Home
Securing
This section describes security features, including execution control lists, IDs, and TLS.
TLS security
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol that provides communications privacy and authentication for Domino® server tasks that operate over TCP/IP.
Requiring a TLS connection to a server
Require TLS connections when you want to make sure that clients use a secure connection to access databases on the server. You do this by redirecting connection requests that come in over the TCP/IP port to the TLS port. If you do not require an TLS connection, clients can use either TLS or TCP/IP to connect to the server.

Securing
This section describes security features, including execution control lists, IDs, and TLS.
- Overview of Domino security
  Setting up security for your organization is a critical task. Your security infrastructure is critical for protecting your organization's IT resources and assets. As an administrator, you need to give careful consideration to your organization's security requirements before you set up any servers or users. Up-front planning pays off later in minimizing the risks of compromised security.
- Server access for Notes® users, Internet users, and Domino® servers
  To control user and server access to other servers, Domino® uses the settings you specify on the Security tab in the Server document as well as the rules of validation and authentication. If a server validates and authenticates the Notes® user, Internet user, or server, and the settings in the Server document allow access, the user or server is allowed access to the server.
- The database access control list
  Every .NSF database has an access control list (ACL) that specifies the level of access that users and servers have to that database. Although the names of access levels are the same for users and servers, those assigned to users determine the tasks that they can perform in a database, while those assigned to servers determine what information within the database the servers can replicate. Only someone with Manager access can create or modify the ACL.
- Domino® server and Notes® user IDs
  Domino® uses ID files to identify users and to control access to servers. Every Domino server, Notes® certifier, and Notes user must have an ID.
- The execution control list
  You use an execution control list (ECL) to configure workstation data security. An ECL protects user workstations against active content from unknown or suspect sources, and can be configured to limit the action of any active content that does run on workstations.
- Domino® server-based certification authority
  You can set up a Domino® certifier that uses the CA process server task to manage and process certificate requests. The CA process runs as a process on Domino servers that are used to issue certificates. When you set up a Notes® or Internet certifier, you link it to the CA process on the server in order to take advantage of CA process activities. Only one instance of the CA process can run on a server; however, the process can be linked to multiple certifiers.
- TLS security
  Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol that provides communications privacy and authentication for Domino® server tasks that operate over TCP/IP.
  - Managing TLS certificates with Certificate Manager
    HCL Domino® 12 introduces a new server task, Certificate Manager (CertMgr), that works with a new database, Certificate Store (certstore.nsf) to manage TLS certificates in your Domino environment.
  - TLS port configuration
    The TLS protocol always provides an encrypted, integrity-checked, communications channel and authenticated server identity. TLS servers can be optionally configured to request various forms of client identity authentication.
  - Requiring a TLS connection to a server
    Require TLS connections when you want to make sure that clients use a secure connection to access databases on the server. You do this by redirecting connection requests that come in over the TCP/IP port to the TLS port. If you do not require an TLS connection, clients can use either TLS or TCP/IP to connect to the server.
  - Creating an Internet cross-certificate for server-to-server TLS
    One server can obtain an Internet cross-certificate from another server for the purposes of establishing trust. For example, if one server needs to access Directory Assistance on another server.
  - Setting up database access for TLS clients
    After you set up TLS on a Domino® server, you must give the clients access to databases on the server.
  - Modifying TLS cipher restrictions
    TLS uses public, private, and negotiated session keys. Every set of TLS credentials has one pair of keys -- a public key and private key -- and an X.509 certificate that enable certificate owners to identify themselves over the network and to use S/MIME to encrypt and sign messages. Certificates contain only the public half of the key pair. The private key is kept in the ID file for the Notes® client, and is kept in the key ring file or cerstore.nsf database in the case of the TLS server. Starting with Domino 12, Domino supports both RSA and ECDSA keys. For more information, see wn_ECDSA_cryptography.html.
  - Authenticating Web TLS clients in secondary Domino® and LDAP directories
    When a Web client authenticates with a server, by default, the server checks the primary HCL Domino® Directory to see if the client certificate exists in the Person document. If your organization uses a secondary Domino Directory and/or an LDAP directory to verify client certificates, you can set up Domino to check those additional directories. To do so, you set up the secondary Domino and LDAP directories as trusted domains in the Directory Assistance database.
  - TLS session resumption
    TLS session resumption greatly improves performance when using TLS by recalling information from a previous successful TLS session negotiation to bypass the most computationally intensive parts of the TLS session key negotiation. HTTP is the protocol that benefits the most from TLS session resumption, but other Internet protocols may benefit as well.
  - Managing TLS certificates without Certificate Manager
    If you do not manage certificates with Certificate Manager (CertMgr) and the Certificate Store (certstore.nsf) database, you generate and manage certificates manually, as described in this section.
- TLS and S/MIME for clients
  Clients can use a Domino® certificate authority (CA) application or a third-party CA to obtain certificates for secure TLS and S/MIME communication.
- Encryption
  Encryption protects data from unauthorized access.
- Name-and-password authentication for Internet/intranet clients
  Name-and-password authentication, also known as basic password authentication, uses a basic challenge/response protocol to ask users for their names and passwords and then verifies the accuracy of the passwords by checking them against a secure hash of the password stored in Person documents in the Domino® Directory.
- Time-based one-time password (TOTP) authentication
  When users log on to a Domino Web server, you can require that they provide time-based one-time passwords in addition to their user names and passwords.
- Multi-server session-based authentication (single sign-on)
  Multi-server session-based authentication, also known as single sign-on (SSO), allows Web users to log in once to a Domino® or WebSphere® server, and then access any other Domino or WebSphere servers in the same DNS domain that are enabled for single sign-on (SSO) without having to log in again.
- Using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) to configure federated-identity authentication
  Federated identity is a means of achieving single sign-on, providing user convenience and helping to reduce administrative cost. In Domino® and Notes®, federated identity for user authentication uses the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard from OASIS.
- Using OpenID Connect (OIDC) to configure federated-identity authentication
  Federated identity is a means of achieving single sign-on, providing user convenience and helping to reduce administrative cost. One way that client applications can authenticate users is by using an OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider.
- Using a credential store to store credentials
  A Domino® server can use a credential store application as a secure artifact repository. Examples of secure artifacts include authentication credentials and security keys.
- History of supported key sizes in Notes and Domino
  Understand the RSA key sizes supported by Notes® and Domino® from past releases to the current release.

Requiring a TLS connection to a server

Require TLS connections when you want to make sure that clients use a secure connection to access databases on the server. You do this by redirecting connection requests that come in over the TCP/IP port to the TLS port. If you do not require an TLS connection, clients can use either TLS or TCP/IP to connect to the server.

About this task

You can set up the redirection of TCP/IP to TLS for the HTTP, IMAP, and LDAP protocols only. POP3 and SMTP do not support the Redirect to TLS setting. You enable Redirect to TLS in one of two ways:

For HTTP clients, use a Web Site document.
For IMAP and LDAP clients, do this in the Server document.

To require TLS connections to a server in the Server document

Procedure

From the Domino® Administrator, click the Configuration tab, and open the Server document.
Click the Ports > Internet Ports tab.
Click the tab for the protocol for which you want to require TLS.
In the TCP/IP port status field, select Redirect to TLS.

For individual databases

About this task

You can also require clients to use TLS to connect to the server on a database-by-database basis, by configuring the requirement to connect with TLS in the database application itself.

Procedure

From the Notes® client, select the database for which you want to force clients to use TLS.
Open the Database Properties box.
On the Basics tab, click Web Access: Require TLS connection.