page.title=Network Security Configuration
page.keywords=androidn,security,network
page.image=images/cards/card-nyc_2x.jpg
@jd:body
<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">
<h2>In this document</h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="#manifest">Adding a Security Configuration File</a></li>
<li><a href="#CustomTrust">Customizing Trusted CAs</a>
<ol>
<li><a href="#ConfigCustom">Configuring a Trusted Custom CA</a></li>
<li><a href="#LimitingCas">Limiting the Set of Trusted CAs</a></li>
<li><a href="#TrustingAdditionalCas">Trusting Additional CAs</a></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><a href="#TrustingDebugCa">Debugging-only CAs</a></li>
<li><a href="#CleartextTrafficPermitted">Opting Out of Cleartext Traffic</a></li>
<li><a href="#CertificatePinning">Pinning Certificates</a></li>
<li><a href="#ConfigInheritance">Configuration Inheritance Behavior</a></li>
<li><a href="#FileFormat">Configuration File Format</a></li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Android N includes a Network Security Configuration
feature that lets apps customize their network security settings in a safe,
declarative configuration file without modifying app code. These settings can
be configured for specific domains and for a specific app. The key
capabilities of this feature are as follows:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<b>Custom trust anchors:</b> Customize which Certificate Authorities (CA)
are trusted for an app's secure connections. For
example, trusting particular self-signed certificates or restricting the
set of public CAs that the app trusts.
</li>
<li>
<b>Debug-only overrides:</b> Safely debug secure connections in an app
without added risk to the installed base.
</li>
<li>
<b>Cleartext traffic opt-out:</b> Protect apps from from
accidental usage of cleartext traffic.
</li>
<li>
<b>Certificate pinning:</b> Restrict an app's secure connection to
particular certificates.
</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="manifest">Adding a Security Configuration File</h2>
<p>
The Network Security Configuration feature uses an XML file where you specify
the settings for your app. You must include an entry in the manifest of your
app to point to this file. The following code excerpt from a manifest
demonstrates how to create this entry:
</p>
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest ... >
<application android:networkSecurityConfig="@xml/network_security_config"
... >
...
</application>
</manifest>
</pre>
<h2 id="CustomTrust">Customizing Trusted CAs</h2>
<p>
An app may want to trust a custom set of CAs instead of the platform
default. The most common reasons of this are:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Connecting to a host with a custom certificate authority(self-signed,
issued by an internal corporate CA, etc).
</li>
<li>Limiting the set of CAs to only the CAs you trust instead of every
preinstalled CA.
</li>
<li>Trusting additional CAs not included in the system.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
By default secure (e.g. TLS, HTTPS) connections from all apps trust
the pre-installed system CAs, and apps targeting API level 23
(Android M) and below also trust the user-added CA store by default. An
app can customize its own connections using {@code base-config} (for
app-wide customization) or {@code domain-config} (for per-domain
customization).
</p>
<h3 id="ConfigCustom">Configuring a Custom CA</h3>
<p>
Assume you want to connect to your host which uses a self-signed SSL
certificate or to a host whose SSL certificate is issued by a non-public CA
which you trust, such as your company's internal CA.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<domain-config>
<domain includeSubdomains="true">example.com</domain>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="@raw/my_ca"/>
</trust-anchors>
</domain-config>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<p>
Add the self-signed or non-public CA certificate, in PEM or DER format, to
{@code res/raw/my_ca}.
</p>
<h3 id="LimitingCas">Limiting the Set of Trusted CAs</h3>
<p>
An app that does not want to trust all CAs trusted by system can
instead specify its own reduced set of CAs to trust. This protects the
app from fradulent certificates issued by any of the other CAs.
</p>
<p>
The config to limit the set of trusted CAs is similar to <a href=
"#TrustingACustomCa">trusting a custom CA</a> for a specific domain except
that multiple CAs are provided in the resource.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<domain-config>
<domain includeSubdomains="true">secure.example.com</domain>
<domain includeSubdomains="true">cdn.example.com</domain>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="@raw/trusted_roots"/>
</trust-anchors>
</domain-config>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<p>
Add the trusted CAs, in PEM or DER format, to {@code res/raw/trusted_roots}.
