wpa_supplicant in FIPS 140-2 mode

Jate Sujjavanich jatedev at gmail.com
Fri Jul 24 17:54:27 EDT 2015


Anybody have any information about running wpa_supplicant in FIPS mode?

I have been trying to run wpa_supplicant 2.0 with OpenSSL 1.0.0 with a FIPS
certified cryptographic module. I patched wpa_supplicant so that it puts
itself into FIPS mode.

I received a warning about use of the md5 algorithm within
tls_prf_sha1_md5. The code generates a pseudorandom key from an xor of a
sha1 and md5 sum of the key. I have come across some discussion whether it
is valid to use md5. That may have been 2009.

I moved from version 2.0 to 2.4 of wpa_supplicant after I noticed changes
that could improve FIPS mode operation.

I am still receiving the warning which I believe has to do with
tls_prf_sha1_md5. I have not yet traced the call.

EAP: EAP entering state RECEIVED
OpenSSL: EVP_DigestInit_ex failed: error:060A80A3:digital envelope
routines:FIPS
_DIGESTINIT:disabled for fips
EAP: Received EAP-Success

It appears to authenticate, but I receive this message along with a
termination.

RSN: encrypted key data - hexdump(len=56): 07 73 60 d5 92 11 39 10 38 63 08
1f c
a 53 af 88 0c 93 ee 03 2d 9e f5 a9 6a d2 38 cd 3d 6e c9 80 ba 5e 4d 6d bb
d8 7d
41 25 ef db 92 d1 15 a4 1f 4d 0d bf 5f 9a fd 65 3b
aes_misc.c(82): OpenSSL internal error, assertion failed: Low level API
call to
cipher AES forbidden in FIPS mode!
Aborted

Two patches in master since the release of 2.4 which I think might affect
FIPS compatibility are:

5650d3 (OpenSSL: Add option to disable use of TLSv1.0)
    I think that I may have read that the version of TLS affects the use of
md5. Althought it may have been SSLv3.

65a7b2 (OpenSSL: Implement AES-128 CBC using EVP API)
    This seems like it might be related to the "cipher AES forbidden in
FIPS mode" error message.

I'm hoping that someone has more insight onto these details of
wpa_supplicant. It's pretty new to me.

- Jate S.
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