17. Encryption

Overview

Zabbix supports encrypted communications between Zabbix components using Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol v.1.2 and 1.3 (depending on the crypto library). Certificate-based and pre-shared key-based encryption is supported.

Encryption can be configured for connections:

• Between Zabbix server, Zabbix proxy, Zabbix agent, zabbix_sender and zabbix_get utilities
• To Zabbix database from Zabbix frontend and server/proxy

Encryption is optional and configurable for individual components:

• Some proxies and agents can be configured to use certificate-based encryption with the server, while others can use pre-shared key-based encryption, and yet others continue with unencrypted communications (as before)
• Server (proxy) can use different encryption configurations for different hosts

Zabbix daemon programs use one listening port for encrypted and unencrypted incoming connections. Adding an encryption does not require opening new ports on firewalls.

Limitations

• Private keys are stored in plain text in files readable by Zabbix components during startup
• Pre-shared keys are entered in Zabbix frontend and stored in Zabbix database in plain text
• Built-in encryption does not protect communications:
  • Between the web server running Zabbix frontend and user web browser
  • Between Zabbix frontend and Zabbix server
• Currently each encrypted connection opens with a full TLS handshake, no session caching and tickets are implemented
• Adding encryption increases the time for item checks and actions, depending on network latency:
  • For example, if packet delay is 100ms then opening a TCP connection and sending unencrypted request takes around 200ms. With encryption about 1000 ms are added for establishing the TLS connection;
  • Timeouts may need to be increased, otherwise some items and actions running remote scripts on agents may work with unencrypted connections, but fail with timeout with encrypted.
• Encryption is not supported by network discovery. Zabbix agent checks performed by network discovery will be unencrypted and if Zabbix agent is configured to reject unencrypted connections such checks will not succeed.

Compiling Zabbix with encryption support

To support encryption Zabbix must be compiled and linked with one of the supported crypto libraries:

• GnuTLS - from version 3.1.18
• OpenSSL - versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 3.0.x
• LibreSSL - tested with versions 2.7.4, 2.8.2:
  • LibreSSL 2.6.x is not supported
  • LibreSSL is supported as a compatible replacement of OpenSSL; the new tls_*() LibreSSL-specific API functions are not used. Zabbix components compiled with LibreSSL will not be able to use PSK, only certificates can be used.

You can find out more about setting up SSL for Zabbix frontend by referring to these best practices.

The library is selected by specifying the respective option to “configure” script:

• --with-gnutls[=DIR]
• --with-openssl[=DIR] (also used for LibreSSL)

For example, to configure the sources for server and agent with OpenSSL you may use something like:

./configure --enable-server --enable-agent --with-mysql --enable-ipv6 --with-net-snmp --with-libcurl --with-libxml2 --with-openssl

Different Zabbix components may be compiled with different crypto libraries (e.g. a server with OpenSSL, an agent with GnuTLS).

If you plan to use pre-shared keys (PSK), consider using GnuTLS or OpenSSL 1.1.0 (or newer) libraries in Zabbix components using PSKs. GnuTLS and OpenSSL 1.1.0 libraries support PSK ciphersuites with Perfect Forward Secrecy. Older versions of the OpenSSL library (1.0.1, 1.0.2c) also support PSKs, but available PSK ciphersuites do not provide Perfect Forward Secrecy.

Connection encryption management

Connections in Zabbix can use:

• no encryption (default)
• RSA certificate-based encryption
• PSK-based encryption

There are two important parameters used to specify encryption between Zabbix components:

• TLSConnect - specifies what encryption to use for outgoing connections (unencrypted, PSK or certificate)
• TLSAccept - specifies what types of connections are allowed for incoming connections (unencrypted, PSK or certificate). One or more values can be specified.

TLSConnect is used in the configuration files for Zabbix proxy (in active mode, specifies only connections to server) and Zabbix agent (for active checks). In Zabbix frontend the TLSConnect equivalent is the Connections to host field in Data collection → Hosts → <some host> → Encryption tab and the Connections to proxy field in Administration → Proxies → <some proxy> → Encryption tab. If the configured encryption type for connection fails, no other encryption types will be tried.

TLSAccept is used in the configuration files for Zabbix proxy (in passive mode, specifies only connections from server) and Zabbix agent (for passive checks). In Zabbix frontend the TLSAccept equivalent is the Connections from host field in Data collection → Hosts → <some host> → Encryption tab and the Connections from proxy field in Administration → Proxies → <some proxy> → Encryption tab.

