May 2024 - stunnel-users

stunnel - client conexion close by TLS alert (write) fatal decode error
by Rodigo Alvarez 07 Mar '25

07 Mar '25

Hi All! I would appreciate any clue to solve the problem we are having with a client mode service that stopped working this week (we verified that the service works directly without stunnel). The error I identify in the trace is the following: "TLS alert (write): fatal: decode error" Stunnel Config (windows version): [afip-prod-fce] client = yes accept = ARSASSRV4DMS06:1031 connect = serviciosjava.afip.gob.ar:443 debug = 7 ws: https://serviciosjava.afip.gob.ar/wsfecred/FECredService Complete trace: 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: stunnel 5.71 on x64-pc-mingw32-gnu platform 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: Compiled/running with OpenSSL 3.1.3 19 Sep 2023 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: Threading:WIN32 Sockets:SELECT,IPv6 TLS:ENGINE,OCSP,PSK,SNI 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: Reading configuration from file C:\Program Files (x86)\stunnel\config\stunnel.conf 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: UTF-8 byte order mark detected 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: FIPS mode disabled 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG4[main]: Service [afip-prod-fce] needs authentication to prevent MITM attacks 2024.01.24 09:28:46 LOG5[main]: Configuration successful 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG7[0]: Service [afip-prod-fce] started 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG7[0]: Setting local socket options (FD=892) 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG7[0]: Option TCP_NODELAY set on local socket 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG5[0]: Service [afip-prod-fce] accepted connection from 10.70.162.24:57723 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG6[0]: s_connect: connecting 200.1.116.19:443 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG7[0]: s_connect: s_poll_wait 200.1.116.19:443: waiting 10 seconds 2024.01.24 09:29:23 LOG7[0]: FD=896 ifds=rwx ofds=--- 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG5[0]: s_connect: connected 200.1.116.19:443 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG5[0]: Service [afip-prod-fce] connected remote server from 10.72.0.69:64788 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Setting remote socket options (FD=896) 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Option TCP_NODELAY set on remote socket 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Remote descriptor (FD=896) initialized 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: SNI: sending servername: serviciosjava.afip.gob.ar 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: Peer certificate not required 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): before SSL initialization 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Initializing application specific data for session authenticated 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS write client hello 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS write client hello 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS read server hello 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: CERT: Certificate verification disabled 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: CERT: Certificate verification disabled 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: CERT: Certificate verification disabled 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS read server certificate 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS read server key exchange 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: OCSP stapling: Client callback called 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: OCSP: Certificate chain verification disabled 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: Client certificate not requested 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS read server done 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS write client key exchange 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS write change cipher spec 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS write finished 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS write finished 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS read change cipher spec 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS state (connect): SSLv3/TLS read finished 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: New session callback 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Peer certificate was cached (6643 bytes) 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: Session id: D63C79766AC02C9A3E8494AD528954A183E9F7C250856695BA05C16A2219A4B3 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: 1 client connect(s) requested 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: 1 client connect(s) succeeded 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: 0 client renegotiation(s) requested 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: 0 session reuse(s) 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: TLS connected: new session negotiated 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: TLSv1.2 ciphersuite: ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128-bit encryption) 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: Peer temporary key: ECDH, P-256, 256 bits 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Compression: null, expansion: null 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Remove session callback 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: TLS alert (write): fatal: decode error 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG6[0]: TLS socket closed (SSL_read) 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Sent socket write shutdown 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG5[0]: Connection closed: 1755 byte(s) sent to TLS, 634 byte(s) sent to socket 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Remote descriptor (FD=896) closed 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Local descriptor (FD=892) closed 2024.01.24 09:29:24 LOG7[0]: Service [afip-prod-fce] finished (0 left) Thank you! Kind regards, Rodrigo.

3 3

Requests to cloud server that requires host header
by Lorne Kates 13 Nov '24

13 Nov '24

(related to Akamai message from before-- but I have better troubleshooting information). I'm tying to route traffic through stunnel to a "cloud" based-endpoint. That endpoint has a static server name-- test.authorize.net. (This is the dev sandbox for auth.net) But if you do an nslookup on test.authorize.net, you'll get back a different servername and IP, because it's so wonderfully "cloud". Stunnel apparently tries to connect to the nslookup value. The server rejects the request because it can't route it back to test.authorize.net. I've tried adding "delay = yes" and "sni = test.authorize.net", but neither work. To see this in action, a simple setup with any accept, then connect to test.authorize.net:443 in client = yes mode. This is what a valid response looks like (13 -- give me the darn merchant ID in a POST): https://test.authorize.net/gateway/transact.dll This is what you'll get if you try to use stunnel (400 invalid url) : https://23.195.204.150/gateway/transact.dll So how can I get stunnel to send the proper Request Header (host: test.authorize.net) make sure it's using http/1.1, etc?

