checksum failed: Kerberos / Spring / Active Directory (2008)

java active-directory kerberos spnego
slt picture slt · Dec 14, 2011 · Viewed 23.2k times · Source

We are having trouble getting Kerberos/AD authentication to work with a Spring webapp, and I believe the problem has to do with encryption types for the Kerberos tickets and the Active Directory domain functional level.

The basic setup is:

I have one environment where the Active Directory domain functional level is Windows Server 2003 and everything works fine, with clients authenticating as expected if they are logged on to the domain. Using kerbtray to examine the tickets in this environment I can see that they all have both ticket encryption type and key encryption type "RSADSI RC4-HMAC".

I have a new domain with functional level Windows Server 2008, and this is where the authentication does not work. The application error returned when attempting to validate the ticket is:

Kerberos validation not successful...

Caused by: GSSException: Failure unspecified at GSS-API level (Mechanism level: Checksum failed)
    at sun.security.jgss.krb5.Krb5Context.acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.GSSContextImpl.acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.GSSContextImpl.acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.spnego.SpNegoContext.GSS_acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.spnego.SpNegoContext.acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.GSSContextImpl.acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.GSSContextImpl.acceptSecContext(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.security.extensions.kerberos.SunJaasKerberosTicketValidator$KerberosValidateAction.run(SunJaasKerberosTicketValidator.java:146)
    at org.springframework.security.extensions.kerberos.SunJaasKerberosTicketValidator$KerberosValidateAction.run(SunJaasKerberosTicketValidator.java:136)
    ... 34 more
Caused by: KrbException: Checksum failed
    at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmacEType.decrypt(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmacEType.decrypt(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.krb5.EncryptedData.decrypt(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.krb5.KrbApReq.authenticate(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.krb5.KrbApReq.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.jgss.krb5.InitSecContextToken.<init>(Unknown Source)
    ... 43 more
Caused by: java.security.GeneralSecurityException: Checksum failed
    at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.dk.ArcFourCrypto.decrypt(Unknown Source)
    at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmac.decrypt(Unknown Source)

The stack trace shows "ArcfourCrypto.decrypt" so presumably is treating the Kerberos ticket as RC4-HMAC. Using kerbtray again to examine the tickets this time there are 2 tickets on the client for the domain: krbtgt/.COM. Both of tickets have key encryption type RSADS1 RC4-HMAC, one also has this for ticket encryption type, but the other has "Kerberos AES256-CTS-HMAC-SHA1-96".

I don't know for sure that this is the cause of the problem, but it is the only difference I've been able to find in the two environments that might explain the authentication exception. I've tried changing the AD encryption policy, tried IE and Firefox, and pretty much everything else I could think of, but nothing has worked.

Any help addressing this would be much appreciated. I'd prefer to fix it on the java end as I probably can't dictate too much about the production AD setup.

Answer

Ivan Veselovsky picture Ivan Veselovsky · Dec 13, 2012

The problem seems to be in the keytab. There are some action sequences leading to some specific keytab file states: (A) keytab works with Java but does not work with k5start/kinit; (B) keytab does not work with Java, but works with k5start/kinit; (C) keytab works with both them.

The short Java code that allows to check if Java can authenticate using the keytab file: 

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Properties;

import javax.security.auth.Subject;

import com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule;

/**
 * This is simple Java program that tests ability to authenticate 
 * with Kerberos using the JDK implementation.
 * 
 * The program uses no libraries but JDK itself.
 */
public class Krb {

  private void loginImpl(final String propertiesFileName) throws Exception {
    System.out.println("NB: system property to specify the krb5 config: [java.security.krb5.conf]");
    //System.setProperty("java.security.krb5.conf", "/etc/krb5.conf");

    System.out.println(System.getProperty("java.version"));

    System.setProperty("sun.security.krb5.debug", "true");

    final Subject subject = new Subject();

    final Krb5LoginModule krb5LoginModule = new Krb5LoginModule();
    final Map<String,String> optionMap = new HashMap<String,String>();

    if (propertiesFileName == null) {
      //optionMap.put("ticketCache", "/tmp/krb5cc_1000");
      optionMap.put("keyTab", "/etc/krb5.keytab");
      optionMap.put("principal", "foo"); // default realm

      optionMap.put("doNotPrompt", "true");
      optionMap.put("refreshKrb5Config", "true");
      optionMap.put("useTicketCache", "true");
      optionMap.put("renewTGT", "true");
      optionMap.put("useKeyTab", "true");
      optionMap.put("storeKey", "true");
      optionMap.put("isInitiator", "true");
    } else {
      File f = new File(propertiesFileName);
      System.out.println("======= loading property file ["+f.getAbsolutePath()+"]");
      Properties p = new Properties();
      InputStream is = new FileInputStream(f);
      try {
        p.load(is);
      } finally {
        is.close();
      }
      optionMap.putAll((Map)p);
    }
    optionMap.put("debug", "true"); // switch on debug of the Java implementation

    krb5LoginModule.initialize(subject, null, new HashMap<String,String>(), optionMap);

    boolean loginOk = krb5LoginModule.login();
    System.out.println("======= login:  " + loginOk);

    boolean commitOk = krb5LoginModule.commit();
    System.out.println("======= commit: " + commitOk);

    System.out.println("======= Subject: " + subject);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    System.out.println("A property file with the login context can be specified as the 1st and the only paramater.");
    final Krb krb = new Krb();
    krb.loginImpl(args.length == 0 ? null : args[0]);
  }
}

, and the property file to use: 

#ticketCache=/tmp/krb5cc_1000
keyTab=/etc/krb5.keytab
principal=foo

doNotPrompt=true
refreshKrb5Config=true
useTicketCache=true
renewTGT=true
useKeyTab=true
storeKey=true
isInitiator=true

(Below we assume that krb/kdc is correctly installed and configured, the database is created with kdb5_util. The starting state of each command sequence is: the keytab file deleted, token cache is deleted, user "foo" is deleted from the database.)