Note that if using PEM format the file must contain <em>only</em> PEM data
and no extra text. You can also provide multiple
<a href="#certificates"><code><certificates></code></a>
elements instead of one.
</p>
<h3 id="TrustingAdditionalCas">
Trusting Additional CAs
</h3>
<p>
An app may want to trust additional CAs not trusted by the system,
this could be due to the system not yet including the CA or a CA that does
not meet the requirements for inclusion into the Android system. An
app can do this by specifying multiple certificate sources for a
configuration.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<base-config>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="@raw/extracas"/>
<certificates src="system"/>
</trust-anchors>
</base-config>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<h2 id="TrustingDebugCa">Configuring CAs for Debugging</h2>
<p>
When debugging an app that connects over HTTPS you may want to
connect to a local development server, which does not have the SSL
certificate for your production server. In order to support this without any
modification to your app's code you can specify debug-only CAs that
are <i>only</i> trusted when <a href=
"{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/application-element.html#debug">
android:debuggable</a>
is {@code true} by using {@code debug-overrides}. Normally IDEs and build
tools set this flag automatically for non-release builds.
</p>
<p>
This is safer than the usual conditional code because, as a security
precaution, app stores do not accept apps which are marked
debuggable.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<debug-overrides>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="@raw/debug_cas"/>
</trust-anchors>
</debug-overrides>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<h2 id="CleartextTrafficPermitted">Opting Out of Cleartext Traffic</h2>
<p>
Applications intending to connect to destinations using only secure
connections can opt-out of supporting cleartext (using unencrypted HTTP
protocol instead of HTTPS) to those destinations. This option helps prevent
accidental regressions in apps due to changes in URLs provided by external
sources such as backend servers.
See {@link android.security.NetworkSecurityPolicy#isCleartextTrafficPermitted
NetworkSecurityPolicy.isCleartextTrafficPermitted()} for more details.
</p>
<p>
For example, an app may want to ensure that all connections to {@code
secure.example.com} are always done over HTTPS to protect sensitive traffic
from hostile networks.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<domain-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="false">
<domain includeSubdomains="true">secure.example.com</domain>
</domain-config>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<h2 id="CertificatePinning">Pinning Certificates</h2>
<p>
Normally an app trusts all preinstalled CAs. If any of these CAs were
to issue a fradulent certificate the app would be at risk from a MiTM
attack. Some apps choose to limit the set of certificates they accept
by either limiting the set of CAs they trust or by certificate pinning.
</p>
<p>
Certificate pinning is done by providing a set of certificates by hash of the
public key (SubjectPublicKeyInfo of the X.509 certificate). A certificate
chain is then only valid if the certificate chain contains at least one of
the pinned public keys.
</p>
<p>
Note that when using certificate pinning you should always include a backup
key so that if you are forced to switch to new keys, or change CAs (when
pinning to a CA certificate or an intermediate of that CA), your
app's connectivity is unaffected. Otherwise you must to push out
an update to the app to restore connectivity.
</p>
<p>
Additionally it is possible to set an expiration time for pins after which
pinning is not performed. This helps prevent connectivity issues in
apps which have not been updated. However, setting an expiration time
on pins may enable pinning bypass.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<domain-config>
<domain includeSubdomains="true">example.com</domain>
<pin-set expiration="2018-01-01">
<pin digest="SHA-256">7HIpactkIAq2Y49orFOOQKurWxmmSFZhBCoQYcRhJ3Y=</pin>
<!-- backup pin -->
<pin digest="SHA-256">fwza0LRMXouZHRC8Ei+4PyuldPDcf3UKgO/04cDM1oE=</pin>
</pin-set>
</domain-config>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<h2 id="ConfigInheritance">Configuration Inheritance Behavior</h2>
<p>
Values not set in a specific config are inherited. This behavior allows more
complex configurations while keeping the configuration file readable.