4 3

Re: [stunnel-users] CPU 100%
by Eric Eberhard 05 Nov '24

05 Nov '24

Long ago I had a server with a bad network card. Every once in a while it would spew uncontrollable bytes onto the network. If you open a stunnel connection and it does that this could very well be the problem. If it cheap, try changing the network card. If not, you should be able to look in your firewall/router and it will tell you who is sending what bytes to whomever. See if that machine is indeed streaming the bytes in massive quantities. If not, I would suspect your stunnel is getting stuck in it's own loop. There are a million reasons this can happen (well a few less than a million) - such as maybe a bad library in the FreeBSD or a bad choice in the Makefile - such as doing threads or something in a way your O/S does not like (I use threads=fork or whatever it is, instead of actual threading). You might tinker with some of the options that make the stunnel build and try different ones. Especially if stunnel was compiled on a different version of the O/S - could be differences in bytes in things and who knows what. That is all I can suggest beyond setting the debug level to 7 (I think is highest) and then watching the log file. Eric From: stunnel-users [mailto:stunnel-users-bounces@stunnel.org] On Behalf Of Murrey, Brian J. Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 10:57 AM To: stunnel-users(a)stunnel.org Subject: [stunnel-users] CPU 100% We are running stunnel 5.49 on FreeBSD 11.2 and we're running into a problem once in a while. CPU pegs at 100% when we get an stunnel connection from one of our external devices. This affects 100% of all cores and we can't even log in to console. To mitigate this temporarily, we have a script running in the background to watch when stunnel begins to spike and restarts the daemon. It doesn't happen 100% of the time, and so far I have been unable to distinguish what makes the connection do this to the CPU. Have any of you run in to this issue? Sincerely, Brian Murrey System Engineer II, IT Infrastructure _____ NOTICE: This message may contain privileged and confidential information and/or protected health information intended solely for the use of the named recipient and may be privileged or otherwise protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you should immediately notify the sender and delete this message. Do not disseminate, reproduce, or review this message or attachments if you are not the intended recipient. The sender or others may have legal rights restricting the dissemination of the information contained in this message and, as a result, remedies against you in the event of the improper dissemination of confidential information, trade secrets, personal information or privileged communications. This message is the work of the sender and does not necessarily reflect the position, views, or policies of TriMedx LLC or its affiliates. WARNING: The integrity and security of this message cannot be guaranteed and may contain or transmit a virus or other illicit code. Neither TriMedx LLC or its affiliates accept liability for any damage attributable to viruses or illicit code transmitted through this message or an attachment.

2 1

GRE over Stunnel
by marslogout＠gmail.com 17 May '24

17 May '24

Hello, is it possible to use GRE with Stunnel? I know that GRE is a protocol different from TCP, but I would like to hear your opinion on this matter. If GRE is not supported, would it be correct to replace it with PPTP without encryption?

1 0

Stunnel with no encryption
by Castro, Flavio 15 May '24

15 May '24

Hello, I am trying to configure Stunnel to use the insecure cipher PSK-NULL-SHA@SECLEVEL=0 but am encountering issues where a different cipher appears to be negotiated instead. My goal is to authenticate endpoints without encryption. Here are the details of my setup: Stunnel Version: 5.63 Operating System: Ubuntu Stunnel Configuration: ; Stunnel Configuration ; Global Options fips = no output = /var/log/stunnel.log ; Specify the pre-shared key file PSKsecrets = /etc/stunnel/psk.txt sslVersion = TLSv1.2 ; PSK Server Configuration [PSK server] accept = 192.168.20.11:5074 connect = 192.168.30.11:5074 ciphers = PSK-NULL-SHA ; In OpenSSL, I can achieve my goal using the following command, which works as expected: openssl s_client -port 5074 -cipher "PSK-NULL-SHA@SECLEVEL=0" -psk 4f8583bca4d311ee9fd6034d1fcbd7c3 -tls1 However, with Stunnel, it appears a different cipher is negotiated, and I do not see any error messages in the logs. I tcpdumped the connection and observed the traffic is being encrypt which was not the case when using openssl. In my usecase I need to authenticate endpoints without encryption, hence the use of PSK-NULL-SHA@SECLEVEL=0. Could you please advise on how to properly configure Stunnel to use the PSK-NULL-SHA@SECLEVEL=0 cipher, or if this is supported? Thank you for your assistance. Flavio Castro

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