stunnel
STUNNEL(8) stunnel STUNNEL(8)
NAME
stunnel - universal SSL tunnel
SYNOPSIS
stunnel [filename] │ -fd [n] │ -help │ -version │ -sockets
DESCRIPTION
The stunnel program is designed to work as SSL encryption wrapper
between remote clients and local (inetd-startable) or remote servers.
The concept is that having non-SSL aware daemons running on your sys-
tem you can easily set them up to communicate with clients over secure
SSL channels.
stunnel can be used to add SSL functionality to commonly used Inetd
daemons like POP-2, POP-3, and IMAP servers, to standalone daemons
like NNTP, SMTP and HTTP, and in tunneling PPP over network sockets
without changes to the source code.
This product includes cryptographic software written by Eric Young
(eay@cryptsoft.com)
OPTIONS
[filename]
Use specified configuration file
-fd [n] (Unix only)
Read the config file from specified file descriptor
-help
Print stunnel help menu
-version
Print stunnel version and compile time defaults
-sockets
Print default socket options
-install (NT/2000/XP only)
Install NT Service
-uninstall (NT/2000/XP only)
Uninstall NT Service
CONFIGURATION FILE
Each line of the configuration file can be either:
· an empty line (ignored)
· a comment starting with "#" (ignored)
· an "option_name = option_value" pair
· "[service_name]" indicating a start of a service definition
GLOBAL OPTIONS
CApath = directory
Certificate Authority directory
This is the directory in which stunnel will look for certificates
when using the verify. Note that the certificates in this
directory should be named XXXXXXXX.0 where XXXXXXXX is the hash
value of the cert.
CAfile = certfile
Certificate Authority file
This file contains multiple CA certificates, used with the verify.
cert = pemfile
certificate chain PEM file name
A PEM is always needed in server mode. Specifying this flag in
client mode will use this certificate chain as a client side cer-
tificate chain. Using client side certs is optional. The cer-
tificates must be in PEM format and must be sorted starting with
the certificate to the highest level (root CA).
chroot = directory (Unix only)
directory to chroot stunnel process
chroot keeps stunnel in chrooted jail. CApath, pid and exec are
located inside the jail and the patches have to be relative to the
directory specified with chroot.
To have libwrap (TCP Wrappers) control effective in a chrooted
environment you also have to copy its configuration files
(/etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny) there.
ciphers = cipherlist
Select permitted SSL ciphers
A colon delimited list of the ciphers to allow in the SSL connec-
tion. For example DES-CBC3-SHA:IDEA-CBC-MD5
client = yes │ no
client mode (remote service uses SSL)
default: no (server mode)
CRLpath = directory
Certificate Revocation Lists directory
This is the directory in which stunnel will look for CRLs when
using the verify. Note that the CRLs in this directory should be
named XXXXXXXX.0 where XXXXXXXX is the hash value of the CRL.
CRLfile = certfile
Certificate Revocation Lists file
This file contains multiple CRLs, used with the verify.
debug = [facility.]level
debugging level
Level is a one of the syslog level names or numbers emerg (0),
alert (1), crit (2), err (3), warning (4), notice (5), info (6),
or debug (7). All logs for the specified level and all levels
numerically less than it will be shown. Use debug = debug or
debug = 7 for greatest debugging output. The default is notice
(5).
The syslog facility ’authpriv’ will be used unless a facility name
is supplied. (Facilities are not supported on Win32.)
Case is ignored for both facilities and levels.
EGD = egd path (Unix only)
path to Entropy Gathering Daemon socket
Entropy Gathering Daemon socket to use to feed OpenSSL random num-
ber generator. (Available only if compiled with OpenSSL 0.9.5a or
higher)
foreground = yes │ no (Unix only)
foreground mode
Stay in foreground (don’t fork) and log to stderr instead of via
syslog (unless output is specified).
default: background in daemon mode
key = keyfile
private key for certificate specified with cert option
Private key is needed to authenticate certificate owner. Since
this file should be kept secret it should only be readable to its
owner. On Unix systems you can use the following command:
chmod 600 keyfile
default: value of cert option
options = SSL_options
OpenSSL library options
The parameter is the OpenSSL option name as described in the
SSL_CTX_set_options(3ssl) manual, but without SSL_OP_ prefix.
Several options can be used to specify multiple options.
