ID: 13610
Title: Notification spooler connections can now be encrypted
Component: Notifications
Level: 2
Class: New feature
Version: 2.1.0i1
Notification spooler (mknotifyd) connections communicated via a plain text procotol
since its introduction. This is ok for local connections or in secure networks.
To secure the connections users had the choice to use TLS (e.g. via stunnel), SSH, VPN
or another solution that encrypts the communication in their local setup.
To improve the security for all users it is now possible to configure the encryption
via TLS directly in Checkmk. An analyze configuration test will create a CRITICAL
message about unencrypted mknotifyd connections.
After an update from Checkmk version 2.0 the encryption setting for existing, outgoing
connections is "Use unverified TLS encryption, fall back to plain text" and
"Plain text
communication" for existing, incoming connections. This way mknotifyd connections
remain
functional after an update and may be migrated gradually to encrypted connections in
larger setups.
To encrypt mknotifyd connections between two sites, you have to update both sites to
Checkmk version 2.1. Afterwards you have to adapt the "Notification spooler
configuration"
in the "Global settings". For incoming and outgoing connections you have to set
the
"Encryption" to "Encrypt communication with TLS". After an activate
changes the
communication is encrypted. For new incoming and ougoing connections "Encrypt
communication with TLS" is the default.
Internally, mknotifyd connections use the internal CA that is used by livestatus as well.
To support outgoing connections from a remote site to a central site, the CA of the
central site is added to the "Trusted certificate authorities for SSL" in the
"Global
settings" for new sites and during an update from version 2.0.