Normally you configure only one type of encryption for incoming encryptions. But you may want to switch the encryption type, e.g. from unencrypted to certificate-based with minimum downtime and rollback possibility. To achieve this:

• Set TLSAccept=unencrypted,cert in the agent configuration file and restart Zabbix agent
• Test connection with zabbix_get to the agent using certificate. If it works, you can reconfigure encryption for that agent in Zabbix frontend in the Data collection → Hosts → <some host> → Encryption tab by setting Connections to host to “Certificate”.
• When server configuration cache gets updated (and proxy configuration is updated if the host is monitored by proxy) then connections to that agent will be encrypted
• If everything works as expected you can set TLSAccept=cert in the agent configuration file and restart Zabbix agent. Now the agent will be accepting only encrypted certificate-based connections. Unencrypted and PSK-based connections will be rejected.

In a similar way it works on server and proxy. If in Zabbix frontend in host configuration Connections from host is set to “Certificate” then only certificate-based encrypted connections will be accepted from the agent (active checks) and zabbix_sender (trapper items).

Most likely you will configure incoming and outgoing connections to use the same encryption type or no encryption at all. But technically it is possible to configure it asymmetrically, e.g. certificate-based encryption for incoming and PSK-based for outgoing connections.

Encryption configuration for each host is displayed in the Zabbix frontend, in Data collection → Hosts in the Agent encryption column. For example:

Example	Connections to host	Allowed connections from host	Rejected connections from host
	Unencrypted	Unencrypted	Encrypted, certificate and PSK-based encrypted
	Encrypted, certificate-based	Encrypted, certificate-based	Unencrypted and PSK-based encrypted
	Encrypted, PSK-based	Encrypted, PSK-based	Unencrypted and certificate-based encrypted
	Encrypted, PSK-based	Unencrypted and PSK-based encrypted	Certificate-based encrypted
	Encrypted, certificate-based	Unencrypted, PSK or certificate-based encrypted	-

Connections are unencrypted by default. Encryption must be configured for each host and proxy individually.

zabbix_get and zabbix_sender with encryption

See zabbix_get and zabbix_sender manpages for using them with encryption.

Ciphersuites

Ciphersuites by default are configured internally during Zabbix startup and, before Zabbix 4.0.19, 4.4.7, are not user-configurable.

Since Zabbix 4.0.19, 4.4.7 also user-configured ciphersuites are supported for GnuTLS and OpenSSL. Users may configure ciphersuites according to their security policies. Using this feature is optional (built-in default ciphersuites still work).

For crypto libraries compiled with default settings Zabbix built-in rules typically result in the following ciphersuites (in order from higher to lower priority):

User-configured ciphersuites

The built-in ciphersuite selection criteria can be overridden with user-configured ciphersuites.

User-configured ciphersuites is a feature intended for advanced users who understand TLS ciphersuites, their security and consequences of mistakes, and who are comfortable with TLS troubleshooting.

The built-in ciphersuite selection criteria can be overridden using the following parameters:

To override the ciphersuite selection in zabbix_get and zabbix_sender utilities - use the command-line parameters:

• --tls-cipher13
• --tls-cipher

The new parameters are optional. If a parameter is not specified, the internal default value is used. If a parameter is defined it cannot be empty.

If the setting of a TLSCipher* value in the crypto library fails then the server, proxy or agent will not start and an error is logged.

It is important to understand when each parameter is applicable.

Outgoing connections

The simplest case is outgoing connections:

• For outgoing connections with certificate - use TLSCipherCert13 or TLSCipherCert
• For outgoing connections with PSK - use TLSCipherPSK13 and TLSCipherPSK
• In case of zabbix_get and zabbix_sender utilities the command-line parameters --tls-cipher13 and --tls-cipher can be used (encryption is unambiguously specified with a --tls-connect parameter)

Incoming connections

It is a bit more complicated with incoming connections because rules are specific for components and configuration.

For Zabbix agent:

For Zabbix server and proxy:

Some pattern can be seen in the two tables above:

• TLSCipherAll and TLSCipherAll13 can be specified only if a combined list of certificate- and PSK-based ciphersuites is used. There are two cases when it takes place: server (proxy) with a configured certificate (PSK ciphersuites are always configured on server, proxy if crypto library supports PSK), agent configured to accept both certificate- and PSK-based incoming connections
• in other cases TLSCipherCert* and/or TLSCipherPSK* are sufficient

The following tables show the TLSCipher* built-in default values. They could be a good starting point for your own custom values.

1 Default values are different for older OpenSSL versions (1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.0), for LibreSSL and if OpenSSL is compiled without PSK support.

** Examples of user-configured ciphersuites **

See below the following examples of user-configured ciphersuites:

• Testing cipher strings and allowing only PFS ciphersuites
• Switching from AES128 to AES256

Testing cipher strings and allowing only PFS ciphersuites

To see which ciphersuites have been selected you need to set ‘DebugLevel=4’ in the configuration file, or use the -vv option for zabbix_sender.

