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OCSP stapling renders it more accessible and more rapid for a customer than ever to check the status of an SSL/TLS certificate’s revocation. It is an enhancement over the existing industry standard, OCSP. But what exactly is OCSP stapling, and why does it matter for the security of your website?
When you access a website using a browser, the browser checks the site’s TLS certificate, including the certificate’s signature, validity period, and whether it has been revoked. OCSP (The online certificate status protocol), OCSP stapling, and CRLs (certificate revocation lists) are two techniques for determining the TLS certificate’s revocation status.
In our most recent post, we discussed OCSP and how it may be used for verifying the status of a website certificate’s revocation. However, what distinguishes the OCSP from the CRL?
Recommended: OCSP vs. CRL: What is the Difference?
With OCSP, the client asks the site for its certificate. The issuing CA receives the certificate from the site’s web server and uses its OCSP responder to inform the user of the status of the certificate’s revocation. The user’s browser then receives it from the web server again.
Although it’s a secure solution, it has a few drawbacks. OCSP stapling or SSL stapling was designed to get around some of these limitations.
This article will discuss “what exactly is OCSP stapling (also known as SSL_Stapling / Certificate stapling), it’s working, and its advantages & disadvantages.”
Let’s dive in,
An alternate method for determining the validity of an SSL certificate to the original Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) is OCSP stapling. This is accomplished by allowing the webserver to query the OCSP responder—a server that listens for OCSP requests—and then caching its response.
This eliminates the requirement for the client to get in touch with the certificate authority and enables the web server to verify the legitimacy of its certificates.
In RFC 2560 and RFC 5019, OCSP stapling is addressed. The website’s server instantly sends the client trying to connect an updated status. Given that it has been timestamped and signed by the issuing CA, the client could believe it.
Since each client that requests certificate information must receive a response, the original online certificate status protocol could be more efficient. As a result, when a certificate is granted to an occupied or busy website, the servers of the CA receive a lot of requests requesting information on the certificate’s validity.
This is not ideal since it slows downloading speeds and puts the user at more risk for security breaches because information needs to travel through a third party.
For instance, if a user goes to https://www.sample.com, the certificate’s authenticity must be verified because the website is SSL encrypted. The browser will contact the certificate provider to find out if the certificate is still valid. The user must give the URL the certificate vendor requires for a third party to know who visited which websites and when.
Additionally, suppose the browser is unable to get in contact with the CA for an OCSP reply. In that case, the user is notified with a warning message and provided an option to continue or cancel the connection. As a result, people who worry that their information might not be secure can receive fake warning messages and quit.
In contrast to other verification techniques, where it is the client’s responsibility to check if websites’ certificates have been revoked, OCSP stapling rests the burden on the server.
The server shows a client the most recent verification status when they attempt to connect. The CA has the power to choose when to refresh the response. The client can trust the certificate because it was signed by the CA who issued the server certificate. Additionally, a timestamp indicating the creation date and time will be included.
Today, most current browsers support OCSP stapling. Follow these instructions to find complete details on how to set up OCSP stapling on your Apache or Nginx server.
OCSP stapling Nginx – Nginx 1.6.2 was used to construct these instructions. You should alter these steps by using the Nginx version.
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
OCSP stapling Apache: Apache 2.4.7 was used to generate these instructions. You should alter these instructions by the version of Apache you are using.
apache2 -v
httpd -v
SSLUseStapling on
SSLStaplingCache shmcb:/tmp/stapling_cache(128000)
When checking the revocation status of TLS certificates, OCSP stapling has several benefits, including:
The client’s privacy is more secure than conventional OCSP responder inquiries since neither the CA nor the OCSP responder can see the websites the client visits.
One of the OCSP stapling technique’s most significant benefits is speed. Verifying a TLS certificate’s revocation status only requires a brief period.
OCSP stapling is a more effective technique than CRL or OCSP since it uses fewer network resources for the client.
Now moving towards the Drawbacks:
Not all browsers currently offer support for OCSP Stapling. The validity status query will immediately go back to OCSP, checking with the CA if the browser or web server does not support or has OCSP Stapling enabled.
Sometimes, a certificate chain for TLS has a lot of intermediate CA certificates. OCSP stapling typically only performs revocation status checks on leaf/server certificates, not verification for the intermediate certificates.
Cybercriminals can easily steal your customers’ sensitive data by visiting websites with expired or revoked TLS certificates and utilizing them for their wicked purposes., OCSP stapling is a mechanism that enables browsers to check if the TLS certificate of a website you want to access has been revoked by offering a real-time revocation status check.
Although OCSP stapling is more straightforward and faster than CRLs and OCSP, not all browsers support it. It is growing in popularity, so you might expect to see it used extensively.
OCSP Stapling speeds up the SSL handshake connection by merging two requests into one. This reduces the time it takes for an encrypted webpage to load. Since no connection is established to the CRL for the OCSP request, OCSP Stapling protects the end user’s privacy.
An industry standard called OCSP is designed to use Port 80. When Snowflake clients attempt to connect to an endpoint using HTTPS, it employs Online Certificate Status Protocol to guarantee the utmost security to check whether a certificate has been revoked.
For certificates that keep the status_request Must-Staple flag, OCSP Stapling is accepted by default. Any TLS connection the NATS server accepts during the TLS handshake will be given a new staple once the NATS server requests it from the OCSP responder.
The verification of certificate data may be handled more effectively with OCSP stapling. OCSP stapling enables the web server to periodically query the OCSP responder and store the response rather than sending a request to the CA’s server for each certificate verification request.
An X. 509 digital certificate’s revocation status can potentially be verified through the Online Certificate Status Protocol, an Internet protocol. Along with other out-of-date RFCs, it is described in RFC 6960.