Can’t get TLSv1.3 to work with nginx 1.14.0 and OpenSSL 1.1.1 on Ubuntu 18.04.4

Question

I’m going nuts here to trying to figure out how to enable TLSv1.3 on my nginx server.

Based on my research, my setup should support it:

# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic

# uname -a
Linux server 5.3.0-28-generic #30~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 17 06:14:09 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# nginx -V
nginx version: nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu)
built with OpenSSL 1.1.1  11 Sep 2018
TLS SNI support enabled
...

# openssl version
OpenSSL 1.1.1  11 Sep 2018

# dpkg -s openssl | grep Version
Version: 1.1.1-1ubuntu2.1~18.04.5

I have included the TLSv1.3 protocol and even (tho’ I understand it is optional) specifically listed the TLSv1.3 ciphers in my nginx config:

...
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_ciphers TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256:TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256;
ssl_ecdh_curve X25519:secp384r1;
...

But I can’t connect to the server using TLSv1.3, whether by browser (which can connect to other websites via TLSv1.3) or curl:

# curl -I -v --tlsv1.3 --tls-max 1.3 https://mydomain.com
* Rebuilt URL to: https://mydomain.com/
*   Trying xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to mydomain.com (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) port 443 (#0)
* ALPN, offering h2
* ALPN, offering http/1.1
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS alert, Server hello (2):
* error:1409442E:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:tlsv1 alert protocol version
* stopped the pause stream!
* Closing connection 0
curl: (35) error:1409442E:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:tlsv1 alert protocol version

TLSv1.2 works fine.

What I am missing please?!

---

EDIT

Some additional troubleshooting information:

# openssl s_client -tls1_3 -connect mydomain.com:443
CONNECTED(00000005)
140179247497664:error:1409442E:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:tlsv1 alert protocol version:../ssl/record/rec_layer_s3.c:1528:SSL alert number 70
---
no peer certificate available
---
No client certificate CA names sent
---
SSL handshake has read 7 bytes and written 244 bytes
Verification: OK
---
New, (NONE), Cipher is (NONE)
Secure Renegotiation IS NOT supported
Compression: NONE
Expansion: NONE
No ALPN negotiated
Early data was not sent
Verify return code: 0 (ok)
---

Again, I have no issue when running this with TLSv1.2 as the option.

Answer 1

I've solved my issue. I had a default_server config also included in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/, which didn't have the TLSv1.3 flag in the ssl_protocols parameter (in fact, it didn't have a ssl_protocols parameter at all). This apparently caused the failure, even though my tests were run on hostnames that were served by different server blocks. Go figure!

Answer 2

Hi I tried answering on other thread however for whatever reason I couldn't.

I tried your test on my own server(s) however I'm getting this:

curl -I -v --tlsv1.3 --tls-max 1.3 https://bw.domain.com
*   Trying 10.0.1.86:443...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to bw.domain.com (10.0.1.86) port 443 (#0)
* ALPN, offering http/1.1
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /opt/local/share/curl/curl-ca-bundle.crt
  CApath: none
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Encrypted Extensions (8):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
* ALPN, server accepted to use http/1.1
* Server certificate:
*  subject: CN=bw.domain.com
*  start date: Feb  3 16:54:01 2020 GMT
*  expire date: May  3 16:54:01 2020 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "bw.domain.com" matched cert's "bw.domain.com"
*  issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
> HEAD / HTTP/1.1
> Host: bw.domain.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.68.0
> Accept: */*
>
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* old SSL session ID is stale, removing
* Mark bundle as not supporting multiuse
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Server: nginx/1.16.1
Server: nginx/1.16.1
< Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:23:50 GMT
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:23:50 GMT
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
< Content-Length: 1373
Content-Length: 1373
< Connection: keep-alive
Connection: keep-alive
< Cache-Control: public, max-age=600
Cache-Control: public, max-age=600
< Feature-Policy: accelerometer 'none'; ambient-light-sensor 'none'; autoplay 'none'; camera 'none'; encrypted-media 'none'; fullscreen 'none'; geolocation 'none'; gyroscope 'none'; magnetometer 'none'; microphone 'none'; midi 'none'; payment 'none'; picture-in-picture 'none'; sync-xhr 'self' https://haveibeenpwned.com https://twofactorauth.org; usb 'none'; vr 'none'
Feature-Policy: accelerometer 'none'; ambient-light-sensor 'none'; autoplay 'none'; camera 'none'; encrypted-media 'none'; fullscreen 'none'; geolocation 'none'; gyroscope 'none'; magnetometer 'none'; microphone 'none'; midi 'none'; payment 'none'; picture-in-picture 'none'; sync-xhr 'self' https://haveibeenpwned.com https://twofactorauth.org; usb 'none'; vr 'none'
< Referrer-Policy: same-origin
Referrer-Policy: same-origin
< X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
< X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
< X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
< Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'self' chrome-extension://nngceckbapebfimnlniiiahkandclblb moz-extension://* ;
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'self' chrome-extension://nngceckbapebfimnlniiiahkandclblb moz-extension://* ;
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin:
Access-Control-Allow-Origin:

<
* Connection #0 to host bw.domain.com left intact

My reverse proxy is nginx but its configured with Mozilla intermediate. Despite the intermediate ssl-params, the TLS1.3 handshake looks to be established.

# openssl version                      
OpenSSL 1.1.1d  10 Sep 2019

# nginx -V                             
nginx version: nginx/1.16.1
built with OpenSSL 1.1.1d  10 Sep 2019
TLS SNI support enabled

# uname -a
Linux 5.4.15-arch1-1 

I'm using the following nginx-ssl params

ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;  # about 40000 sessions
ssl_session_tickets off;

# curl https://ssl-config.mozilla.org/ffdhe2048.txt > /path/to/dhparam.pem
ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/dhparam.pem;

# intermediate configuration
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECD
SA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:
ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;

# HSTS (ngx_http_headers_module is required) (63072000 seconds)
#add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000" always;

# OCSP stapling
#ssl_stapling on;
#ssl_stapling_verify on;

resolver 10.0.1.1;