Some experimenting with TLSCipher* parameters might be necessary before you get the desired ciphersuites. It is inconvenient to restart Zabbix server, proxy or agent multiple times just to tweak TLSCipher* parameters. More convenient options are using zabbix_sender or the openssl command. Let’s show both.

1. Using zabbix_sender.

Let’s make a test configuration file, for example /home/zabbix/test.conf, with the syntax of a zabbix_agentd.conf file:

  Hostname=nonexisting
         ServerActive=nonexisting
         TLSConnect=cert
         TLSCAFile=/home/zabbix/ca.crt
         TLSCertFile=/home/zabbix/agent.crt
         TLSKeyFile=/home/zabbix/agent.key
         TLSPSKIdentity=nonexisting
         TLSPSKFile=/home/zabbix/agent.psk

You need valid CA and agent certificates and PSK for this example. Adjust certificate and PSK file paths and names for your environment.

If you are not using certificates, but only PSK, you can make a simpler test file:

  Hostname=nonexisting
         ServerActive=nonexisting
         TLSConnect=psk
         TLSPSKIdentity=nonexisting
         TLSPSKFile=/home/zabbix/agentd.psk

The selected ciphersuites can be seen by running zabbix_sender (example compiled with OpenSSL 1.1.d):

  $ zabbix_sender -vv -c /home/zabbix/test.conf -k nonexisting_item -o 1 2>&1 | grep ciphersuites
         zabbix_sender [41271]: DEBUG: zbx_tls_init_child() certificate ciphersuites: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA AES128-GCM-SHA256 AES128-CCM8 AES128-CCM AES128-SHA256 AES128-SHA
         zabbix_sender [41271]: DEBUG: zbx_tls_init_child() PSK ciphersuites: TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA PSK-AES128-GCM-SHA256 PSK-AES128-CCM8 PSK-AES128-CCM PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA
         zabbix_sender [41271]: DEBUG: zbx_tls_init_child() certificate and PSK ciphersuites: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA AES128-GCM-SHA256 AES128-CCM8 AES128-CCM AES128-SHA256 AES128-SHA ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA PSK-AES128-GCM-SHA256 PSK-AES128-CCM8 PSK-AES128-CCM PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA

Here you see the ciphersuites selected by default. These default values are chosen to ensure interoperability with Zabbix agents running on systems with older OpenSSL versions (from 1.0.1).

With newer systems you can choose to tighten security by allowing only a few ciphersuites, e.g. only ciphersuites with PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy). Let’s try to allow only ciphersuites with PFS using TLSCipher* parameters.

The result will not be interoperable with systems using OpenSSL 1.0.1 and 1.0.2, if PSK is used. Certificate-based encryption should work.

Add two lines to the test.conf configuration file:

  TLSCipherCert=EECDH+aRSA+AES128
         TLSCipherPSK=kECDHEPSK+AES128

and test again:

  $ zabbix_sender -vv -c /home/zabbix/test.conf -k nonexisting_item -o 1 2>&1 | grep ciphersuites            
         zabbix_sender [42892]: DEBUG: zbx_tls_init_child() certificate ciphersuites: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA        
         zabbix_sender [42892]: DEBUG: zbx_tls_init_child() PSK ciphersuites: TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA        
         zabbix_sender [42892]: DEBUG: zbx_tls_init_child() certificate and PSK ciphersuites: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA AES128-GCM-SHA256 AES128-CCM8 AES128-CCM AES128-SHA256 AES128-SHA ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA PSK-AES128-GCM-SHA256 PSK-AES128-CCM8 PSK-AES128-CCM PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA

The “certificate ciphersuites” and “PSK ciphersuites” lists have changed - they are shorter than before, only containing TLS 1.3 ciphersuites and TLS 1.2 ECDHE-* ciphersuites as expected.

2. TLSCipherAll and TLSCipherAll13 cannot be tested with zabbix_sender; they do not affect “certificate and PSK ciphersuites” value shown in the example above. To tweak TLSCipherAll and TLSCipherAll13 you need to experiment with the agent, proxy or server.

So, to allow only PFS ciphersuites you may need to add up to three parameters

  TLSCipherCert=EECDH+aRSA+AES128
         TLSCipherPSK=kECDHEPSK+AES128
         TLSCipherAll=EECDH+aRSA+AES128:kECDHEPSK+AES128

to zabbix_agentd.conf, zabbix_proxy.conf and zabbix_server_conf if each of them has a configured certificate and agent has also PSK.

