Bug ID 1678529: Mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication fails even if there is a valid CA in the ca-file of a ClientSSL Profile

Last Modified: Dec 18, 2024

Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP LTM(all modules)

Known Affected Versions:
14.1.5, 14.1.5.1, 14.1.5.2, 14.1.5.3, 14.1.5.4, 14.1.5.6, 15.1.0, 15.1.0.1, 15.1.0.2, 15.1.0.3, 15.1.0.4, 15.1.0.5, 15.1.1, 15.1.2, 15.1.2.1, 15.1.3, 15.1.3.1, 15.1.4, 15.1.4.1, 15.1.5, 15.1.5.1, 15.1.6, 15.1.6.1, 15.1.7, 15.1.8, 15.1.8.1, 15.1.8.2, 15.1.9, 15.1.9.1, 15.1.10, 15.1.10.2, 15.1.10.3, 15.1.10.4, 15.1.10.5, 15.1.10.6, 16.0.0, 16.0.0.1, 16.0.1, 16.0.1.1, 16.0.1.2, 16.1.0, 16.1.1, 16.1.2, 16.1.2.1, 16.1.2.2, 16.1.3, 17.0.0, 17.0.0.1, 17.0.0.2

Fixed In:
17.1.0, 16.1.3.1

Opened: Sep 25, 2024

Severity: 3-Major

Symptoms

BIG-IP terminates the TLS handshake. Packet capture shows BIG-IP sending back an Alert to the client after it receives the client certificate: Alert (Level: Fatal, Description: Handshake Failure) LTM logs would show logs similar to the following, pointing to the expired CA certificate used in the verification chain: 01260006:4: Peer cert verify error: certificate has expired (depth 1; cert /C=US/ST=State/L=City/O=YourOrg/CN=YourCA) 01260009:4: x.x.10.90:58374 -> n.n.10.124:443: Connection error: ssl_shim_vfycerterr:4222: alert(45) certificate has expired 01260013:4: SSL Handshake failed for TCP x.x.10.90:58374 -> n.n.10.124:443

Impact

- Mutual TLS authentication unexpectedly fails.

Conditions

- Mutual TLS being used between the client and the BIG-IP. - ClientSSL profile configured to require cert from the client. - CA bundle being used by the BIG-IP in the ClientSSL profile contains both expired and valid issuer certificates used in the chain. - Expired issuer cert appears before the valid issuer cert.

Workaround

Remove expired issuer certificates from the CA bundle that is being used by the ClientSSL profile.

Fix Information

None

Behavior Change

Guides & references

K10134038: F5 Bug Tracker Filter Names and Tips