</p>
<p>
If a value is not set in a specific entry then value from the next more
general entry is used. Values not set in a {@code domain-config} is
taken from the parent {@code domain-config}, if nested, or from the {@code
base-config} if not. Values not set in the {@code base-config} uses the
platform default values.
</p>
<p>
For example consider, where all connections to subdomains of {@code
example.com} must use a custom set of CAs. Additonally cleartext traffic to
these domains is permitted <em>except</em> when connecting to {@code
secure.example.com}. By nesting the configuration for {@code
secure.example.com} inside the configuration for {@code example.com} the
{@code trust-anchors} does not need to be duplicated.
</p>
<p>
<code>res/xml/network_security_config.xml</code>:
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<domain-config>
<domain includeSubdomains="true">example.com</domain>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="@raw/my_ca"/>
</trust-anchors>
<domain-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="false">
<domain includeSubdomains="true">secure.example.com</domain>
</domain-config>
</domain-config>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
</p>
<h2 id="FileFormat">Configuration File Format</h2>
<p>
The Network Security Configuration feature uses an XML file format.
The overall structure of the file is shown in the following code sample:
</p>
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<network-security-config>
<base-config>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="..."/>
...
</trust-anchors>
</base-config>
<domain-config>
<domain>android.com</domain>
...
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="..."/>
...
</trust-anchors>
<pin-set>
<pin digest="...">...</pin>
...
</pin-set>
</domain-config>
...
<debug-overrides>
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="..."/>
...
</trust-anchors>
</debug-overrides>
</network-security-config>
</pre>
<p>
The following sections describe the syntax and other details of the file
format.
</p>
<h3 id="network-security-config">
<network-security-config>
</h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
can contain:
</dt>
<dd>
0 or 1 of <code><a href="#base-config"><base-config></a></code><br>
Any number of <code><a href=
"#domain-config"><domain-config></a></code><br>
0 or 1 of <code><a href="#debug-overrides"><debug-overrides></a></code>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="base-config">
<base-config>
</h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
syntax:
</dt>
</dl>
<pre class="stx">
<base-config <a href=
"#CleartextTrafficPermitted">cleartextTrafficPermitted</a>=["true" | "false"]>
...
</base-config>
</pre>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
can contain:
</dt>
<dd>
<code><a href="#trust-anchors"><trust-anchors></a></code>
</dd>
<dt>
description:
</dt>
<dd>
The default configuration used by all connections whose destination is not
covered by a <a href="#domain-config"><code>domain-config</code></a>.
<p>
Any values that are not set use the platform default values. The default
configuration for apps targeting above API level 24 and above:
</p>
<pre>
<base-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="true">
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="system" />
</trust-anchors>
</base-config>
</pre>
The default configuration for apps targeting API level 23 and below is:
<pre>
<base-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="true">
<trust-anchors>
<certificates src="system" />
<certificates src="user" />
</trust-anchors>
</base-config>
</pre>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="domain-config"><domain-config></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>syntax:</dt>
<dd>
<pre class="stx"><domain-config <a href="#CleartextTrafficPermitted">cleartextTrafficPermitted</a>=["true" | "false"]>
...
</domain-config></pre>
</dd>
<dt>Can Contain:</dt>
<dd>
1 or more <code><a href="#domain"><domain></a></code>
<br/>0 or 1 <code><a href="#trust-anchors"><trust-anchors></a></code>
<br/>0 or 1 <code><a href="#pin-set"><pin-set></code></a>
<br/>Any number of nested <code><domain-config></code></dd>
<dt>Description</dt>
<dd>Configuration used for connections to specific destinations as the defined by {@code domain} elements.
<p>Note that if multiple {@code domain-config} elements cover a destination the config with the most specific (longest)
matching domain rule is used.</p></dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="domain"><domain></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
syntax:
</dt>
<dd>
<pre class="stx">
<domain includeSubdomains=["true" | "false"]>example.com</domain>
</pre>
</dd>
<dt>
Attributes:
</dt>
<dd>
<dl class="attr">
<dt>
{@code includeSubdomains}
</dt>
<dd>
If {@code "true"} then this domain rule matches the domain and all
subdomains, including subdomains of subdomains, otherwise the rule only
applies to exact matches.