The following action sequence leads to the keytab state (A):

$ echo -e "foo\nfoo" | kadmin.local -q "addprinc foo"
$ echo -e "foo\nfoo" | kadmin.local -q "ktadd foo"
$ java -cp . Krb ./krb5.properties 
# Now java auth okay, but the following command fails:
$ k5start foo
Kerberos initialization for [email protected]
Password for [email protected]: 
k5start: error getting credentials: Decrypt integrity check failed
$

The following action sequence leads to the keytab state (B):

$ echo -e "foo\nfoo" | kadmin.local -q "addprinc foo"
$ echo -e "foo\nfoo" | kadmin.local -q "ktadd foo"
$ echo -e "foo\nfoo" | kadmin.local -q "cpw foo"
$ java -cp . Krb ./krb5.properties 
A property file with the login context can be specified as the 1st and the only paramater.
NB: system property to specify the krb5 config: [java.security.krb5.conf]
1.6.0_33
======= loading property file [/tmp/krb-test/yhadoop-common/./krb5.properties]
Debug is  true storeKey true useTicketCache true useKeyTab true doNotPrompt true ticketCache is null isInitiator true KeyTab is /etc/krb5.keytab refreshKrb5Config is true principal is foo tryFirstPass is false useFirstPass is false storePass is false clearPass is false
Refreshing Kerberos configuration
Config name: /etc/krb5.conf
>>> KdcAccessibility: reset
>>> KdcAccessibility: reset
Acquire TGT from Cache
>>>KinitOptions cache name is /tmp/krb5cc_0
Principal is [email protected]
null credentials from Ticket Cache
>>> KeyTabInputStream, readName(): EXAMPLE.COM
>>> KeyTabInputStream, readName(): foo
>>> KeyTab: load() entry length: 49; type: 23
Added key: 23version: 3
Ordering keys wrt default_tkt_enctypes list
default etypes for default_tkt_enctypes: 23.
0: EncryptionKey: keyType=23 kvno=3 keyValue (hex dump)=
0000: 5F 7F 9B 42 BB 02 51 81   32 05 1D 7B C0 9F 19 C0  _..B..Q.2.......


principal's key obtained from the keytab
Acquire TGT using AS Exchange
default etypes for default_tkt_enctypes: 23.
>>> KrbAsReq calling createMessage
>>> KrbAsReq in createMessage
>>> KrbKdcReq send: kdc=localhost UDP:88, timeout=30000, number of retries =3, #bytes=128
>>> KDCCommunication: kdc=localhost UDP:88, timeout=30000,Attempt =1, #bytes=128
>>> KrbKdcReq send: #bytes read=611
>>> KrbKdcReq send: #bytes read=611
>>> KdcAccessibility: remove localhost:88
>>> EType: sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmacEType
Checksum failed !
                [Krb5LoginModule] authentication failed 
Checksum failed
Exception in thread "main" javax.security.auth.login.LoginException: Checksum failed
        at com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule.attemptAuthentication(Krb5LoginModule.java:696)
        at com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule.login(Krb5LoginModule.java:542)
        at Krb.loginImpl(Krb.java:65)
        at Krb.main(Krb.java:77)
Caused by: KrbException: Checksum failed
        at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmacEType.decrypt(ArcFourHmacEType.java:85)
        at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmacEType.decrypt(ArcFourHmacEType.java:77)
        at sun.security.krb5.EncryptedData.decrypt(EncryptedData.java:168)
        at sun.security.krb5.KrbAsRep.<init>(KrbAsRep.java:87)
        at sun.security.krb5.KrbAsReq.getReply(KrbAsReq.java:446)
        at sun.security.krb5.Credentials.sendASRequest(Credentials.java:401)
        at sun.security.krb5.Credentials.acquireTGT(Credentials.java:350)
        at com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule.attemptAuthentication(Krb5LoginModule.java:672)
        ... 3 more
Caused by: java.security.GeneralSecurityException: Checksum failed
        at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.dk.ArcFourCrypto.decrypt(ArcFourCrypto.java:388)
        at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmac.decrypt(ArcFourHmac.java:74)
        at sun.security.krb5.internal.crypto.ArcFourHmacEType.decrypt(ArcFourHmacEType.java:83)
        ... 10 more
$

But the "k5start foo" is okay in this state, as well as "kinit foo".

And the following action sequence leads to state (C):

$ echo -e "foo\nfoo" | kadmin.local -q "addprinc foo"
$ ktutil 
ktutil:  addent -password -p foo -k 1 -e rc4-hmac
Password for [email protected]: 
ktutil:  wkt /etc/krb5.keytab
ktutil:  q

after that both k5start/kinit and the java verification give positive result.

Environment:

yum list krb5-appl-servers krb5-libs krb5-server krb5-workstation kstart pam_krb5 
...
Installed Packages
krb5-libs.x86_64                                                                            1.9-33.el6_3.3                                                                      @updates
krb5-server.x86_64                                                                          1.9-33.el6_3.3                                                                      @updates
krb5-workstation.x86_64                                                                     1.9-33.el6_3.3                                                                      @updates
kstart.x86_64                                                                               4.1-2.el6                                                                           @epel   
...
$ cat /etc/redhat-release 
CentOS release 6.3 (Final)
$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_33"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_33-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.8-b03, mixed mode)

Also the same behavior observed with Java 7. Also the same behavior was observed on Ubuntu precise (12.04.1 LTS) with MIT's kerberos 5-1.10.3 compiled from the source distribution.

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