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Description of problem:

NSS claims fips mode does not support PBKDF2. However, these sources indicate otherwise:

PBKDF2 is just multiround SHA, which is fips approved. According to this, it's allowed at l1

https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/projects/cryptographic-module-validation-program/documents/security-policies/140sp2261.pdf

This doc indicates likelihood that PBKDF2_SHA256 is fips allowed,

https://godoc.org/golang.org/x/crypto/pbkdf2

And openssl are supporting pbkdf2 in their fips module.

https://wiki.openssl.org/index.php/FIPS_module_3.0

NIST recommends PBKDF2 and if I interpret section 5.3 correctly, they approve it for fips provided the hmac is approved (sha256 is approved). 

http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-132.pdf


As we support pbkdf2 in Directory Server, we want to clarify this, as it's important for us to understand NSS' support for this feature, and to clarify that today, in fips mode NSS may not correctly be support supporting PBKDF2 which is a valid FIPS algorithm.

Do I get it right that this is some kind of documentation bug?

Could you provide more info on where does NSS claim that pbkdf2 is not allowed in FIPS140 mode? Which document did you follow?

Nikos,

we now see RHEL IdM failing to install in FIPS mode because 389-ds defaults to use of PBKDF2_SHA256. We need clarification for this.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1656418