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>
Description:
</dt>
</dl>
<h3 id="debug-overrides"><debug-overrides></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
syntax:
</dt>
<dd>
<pre class="stx">
<debug-overrides>
...
</debug-overrides>
</pre>
</dd>
<dt>
Can Contain:
</dt>
<dd>
0 or 1 <code><a href="#trust-anchors"><trust-anchors></a></code>
</dd>
<dt>
Description:
</dt>
<dd>
Overrides to be applied when <a href=
"{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/application-element.html#debug">android:debuggable</a>
is {@code "true"} which is normally the case for non-release builds
generated by IDEs and build tools. Trust anchors specified in {@code
debug-overrides} are added to all other configurations and certificate
pinning is not performed when the server's certificate chain uses one of
these debug-only trust anchors. If <a href=
"{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/application-element.html#debug">android:debuggable</a>
is {@code "false"} then this section is completely ignored.
</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="trust-anchors"><trust-anchors></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
syntax:
</dt>
<dd>
<pre class="stx">
<trust-anchors>
...
</trust-anchors>
</pre>
</dd>
<dt>
Can Contain:
</dt>
<dd>
Any number of <code><a href="#certificates"><certificates></a></code>
</dd>
<dt>
Description:
</dt>
<dd>
Set of trust anchors for secure connections.
</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="certificates"><certificates></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>syntax:</dt>
<dd><pre class="stx"><certificates src=["system" | "user" | "<i>raw resource</i>"]
overridePins=["true" | "false"] />
</pre></dd>
<dt>description:</dt>
<dd>Set of X.509 certificates for {@code trust-anchors} elements.</dd>
<dt>attributes:</dt>
<dd><dl class="attr">
<dt>{@code src}</dt>
<dd>
The source of CA certificates, can be one of
<ul>
<li>a raw resource id pointing to a file containing X.509 certificates.
Certificates must be encoded in DER or PEM format. In the case of PEM
certificates the file <em>must not</em> contain extra non-PEM data such as
comments.
</li>
<li>{@code "system"} for the pre-installed system CA certificates
</li>
<li>{@code "user"} for user-added CA certificates
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt>{@code overridePins}</dt>
<dd>
<p>
Specifies if the CAs from this source bypass certificate pinning. If {@code
"true"} then certificate chains which chain through one of the CAs from this
source then pinning is not be performed. This can be useful for debug CAs
or to support letting the user MiTM your app's secure traffic.
</p>
<p>
Default is {@code "false"} unless specified in a {@code debug-overrides}
element, in which case the default is {@code "true"}.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<h3 id="pin-set"><pin-set></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
syntax:
</dt>
<dd>
<pre class="stx">
<pin-set expiration="date">
...
</pin-set>
</pre>
</dd>
<dt>
Can Contain:
</dt>
<dd>
Any number of <code><a href="#pin"><pin></a></code>
</dd>
<dt>
Description:
</dt>
<dd>
A set of public key pins. For a secure connection to be trusted, one of the
public keys in the chain of trust must be in the set of pins. See
<code><a href="#pin"><pin></a></code> for the format of pins.
</dd>
<dt>
Attributes:
</dt>
<dd>
<dl class="attr">
<dt>
{@code expiration}
</dt>
<dd>
The date, in {@code yyyy-MM-dd} format, at and after which the pins
expire, thus disabling pinning. If the attribute is not set then the
pins do not expire.
<p>
Expiration helps prevent connectivity issues in apps which do
not get updates to their pin set, for example because the user
disabled app updates.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="pin"><pin></h3>
<dl class="xml">
<dt>
syntax:
</dt>
<dd>
<pre class="stx">
<pin digest=["SHA-256"]>base64 encoded digest of X.509
SubjectPublicKeyInfo (SPKI)</pin>
</pre>
</dd>
<dt>
Attributes:
</dt>
<dd>
<dl class="attr">
<dt>
{@code digest}
</dt>
<dd>
The digest algorithm used to generate the pin. Currently only
{@code "SHA-256"} is supported.
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>