Set up x.509 authentication and LDAP authorization¶

x.509 certificate authentication is one of the supported authentication mechanisms in Percona Server for MongoDB. It is compatible with LDAP authorization to enable you to control user access and operations in your database environment.

This document provides the steps on how to configure and use x.509 certificates for authentication in Percona Server for MongoDB and authorize users in the LDAP server.

Considerations¶

For testing purposes, in this tutorial we use OpenSSL to issue self-signed certificates. For production use, we recommend using certificates issued and signed by the CA in Percona Server for MongoDB. Client certificates must meet the client certificate requirements.
The setup of the LDAP server and the configuration of the LDAP schema is out of scope of this document. We assume that you have the LDAP server up and running and accessible to Percona Server for MongoDB.

Setup procedure¶

Issue certificates¶

Create a directory to store the certificates. For example, /var/lib/mongocerts.
```
$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/mongocerts
```

Grant access to the mongod user to this directory:

$ sudo chown mongod:mongod /var/lib/mongocerts

Generate the root Certificate Authority certificate¶

The root Certificate Authority certificate will be used to sign the SSL certificates.

Run the following command and in the -subj flag, provide the details about your organization:

C - Country Name (2 letter code);
ST - State or Province Name (full name);
L - Locality Name (city);
O - Organization Name (company);
CN - Common Name (your name or your server’s hostname) .

$ cd /var/lib/mongocerts
$ sudo openssl req -nodes -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout ca.key -out ca.crt -subj "/C=US/ST=California/L=SanFrancisco/O=Percona/OU=root/CN=localhost"

Generate server certificate¶

Create the server certificate request and key. In the -subj flag, provide the details about your organization:
- C - Country Name (2 letter code);
- ST - State or Province Name (full name);
- L - Locality Name (city);
- O - Organization Name (company);
- CN - Common Name (your name or your server’s hostname) .
```
$ sudo openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout server.key -out server.csr -subj "/C=US/ST=California/L=SanFrancisco/O=Percona/OU=server/CN=localhost"
```

Sign the server certificate request with the root CA certificate:

$ sudo openssl x509 -req -in server.csr -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 01 -out server.crt

Combine the server certificate and key to create a certificate key file. Run this command as the root user:
```
$ cat server.key server.crt > server.pem
```

Generate client certificates¶

Generate client certificate request and key. In the -subj flag, specify the information about clients in the DN format.

$ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout client.key -out client.csr -subj "/DC=com/DC=percona/CN=John Doe"

Sign the client certificate request with the root CA certificate.

$ openssl x509 -req -in client.csr -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 02 -out client.crt

Combine the client certificate and key to create a certificate key file.
```
$ cat client.key client.crt > client.pem
```

Set up the LDAP server¶

The setup of the LDAP server is out of scope of this document. Please work with your LDAP administrators to set up the LDAP server and configure the LDAP schema.

Configure the `mongod` server¶

The configuration consists of the following steps:

Creating a role that matches the user group on the LDAP server
Editing the configuration file to enable the x.509 authentication

Note

When you use x.509 authentication with LDAP authorization, you don’t need to create users in the $external database. User management is done on the LDAP server so when a client connects to the database, they are authenticated and authorized through the LDAP server.

Create roles¶

At this step, create the roles in the admin database with the names that exactly match the names of the user groups on the LDAP server. These roles are used for user LDAP authorization in Percona Server for MongoDB.

In our example, we create the role cn=otherusers,dc=percona,dc=com that has the corresponding LDAP group.

var admin = db.getSiblingDB("admin")
db.createRole(
   {
     role: "cn=otherusers,dc=percona,dc=com",
     privileges: [],
     roles: [
           "userAdminAnyDatabase",
           "clusterMonitor",
           "clusterManager",
           "clusterAdmin"
            ]
   }
)

Output:

{
     "role" : "cn=otherusers,dc=percona,dc=com",
     "privileges" : [ ],
     "roles" : [
             "userAdminAnyDatabase",
             "clusterMonitor",
             "clusterManager",
             "clusterAdmin"
     ]
}

Enable x.509 authentication¶

Stop the mongod service
```
$ sudo systemctl stop mongod
```

Edit the /etc/mongod.conf configuration file.

net:
  port: 27017
  bindIp: 127.0.0.1
  tls:
    mode: requireTLS
    certificateKeyFile: /var/lib/mongocerts/server.pem
    CAFile: /var/lib/mongocerts/ca.crt

security:
  authorization: enabled
  ldap:
    servers: "ldap.example.com"
    transportSecurity: none
    authz:
      queryTemplate: "dc=percona,dc=com??sub?(&(objectClass=groupOfNames)(member={USER}))"

setParameter:
  authenticationMechanisms: PLAIN,MONGODB-X509

Replace ldap.example.com with the hostname of your LDAP server. In the LDAP query template, replace the domain controllers percona and com with those relevant to your organization.

Start the mongod service
```
$ sudo systemctl start mongod
```

Authenticate with the x.509 certificate¶

To test the authentication, connect to Percona Server for MongoDB using the following command:

$ mongo --host localhost --tls --tlsCAFile /var/lib/mongocerts/ca.crt --tlsCertificateKeyFile <path_to_client_certificate>/client.pem  --authenticationMechanism MONGODB-X509 --authenticationDatabase='$external'

The result should look like the following:

> db.runCommand({connectionStatus : 1})
{
     "authInfo" : {
             "authenticatedUsers" : [
                     {
                             "user" : "CN=John Doe,DC=percona,DC=com",
                             "db" : "$external"
                     }
             ],
             "authenticatedUserRoles" : [
                     {
                             "role" : "cn=otherreaders,dc=percona,dc=com",
                             "db" : "admin"
                     },
                     {
                             "role" : "clusterAdmin",
                             "db" : "admin"
                     },
                     {
                             "role" : "userAdminAnyDatabase",
                             "db" : "admin"
                     },
                     {
                             "role" : "clusterManager",
                             "db" : "admin"
                     },
                     {
                             "role" : "clusterMonitor",
                             "db" : "admin"
                     }
             ]
     },
     "ok" : 1
}

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Last update: January 31, 2023
Created: December 8, 2022