Configure MongoDB for FIPS (original) (raw)

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) is a U.S. government computer security standard used to certify software modules and libraries that encrypt and decrypt data securely. You can configure MongoDB to run with a FIPS 140-2 certified library for OpenSSL. Configure FIPS to run by default or as needed from the command line.

A full description of FIPS and TLS/SSL is beyond the scope of this document. This tutorial assumes prior knowledge of FIPS and TLS/SSL.

Important

MongoDB and FIPS

FIPS is a property of the encryption system and not the access control system. However, if your environment requires FIPS compliant encryption and access control, you must ensure that the access control system uses only FIPS-compliant encryption.

MongoDB's FIPS support covers the way that MongoDB uses SSL/TLS libraries for network encryption, SCRAM authentication, and X.509 authentication. If you use Kerberos or LDAP authentication, you must ensure that these external mechanisms are FIPS-compliant.

Note

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

FIPS mode is only available with MongoDB Enterprise edition. SeeInstall MongoDB Enterprise to download and installMongoDB Enterprise.

FIPS mode is supported on the following platforms:

Starting in MongoDB 6.0.7, FIPS mode supportsOpenSSL3for the following operating systems:

• Ubuntu 22.04
• RHEL 9
• Amazon Linux 2023

Starting in MongoDB 8.0, FIPS mode supports OpenSSL3 for Amazon Linux 2023.3.

Select the tab below for your platform:

Your Linux system must have an OpenSSL library configured with the FIPS 140-2 module in order to support FIPS mode for MongoDB.

• Verify that your OpenSSL software includes FIPS support by running the following command:
• For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x (RHEL 6.x) or its derivatives such as CentOS 6.x, the OpenSSL toolkit must be at least versionopenssl-1.0.1e-16.el6_5 to use FIPS mode. To upgrade the OpenSSL library on these platforms, run the following command:
• Some versions of Linux periodically execute a process to prelink dynamic libraries with pre-assigned addresses. This process modifies the OpenSSL libraries, specifically libcrypto. The OpenSSL FIPS mode will subsequently fail the signature check performed upon startup to ensure libcrypto has not been modified since compilation.
  To configure the Linux prelink process to not prelink libcrypto, run the following command:

sudo bash -c "echo '-b /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.*' >>/etc/prelink.conf.d/openssl-prelink.conf"  

Once you have configured your Linux system to support FIPS-compliant operation, follow the steps below to configure yourmongod or mongos instance to operate in FIPS mode.

See Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL for details about configuring your deployment to use TLS/SSL. Ensure that your certificate is FIPS-compliant.

Perform these steps after you Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

To configure your mongod or mongos instance to use FIPS mode, shut down the instance and update the configuration file with the net.tls.FIPSMode setting:

For example, run this command to start the mongod instance with its configuration file:

mongod --config /etc/mongod.conf

Check the server log file for a message that FIPS is active:

FIPS 140-2 mode activated

Microsoft provides the following resource on configuring FIPS mode for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 or later:

➤ FIPS 140-2 Validation on Windows

Once you have configured your Windows system to support FIPS-compliant operation, follow the steps below to configure yourmongod or mongos instance to operate in FIPS mode.

See Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL for details about configuring your deployment to use TLS/SSL. Ensure that your certificate is FIPS-compliant.

Perform these steps after you Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

To configure your mongod or mongos instance to use FIPS mode, shut down the instance and update the configuration file with the net.tls.FIPSMode setting:

For example, run this command to start the mongod instance with its configuration file:

mongod.exe --config /etc/mongod.conf

Check the server log file for a message that FIPS is active:

FIPS 140-2 mode activated

Supported versions of macOS are FIPS-compliant by default. Check the documentation for your version of macOS to verify its compliance status. For example, Apple provides the following resource for macOS 10.14:

➤ Apple FIPS Cryptographic Modules for 10.14

On compliant versions of macOS, follow the steps below to configure yourmongod or mongos instance to operate in FIPS mode.

See Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL for details about configuring your deployment to use TLS/SSL. Ensure that your certificate is FIPS-compliant.

Perform these steps after you Configure mongod and mongos for TLS/SSL.

To configure your mongod or mongos instance to use FIPS mode, shut down the instance and update the configuration file with the net.tls.FIPSMode setting:

For example, run this command to start the mongod instance with its configuration file:

mongod --config /etc/mongod.conf

Check the server log file for a message that FIPS is active:

FIPS 140-2 mode activated

Starting in MongoDB 5.1, instances running inFIPS mode have theSCRAM-SHA-1 authentication mechanismdisabled by default. You can enable the SCRAM-SHA-1 authentication mechanism with thesetParameter.authenticationMechanisms command.

This change will not affect drivers which target MongoDBsetFeatureCompatibilityVersion 4.0+.

If you use SCRAM-SHA-1:

• md5 is necessary but is not used for cryptographic purposes, and
• if you use FIPS mode, then instead ofSCRAM-SHA-1 use:
  • SCRAM-SHA-256,
  • Kerberos,
  • LDAP, or
  • X.509

If you configure mongod and mongos to use FIPS mode, mongod and mongos use FIPS-compliant connections.

The following programs no longer support the--sslFIPSMode option:

• mongodump
• mongoexport
• mongofiles
• mongoimport
• mongorestore
• mongostat
• mongotop

If you configure mongod and mongos to use FIPS mode, the preceding database tools use FIPS-compliant connections automatically.

The default mongosh distribution:

• Contains OpenSSL 3.
• Uses FIPS-compliant connections to mongod andmongos if you configure mongod and mongos to use FIPS mode.

MongoDB also provides a MongoDB Shell distribution that can use:

• OpenSSL 1.1 and OpenSSL 3 installed on your server.
• --tlsFIPSMode option, which enables the mongosh FIPS mode.

See also:

• To download MongoDB Shell distributions that contain OpenSSL 1.1 and OpenSSL 3, go to the MongoDB Download Center.
• Install mongosh