For example for compatibility with erroneous Eudora SSL implemen-
tation the following option can be used:
options = DONT_INSERT_EMPTY_FRAGMENTS
output = file
append log messages to a file instead of using syslog
/dev/stdout device can be used to redirect log messages to the
standard output (for example to log them with daemontools splog-
ger).
pid = file (Unix only)
pid file location
If the argument is empty, then no pid file will be created.
RNDbytes = bytes
bytes to read from random seed files
Number of bytes of data read from random seed files. With SSL
versions less than 0.9.5a, also determines how many bytes of data
are considered sufficient to seed the PRNG. More recent OpenSSL
versions have a builtin function to determine when sufficient ran-
domness is available.
RNDfile = file
path to file with random seed data
The SSL library will use data from this file first to seed the
random number generator.
RNDoverwrite = yes │ no
overwrite the random seed files with new random data
default: yes
service = servicename
use specified string as the service name
On Unix: inetd mode service name for TCP Wrapper library.
On NT/2000/XP: NT service name in the Control Panel.
default: stunnel
session = timeout
session cache timeout
setgid = groupname (Unix only)
setgid() to groupname in daemon mode and clears all other groups
setuid = username (Unix only)
setuid() to username in daemon mode
socket = a│l│r:option=value[:value]
Set an option on accept/local/remote socket
The values for linger option are l_onof:l_linger. The values for
time are tv_sec:tv_usec.
Examples:
socket = l:SO_LINGER=1:60
set one minute timeout for closing local socket
socket = r:TCP_NODELAY=1
turn off the Nagle algorithm for remote sockets
socket = r:SO_OOBINLINE=1
place out-of-band data directly into the
receive data stream for remote sockets
socket = a:SO_REUSEADDR=0
disable address reuse (enabled by default)
socket = a:SO_BINDTODEVICE=lo
only accept connections on loopback interface
taskbar = yes │ no (WIN32 only)
enable the taskbar icon
default: yes
verify = level
verify peer certificate
level 1 - verify peer certificate if present
level 2 - verify peer certificate
level 3 - verify peer with locally installed certificate
default - no verify
SERVICE-LEVEL OPTIONS
Each configuration section begins with service name in square brack-
ets. The service name is used for libwrap (TCP Wrappers) access con-
trol and lets you distinguish stunnel services in your log files.
Note that if you wish to run stunnel in inetd mode (where it is pro-
vided a network socket by a server such as inetd, xinetd, or
tcpserver) then you should read the section entitiled INETD MODE
below.
accept = [host:]port
accept connections on specified host:port
If no host specified, defaults to all IP addresses for the local
host.
connect = [host:]port
connect to remote host:port
If no host specified, defaults to localhost.
delay = yes │ no
delay DNS lookup for ’connect’ option
exec = executable_path (Unix only)
execute local inetd-type program
execargs = $0 $1 $2 ... (Unix only)
arguments for exec including program name ($0)
Quoting is currently not supported. Arguments are speparated with
arbitrary number of whitespaces.
ident = username
use IDENT (RFC 1413) username checking
local = host
IP of the outgoing interface is used as source for remote connec-
tions. Use this option to bind a static local IP address,
instead.
protocol = proto
Negotiate SSL with specified protocol
currently supported: cifs, nntp, pop3, smtp
pty = yes │ no (Unix only)
allocate pseudo terminal for ’exec’ option
TIMEOUTbusy = seconds
time to wait for expected data
TIMEOUTclose = seconds
time to wait for close_notify (set to 0 for buggy MSIE)
TIMEOUTidle = seconds
time to keep an idle connection
transparent = yes │ no (Unix only)
transparent proxy mode
Re-write address to appear as if wrapped daemon is connecting from
the SSL client machine instead of the machine running stunnel.
This option is only available in local mode (exec option) by
LD_PRELOADing env.so shared library or in remote mode (connect
option) on Linux 2.2 kernel compiled with transparent proxy option
and then only in server mode. Note that this option will not com-
bine with proxy mode (connect) unless the client’s default route
to the target machine lies through the host running stunnel, which
cannot be localhost.
RETURN VALUE
stunnel returns zero on success, non-zero on error.
