Authenticating a cluster with Kerberos
An overview of Kerberos in DataStax Enterprise and recommendations.
This section provides information about configuring security for a DataStax Enterprise (DSE) cluster using Kerberos.
DataStax Enterprise authentication with Kerberos protocol uses tickets to prove identity for nodes that communicate over non-secure networks. Kerberos is a computer network authentication protocol that allows nodes communicating over a non-secure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner using tickets. This section does not provide detailed information on installing and setting up Kerberos. For information on installing and setting up Kerberos, see the MIT Kerberos Consortium.
Using Kerberos with DataStax Enterprise
When using audit logging with Kerberos authentication, the login events take place on Kerberos and are not logged in DataStax Enterprise. Authentication history is available only on Kerberos. When DataStax Enterprise is unable to authenticate a client with Kerberos, a LOGIN_ERROR event is logged.
Kerberos guidelines
The following are general guidelines for setting up Kerberos:
- Ensure that you are familiar with Kerberos and have reviewed the MIT Kerberos Consortium documentation.
- You must have authority to set the Kerberos options in the dse.yaml file.
- Before implementing Kerberos on your DataStax Enterprise nodes, set up your Kerberos servers.
- Set up several machines as authentication servers (Key Distribution Center [KDC]). One server is the primary or administration KDC, the other servers will be secondary.
- Do not install the KDC servers on DataStax Enterprise nodes.
- Set up firewalls on each KDC server.
- Physically protect the KDC machines.
- Secure the keytab files that are owned by the user running DataStax Enterprise. The files should be readable and writable only by the owner, without permissions for any other user (chmod 600).
AES-256 support
Because JCE-based products are restricted for export to certain countries by the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, DataStax Enterprise does not ship with the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy. DataStax recommends installing the JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files:
- Download the Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy
Files from Oracle Java SE download page.
- For Java 6, click Previous Releases > Java Platform Technologies > Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 6.
- For Java 7, under Additional Resources, download the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files.
- Unzip the downloaded file.
- Copy local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar to the $JAVA_HOME/jdk/lib/security directory overwriting the existing JARS.
If not using AES-256
- If you have not created the principals, use the -e flag to specify encryption:salt type pairs. For example: -e "arcfour-hmac:normal des3-hmac-sha1:normal". This method requires Kerberos 5-1.2 on the KDC.
- If you have already created the principals, modify the Kerberos principals
using the -e flag as described above and then recreate the
keytab file. This method requires Kerberos 5-1.2 on the KDC.
Alternately, you can modify the /etc/krb5kdc/kdc.conf file by removing any entries containing aes256 from the supported_enctypes variable for the realm in which the DSE nodes are members. Then change the keys for the krbtgt principal.
'cpw
-randkey krbtgt/krbtgt/REALM@REALM'
Securing DataStax Enterprise nodes
To secure DataStax Enterprise nodes with Kerberos, follow the steps in Securing DataStax Enterprise nodes with Kerberos.