If your Zabbix environment uses only PSK-based encryption and no certificates, then only one:

  TLSCipherPSK=kECDHEPSK+AES128

Now that you understand how it works you can test the ciphersuite selection even outside of Zabbix, with the openssl command. Let’s test all three TLSCipher* parameter values:

  $ openssl ciphers EECDH+aRSA+AES128 | sed 's/:/ /g'
         TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA
         $ openssl ciphers kECDHEPSK+AES128 | sed 's/:/ /g'
         TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA
         $ openssl ciphers EECDH+aRSA+AES128:kECDHEPSK+AES128 | sed 's/:/ /g'
         TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA

You may prefer openssl ciphers with option -V for a more verbose output:

  $ openssl ciphers -V EECDH+aRSA+AES128:kECDHEPSK+AES128
                   0x13,0x02 - TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384  TLSv1.3 Kx=any      Au=any  Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
                   0x13,0x03 - TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 TLSv1.3 Kx=any      Au=any  Enc=CHACHA20/POLY1305(256) Mac=AEAD
                   0x13,0x01 - TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256  TLSv1.3 Kx=any      Au=any  Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
                   0xC0,0x2F - ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
                   0xC0,0x27 - ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
                   0xC0,0x13 - ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA    TLSv1 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA1
                   0xC0,0x37 - ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA256 TLSv1 Kx=ECDHEPSK Au=PSK  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
                   0xC0,0x35 - ECDHE-PSK-AES128-CBC-SHA TLSv1 Kx=ECDHEPSK Au=PSK  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA1

Similarly, you can test the priority strings for GnuTLS:

  $ gnutls-cli -l --priority=NONE:+VERS-TLS1.2:+ECDHE-RSA:+AES-128-GCM:+AES-128-CBC:+AEAD:+SHA256:+CURVE-ALL:+COMP-NULL:+SIGN-ALL:+CTYPE-X.509
         Cipher suites for NONE:+VERS-TLS1.2:+ECDHE-RSA:+AES-128-GCM:+AES-128-CBC:+AEAD:+SHA256:+CURVE-ALL:+COMP-NULL:+SIGN-ALL:+CTYPE-X.509
         TLS_ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256                        0xc0, 0x2f      TLS1.2
         TLS_ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA256                        0xc0, 0x27      TLS1.2
         Protocols: VERS-TLS1.2
         Ciphers: AES-128-GCM, AES-128-CBC
         MACs: AEAD, SHA256
         Key Exchange Algorithms: ECDHE-RSA
         Groups: GROUP-SECP256R1, GROUP-SECP384R1, GROUP-SECP521R1, GROUP-X25519, GROUP-X448, GROUP-FFDHE2048, GROUP-FFDHE3072, GROUP-FFDHE4096, GROUP-FFDHE6144, GROUP-FFDHE8192
         PK-signatures: SIGN-RSA-SHA256, SIGN-RSA-PSS-SHA256, SIGN-RSA-PSS-RSAE-SHA256, SIGN-ECDSA-SHA256, SIGN-ECDSA-SECP256R1-SHA256, SIGN-EdDSA-Ed25519, SIGN-RSA-SHA384, SIGN-RSA-PSS-SHA384, SIGN-RSA-PSS-RSAE-SHA384, SIGN-ECDSA-SHA384, SIGN-ECDSA-SECP384R1-SHA384, SIGN-EdDSA-Ed448, SIGN-RSA-SHA512, SIGN-RSA-PSS-SHA512, SIGN-RSA-PSS-RSAE-SHA512, SIGN-ECDSA-SHA512, SIGN-ECDSA-SECP521R1-SHA512, SIGN-RSA-SHA1, SIGN-ECDSA-SHA1

Switching from AES128 to AES256

Zabbix uses AES128 as the built-in default for data. Let’s assume you are using certificates and want to switch to AES256, on OpenSSL 1.1.1.

This can be achieved by adding the respective parameters in zabbix_server.conf:

  TLSCAFile=/home/zabbix/ca.crt
         TLSCertFile=/home/zabbix/server.crt
         TLSKeyFile=/home/zabbix/server.key
         TLSCipherCert13=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
         TLSCipherCert=EECDH+aRSA+AES256:-SHA1:-SHA384
         TLSCipherPSK13=TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
         TLSCipherPSK=kECDHEPSK+AES256:-SHA1
         TLSCipherAll13=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
         TLSCipherAll=EECDH+aRSA+AES256:-SHA1:-SHA384

Although only certificate-related ciphersuites will be used, TLSCipherPSK* parameters are defined as well to avoid their default values which include less secure ciphers for wider interoperability. PSK ciphersuites cannot be completely disabled on server/proxy.

And in zabbix_agentd.conf:

  TLSConnect=cert
         TLSAccept=cert
         TLSCAFile=/home/zabbix/ca.crt
         TLSCertFile=/home/zabbix/agent.crt
         TLSKeyFile=/home/zabbix/agent.key
         TLSCipherCert13=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
         TLSCipherCert=EECDH+aRSA+AES256:-SHA1:-SHA384