EXAMPLES
In order to provide SSL encapsulation to your local imapd service, use
[imapd]
accept = 993
exec = /usr/sbin/imapd
execargs = imapd
If you want to provide tunneling to your pppd daemon on port 2020, use
something like
[vpn]
accept = 2020
exec = /usr/sbin/pppd
execargs = pppd local
pty = yes
If you want to use stunnel in inetd mode to launch your imapd process,
you’d use this stunnel.conf. Note there must be no [service_name]
section.
exec = /usr/sbin/imapd
execargs = imapd
FILES
stunnel.conf
stunnel configuration file
stunnel.pem
stunnel certificate and private key
BUGS
Option execargs does not support quoting.
RESTRICTIONS
stunnel cannot be used for the FTP daemon because of the nature of the
FTP protocol which utilizes multiple ports for data transfers. There
are available SSL enabled versions of FTP and telnet daemons, however.
NOTES
INETD MODE
The most common use of stunnel is to listen on a network port and
establish communication with either a new port via the connect option,
or a new program via the exec option. However there is a special case
when you wish to have some other program accept incoming connections
and launch stunnel, for example with inetd, xinetd, or tcpserver.
For example, if you have the following line in inetd.conf:
imaps stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/stunnel stunnel /etc/stunnel/imaps.conf
In these cases, the inetd-style program is responsible for binding a
network socket (imaps above) and handing it to stunnel when a connec-
tion is received. Thus you do not want stunnel to have any accept
option. All the Service Level Options should be placed in the global
options section, and no [service_name] section will be present. See
the EXAMPLES section for example configurations.
CERTIFICATES
Each SSL enabled daemon needs to present a valid X.509 certificate to
the peer. It also needs a private key to decrypt the incoming data.
The easiest way to obtain a certificate and a key is to generate them
with the free OpenSSL package. You can find more information on cer-
tificates generation on pages listed below.
Two things are important when generating certificate-key pairs for
stunnel. The private key cannot be encrypted, because the server has
no way to obtain the password from the user. To produce an unencrypted
key add the -nodes option when running the req command from the
OpenSSL kit.
The order of contents of the .pem file is also important. It should
contain the unencrypted private key first, then a signed certificate
(not certificate request). There should be also empty lines after
certificate and private key. Plaintext certificate information
appended on the top of generated certificate should be discarded. So
the file should look like this:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
[encoded key]
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
[empty line]
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
[encoded certificate]
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
[empty line]
RANDOMNESS
stunnel needs to seed the PRNG (pseudo random number generator) in
order for SSL to use good randomness. The following sources are
loaded in order until sufficient random data has been gathered:
· The file specified with the RNDfile flag.
· The file specified by the RANDFILE environment variable, if set.
· The file .rnd in your home directory, if RANDFILE not set.
· The file specified with ’--with-random’ at compile time.
· The contents of the screen if running on Windows.
· The egd socket specified with the EGD flag.
· The egd socket specified with ’--with-egd-sock’ at compile time.
· The /dev/urandom device.
With recent (>=OpenSSL 0.9.5a) version of SSL it will stop loading
random data automatically when sufficient entropy has been gathered.
With previous versions it will continue to gather from all the above
sources since no SSL function exists to tell when enough data is
available.
Note that on Windows machines that do not have console user interac-
tion (mouse movements, creating windows, etc) the screen contents are
not variable enough to be sufficient, and you should provide a random
file for use with the RNDfile flag.
Note that the file specified with the RNDfile flag should contain ran-
dom data -- that means it should contain different information each
time stunnel is run. This is handled automatically unless the
RNDoverwrite flag is used. If you wish to update this file manually,
the openssl rand command in recent versions of OpenSSL, would be use-
ful.
One important note -- if /dev/urandom is available, OpenSSL has a
habit of seeding the PRNG with it even when checking the random state,
so on systems with /dev/urandom you’re likely to use it even though
it’s listed at the very bottom of the list above. This isn’t stun-
nel’s behaviour, it’s OpenSSLs.
SEE ALSO
tcpd(8)
access control facility for internet services
inetd(8)
internet ‘‘super-server’’
http://stunnel.mirt.net/
stunnel homepage
http://www.stunnel.org/
stunnel Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.openssl.org/
OpenSSL project website
AUTHOR
Michal Trojnara
<Michal.Trojnara@mirt.net>
3rd Berkeley Distribution 2004.01.25 STUNNEL(8)
