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This documentation is for version 0.5.0 of nng, but the latest released version is v1.8.0. see the documentation for v1.8.0 for the most up-to-date information.
nng_tls(7)

SYNOPSIS

#include <nng/transport/tls/tls.h>

int nng_tls_register(void);

DESCRIPTION

The nng_tls transport provides communication support between nng sockets across a TCP/IP network using TLS v1.2 on top of TCP. Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported when the underlying platform also supports it.

The protocol details are documented in TLS Mapping for Scalability Protocols.

Registration

Depending upon how the library was built, it may be necessary to register the transport by calling nng_tls_register. This function returns zero on success, or an nng error value if the transport cannot be initialized for any reason.

Availability

The tls transport depends on the use of an external library. As of this writing, mbed TLS version 2.0 or later is required.

Applications may need to add this library (or libraries) to their link line, particularly when using a statically built nng library.
The mbed TLS library uses different licensing terms than nng itself; as of this writing it is offered under either Apache License 2.0 or GNU GPL terms. You are responsible for understanding and adhering to the license terms of any libraries you make use of.

URI Format

This transport uses URIs using the scheme tls+tcp://, followed by an IP address or hostname, followed by a colon and finally a TCP port number. For example, to contact port 4433 on the localhost either of the following URIs could be used: tls+tcp://127.0.0.1:4433 or tls+tcp://localhost:4433.

When specifying IPv6 addresses, the address must be enclosed in square brackets ([]) to avoid confusion with the final colon separating the port.

For example, the same port 4433 on the IPv6 loopback address ('::1') would be specified as tls+tcp://[::1]:4433.

When using symbolic names, the name is resolved when the name is first used. nng won’t become aware of changes in the name resolution until restart, usually.[1]
Certificate validation generally works when using names rather than IP addresses. This transport automatically uses the name supplied in the URL when validating the certificate supplied by the server.

The special value of 0 (INADDR_ANY) can be used for a listener to indicate that it should listen on all interfaces on the host. A short-hand for this form is to either omit the address, or specify the asterisk (*) character. For example, the following three URIs are all equivalent, and could be used to listen to port 9999 on the host:

  1. tls+tcp://0.0.0.0:9999

  2. tls+tcp://*:9999

  3. tls+tcp://:9999

The entire URI must be less than NNG_MAXADDRLEN bytes long.

Socket Address

When using an nng_sockaddr structure, the actual structure is either of type nng_sockaddr_in (for IPv4) or nng_sockaddr_in6 (for IPv6). These are struct types with the following definitions:

#define NNG_AF_INET    3 (1)
#define NNG_AF_INET6   4
#define NNG_MAXADDRLEN 128

typedef struct {
    // ... (2)
    uint16_t sa_family;                 // must be NNG_AF_INET
    uint16_t sa_port;                   // TCP port number
    uint32_t sa_addr;
    // ...
} nng_sockaddr_in;

typedef struct {
    // ... (2)
    uint16_t sa_family;                 // must be NNG_AF_INET6
    uint16_t sa_port;                   // TCP port number
    uint8_t  sa_addr[16];
    // ...
} nng_sockaddr_in6;
1 The values of these macros may change, so applications should avoid depending upon their values and instead use them symbolically.
2 Other members may be present, but only those listed here are suitable for application use.

The sa_family member will have the value NNG_AF_INET or NNG_AF_INET6. The sa_port and sa_addr are the TCP port number and address, both in network byte order (most significant byte is first).

Transport Options

The following transport options are available. Note that setting these must be done before the transport is started.

NNG_OPT_TLS_CONFIG

This option is used on an endpoint to access the underlying TLS configuration object. The value is of type nng_tls_config *.

Use this option when advanced TLS configuration is required.
NNG_OPT_TLS_CA_FILE

This is a write-only option used to load certificates associated associated private key from a file. See nng_tls_config_ca_file(3) for more information.

NNG_OPT_TLS_CERT_KEY_FILE

This is a write-only option used to load the local certificate and associated private key from a file. The private key used must be unencrypted. (Use the NNG_OPT_TLS_CONFIG option to access the underlying TLS configuration if more advanced configuration is needed.) See nng_tls_config_own_cert(3) for more information.

NNG_OPT_TLS_AUTH_MODE

This is a write-only option used to configure the authentication mode used. It can take an integer with value NNG_TLS_AUTH_MODE_NONE, NNG_TLS_AUTH_MODE_REQUIRED, or NNG_TLS_AUTH_MODE_OPTIONAL. See nng_tls_config_auth_mode(3) for more details.

NNG_OPT_TLS_VERIFIED

This is a read-only option which returns a boolean value (integer 0 or 1). It will true (1) if the remote peer has been properly verified using TLS authentication, or false (0) otherwise. This option may return incorrect results if peer authentication is disabled with NNG_TLS_AUTH_MODE_NONE.


1. This is a bug and will likely be fixed in the future.
NNG Reference Manual v0.5.0 © 2019 Staysail Systems, Inc, © 2018 Capitar IT Group BV
This document is supplied under the MIT License.
nanomsg™ and nng™ are trademarks of Garrett D'Amore.