anything even vaguely important.

kennwhite

Not many papers share a critical view of the cryptography field, and when such papers are published they tend to be dismissed as "extreme opinions". But not talking about potential deficiencies is harmful for everyone on the long run, even if many actors' self-interest is the status quo (example: USSR). So here's a list of crypto papers and essays not purely technical, sometimes called "controverial", in arbitrary order (please send suggestions of missing entries):

Rogaway - The moral character of cryptographic work - https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/papers/moral.pdf

Bernstein - Non-uniform cracks in the concrete: the power of free precomputation - http://cr.yp.to/nonuniform/nonuniform-20130914.pdf

kennwhite

From: https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/cryptographic-module-validation-program/modules-in-process/modules-in-process-list Snapshot as of Apr 9, 2021

Module Name	Vendor Name	Standard	Status
Thunder Series TH-3040S, TH-5440S, TH-5840S and TH-7440S-11	A10 Networks, Inc.	FIPS 140-2	In Review
ADVA 10TCE-PCN-16GU+AES100G-F encryption module	ADVA Optical Networking SE	FIPS 140-2	Review Pending
ADVA 9TCE-PCN-10GU+AES10G-F encryption module	ADVA Optical Networking SE	FIPS 140-2	Review Pending
WCC-PCN-AES100GB-F Encryption Module	ADVA Optical Networking SE	FIPS 140-2	Coordination

kennwhite

Joshua Weissman's General Tso's Chicken

Chicken:

• 1.5 lbs (700g) boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into pieces
• 1 TB (14g) shaoxing wine
• 1 TB (14g) soy sauce
• pinch of salt
• 2 cloves garlic mined
• 1 inch knob ginger minced
• 1/2 cup (75g) all purpose flour

kennwhite

# Good tips here: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/install-lxd-on-ubuntu-20-04-lts-using-apt/

# List all running services
systemctl list-units --all --type=service --no-pager | grep running

# Clean install of lxc (on host) - first lxd system, then lxc command line tools
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get upgrade
 sudo apt install lxd
 sudo adduser YOURUSERID lxd  # (probably already there)

kennwhite

/*
Simple demonstration using MongoDB Client-Side Field Level Encryption (local key version)
using json pointer for per-user/per-document dynamic key selection
This pattern might be useful for Right to Be Forgotten GDPR use case.
 
Note: FLE schemas with json pointer dynamic key IDs require randomized mode and automatic encryption
Decryption -- whether randomized or deterministic -- is always automatic, assuming the data key is available/cached.
If deterministic (searchable) mode is required, consider dynamic user key selection
at the app level via explicit encryption methods (versus automatic), e.g.:

kennwhite

To override Big Sur's Gatekeeper restriction: "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified" from the command line

Example with MongoDB (can be run against a folder e.g., JavaSDK or individual executables):

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Users/me/Downloads/mongodb-macos-x86_64-enterprise-4.4.2/bin/*

This appears to be sticky for all identical versions of that executable, i.e., if you have two copies of the identical binary in unrelated directories, removing quarantine for one seems to enter a file signature hash into the allowed list globally.