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Use x.509 Certificate for Membership Authentication with Self-Managed MongoDB

On this page

  • Member x.509 Certificate
  • Configure Replica Set/Sharded Cluster
  • Additional Information

MongoDB supports x.509 certificate authentication for use with a secure TLS/SSL connection. Sharded cluster members and replica set members can use x.509 certificates to verify their membership to the cluster or the replica set instead of using keyfiles. The membership authentication is an internal process.

Note

MongoDB disables support for TLS 1.0 encryption on systems where TLS 1.1+ is available.

Enabling internal authentication also enables Role-Based Access Control in Self-Managed Deployments. Clients must authenticate as a user in order to connect and perform operations in the deployment.

Important

A full description of TLS/SSL, PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) certificates, in particular x.509 certificates, and Certificate Authority is beyond the scope of this document. This tutorial assumes prior knowledge of TLS/SSL as well as access to valid x.509 certificates.

Member x.509 Certificate

Note

You must have valid x.509 certificates.

If you specify --tlsAllowInvalidCertificates or net.tls.allowInvalidCertificates: true, an invalid certificate is sufficient only to establish a TLS connection but it is insufficient for authentication.

Certificate Requirements

Use member certificates to verify membership to a sharded cluster or a replica set. Member certificate file paths are configured with the net.tls.clusterFile and net.tls.certificateKeyFile options. Members have the following configuration requirements:

  • Cluster member configuration must specify a non-empty value for at least one of the attributes used for authentication. By default, MongoDB accepts:

    • the Organization (O)

    • the Organizational Unit (OU)

    • the Domain Component (DC)

    You can specify alternative attributes to use for authentication by setting net.tls.clusterAuthX509.extensionValue.

  • Cluster member configuration must include the same net.tls.clusterAuthX509.attributes and use matching values. Attribute order doesn't matter. The following example sets O and OU, but not DC:

    net:
      tls:
        clusterAuthX509:
          attributes: O=MongoDB, OU=MongoDB Server

Note

If you disable the enforceUserClusterSeparation parameter, the following behaviors apply:

  • The O/OU/DC check is disabled if clusterAuthMode is keyFile in your configuration file. This allows clients possessing member certificates to authenticate as users stored in the $external database.

  • The server won't start if clusterAuthMode isn't keyFile in your configuration file.

If you set the enforceUserClusterSeparation parameter to false, the server doesn't distinguish between client certificates, which applications use to authenticate, and intra-cluster certificates, which have privileged access. This has no effect if your clusterAuthMode is keyFile. However, if your clusterAuthMode is x509, user certificates that use the allowed scheme are conflated with cluster certificates and granted privileged access.

Your existing certificates are granted internal privileges if you do the following:

  1. Create a user, with a name allowed by this parameter.

  2. Set the enforceUserClusterSeparation parameter to false.

  3. Set clusterAuthMode to x509.

You must not upgrade from keyFile to x509 without validating that you've removed users with elevated privileges that the enforceUserClusterSeparation flag allowed you to create.

To set the enforceUserClusterSeparation parameter to false, run the following command during startup:

mongod --setParameter enforceUserClusterSeparation=false

The certificates have the following requirements:

  • A single Certificate Authority (CA) must issue all x.509 certificates for the members of a sharded cluster or a replica set.

  • At least one of the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entries must match the server hostname used by other cluster members. When comparing SANs, MongoDB can compare either DNS names or IP addresses.

    If you don't specify subjectAltName, MongoDB compares the Common Name (CN) instead. However, this usage of CN is deprecated per RFC2818

  • If the certificate used as the certificateKeyFile includes extendedKeyUsage, the value must include both clientAuth ("TLS Web Client Authentication") and serverAuth ("TLS Web Server Authentication").

    extendedKeyUsage = clientAuth, serverAuth

  • If the certificate used as the clusterFile includes extendedKeyUsage, the value must include clientAuth.

    extendedKeyUsage = clientAuth

Configure Replica Set/Sharded Cluster

Outside of rolling upgrade procedures, every component of a replica set or sharded cluster should use the same --clusterAuthMode setting to ensure it can securely connect to all other components in the deployment.

For replica set deployments, this includes all mongod members of the replica set.

For sharded cluster deployments, this includes all mongod or mongos instances.

Note

mongod and mongos bind to localhost by default. If the members of your deployment are run on different hosts or if you wish remote clients to connect to your deployment, you must specify --bind_ip or net.bindIp.

Use Command-line Options (tls)

Note

The procedures in this section use the tls settings/option. For procedures using the deprecated ssl aliases, see Use Command-line Options (ssl).

The tls settings/options provide identical functionality as the ssl options since MongoDB has always supported TLS 1.0 and later.

mongod --replSet <name> --tlsMode requireTLS --clusterAuthMode x509 --tlsClusterFile <path to membership certificate and key PEM file> --tlsCertificateKeyFile <path to TLS/SSL certificate and key file> --tlsCAFile <path to root CA file> --bind_ip localhost,<hostname(s)|ip address(es)>

Important

To use x.509 authentication, --tlsCAFile or net.tls.CAFile must be specified unless you are using --tlsCertificateSelector or --net.tls.certificateSelector.

Include any additional options, TLS/SSL or otherwise, that are required for your specific configuration. For

security:
   clusterAuthMode: x509
net:
   tls:
      mode: requireTLS
      certificateKeyFile: <path to its TLS/SSL certificate and key file>
      CAFile: <path to root CA PEM file to verify received certificate>
      clusterFile: <path to its certificate key file for membership authentication>
   bindIp: localhost,<hostname(s)|ip address(es)>

Important

To use x.509 authentication, --tlsCAFile or net.tls.CAFile must be specified unless you are using --tlsCertificateSelector or --net.tls.certificateSelector.

Include any additional options, TLS/SSL or otherwise, that are required for your specific configuration.

For more information, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

Use Command-line Options (ssl)

Note

The procedures in this section use the deprecated ssl settings/option. For procedures that use tls aliases, see Use Command-line Options (tls).

The tls settings/options provide identical functionality as the ssl options since MongoDB has always supported TLS 1.0 and later.

To specify the x.509 certificate for internal cluster member authentication, append the additional TLS/SSL options --clusterAuthMode and --sslClusterFile, as in the following example for a member of a replica set:

mongod --replSet <name> --sslMode requireSSL --clusterAuthMode x509 --sslClusterFile <path to membership certificate and key PEM file> --sslPEMKeyFile <path to TLS/SSL certificate and key PEM file> --sslCAFile <path to root CA PEM file> --bind_ip localhost,<hostname(s)|ip address(es)>

Important

To use x.509 authentication, --tlsCAFile or net.tls.CAFile must be specified unless you are using --tlsCertificateSelector or --net.tls.certificateSelector.

Include any additional options, TLS/SSL or otherwise, that are required for your specific configuration.

security:
   clusterAuthMode: x509
net:
   ssl:
      mode: requireSSL
      PEMKeyFile: <path to TLS/SSL certificate and key PEM file>
      CAFile: <path to root CA PEM file>
      clusterFile: <path to x.509 membership certificate and key PEM file>
   bindIp: localhost,<hostname(s)|ip address(es)>

Important

To use x.509 authentication, --tlsCAFile or net.tls.CAFile must be specified unless you are using --tlsCertificateSelector or --net.tls.certificateSelector.

Include any additional options, TLS/SSL or otherwise, that are required for your specific configuration.

For more information, see Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

Additional Information

To upgrade from keyfile internal authentication to x.509 internal authentication, see Upgrade Self-Managed MongoDB from Keyfile Authentication to x.509 Authentication.

To perform a rolling update of the certificates to new certificates with different DN, see Rolling Update of x.509 Certificates that Contain New DN on Self-Managed Clusters.

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