FIPS 140-2 Compliancy with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

This article describes Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 compliancy with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Applies to:   Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Original KB number:   2691911

Summary

Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140 - Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules [FIPS 140] is a U.S. Federal government standard that defines a minimum set of security requirements for products that implement cryptography. The standard is designed for cryptographic modules that are used to help secure sensitive, but unclassified information.

FIPS 140-1, the original working version of the standard, became official on January 11, 1994 and was in effect until May 25, 2002, when FIPS 140-2 became the mandatory standard for new products. Testing against the FIPS 140 standard is maintained by the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP), a joint effort between the National Institute of Standards (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment of Canada (CSEC).

Microsoft Windows has a long history of participation in the CVMP under FIPS 140-2.

In most cases, the CMVP doesn't certify the whole application space, only the critical cryptographic service components. So the specific modules that have successfully completed the testing program can claim to be FIPS Certified. All other higher layer applications that use these certified components can be said to be FIPS compliant or Operating in FIPS mode or uses FIPS technology.

Requirements for FIPS 140-2 Compliance with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Setting up a FIPS compliant operating environment requires running the following ones:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x64
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 UR3 or a later version
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 x64

Windows Server

The first step in configuring a FIPS 140-2 compliant operating environment is to configure the computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x64 by enabling the FIPS security setting. To enable the Windows Server FIPS security setting either in the Local Security Policy or as part of Group Policy, follow these steps:

1. Using an account that has administrative credentials, sign in to a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 x64 on which any of the CRM Server roles are installed.

2. Select Start, select Run, type gpedit.msc, and then press ENTER.

3. In the Local Group Policy Editor, under the Computer Configuration node, double-click Windows Settings, and then double-click Security Settings.

4. Under the Security Settings node, double-click Local Policies, and then select Security Options.

5. In the details pane, double-click System cryptography: Use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing.

6. In the System cryptography: Use FIPS-compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing dialog box, select Enabled, and then select OK to close the dialog box.

7. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.

   For more information, see FIPS 140-2 Validation.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Enabling FIPS compliant operations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 UR3 or a later version requires modifying the registry on the computer that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server so that the value of the MSCRMFIPFSCompliance registry key to 1.

To enable FIPS compliant operations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 UR3 or a later version, follow these steps:

1. Using an account that has administrative credentials, sign in to a computer that is running Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011 UR3 or a later version.

2. Select Start, select Run, type regedit, and then select OK.

3. Locate and then select the specific registry subkey for the computer. For example, on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server, locate Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM\.

4. Right-click the registry subkey, and then select New.

5. Select DWord Value, and then type MSCRMFIPSCompliance.

6. Right-click MSCRMFIPSCompliance, select Modify, choose Decimal, type 1, and then select OK.

7. Save the changes to the registry and close the Registry Editor. When the SQL Server 2008 service detects that FIPS mode is enabled at startup, SQL Server 2008 logs the following message in the SQL Server error log.

   Although the article is focused on FIPS compliancy in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, the information also applies to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Microsoft SQL Server

When the SQL Server 2008 service detects that FIPS mode is enabled at startup, SQL Server 2008 logs the following message in the SQL Server error log:

Service Broker transport is running in FIPS compliance mode

Additionally, the following message may be logged in the Application log:

Database Mirroring transport is running in FIPS compliance mode

To make sure that the server is running in FIPS compliant mode, locate and verify the existence of the first (and possibly the second) message.

In addition, to make sure that Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is operating in a FIPS compliant mode, on the computer that is running Microsoft SQL Server, you must run the following script:

USE MSCRM_CONFIG
GO
UPDATE CrmKeySettingProperties SET CrmKeySettingProperties.NVarCharColumn= 
'HMACSHA1'
FROM CrmKeySettingProperties CrmKeySettingProperties 
JOIN CrmKeySetting 
ON CrmKeySettingProperties.Id = CrmKeySetting.Id
WHERE CrmKeySettingProperties.ColumnName = 'Algorithm'
AND CrmKeySetting.KeyType in ('CrmTicketKey', 'CrmWRPCTokenKey', 
'CrmEmailCredentialsKey', 'CrmStaticVersionSiteKey', 
'CrmStaticVersionScaleGroupKey')

For more information, see Instructions for using SQL Server 2008 in FIPS 140-2-compliant mode.

Special considerations for Deployments with Windows Network Load Balancing

For Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 deployments with Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB), compliancy with FIPS 140-2 requires that configuration change to the .NET machine config.xml file on the CRM Web Servers.

To ensure FIPS compliancy for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 implementations leveraging NLB, follow these steps:

1. Using an account that has administrative credentials, sign in to a computer serving as the CRM Web Server.

2. Browse to the folder C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config, and then open the file that is named machine.config.

3. In the file, under any existing <mscorlib> .....</mscorlib> elements, between the </system.web> and the </configuration> elements, add the following text:

   <mscorlib>
   <cryptographySettings>
   <cryptoNameMapping>
   <cryptoClasses>
   <cryptoClass
   SHA256CSP="System.Security.Cryptography.SHA256CryptoServiceProvider, System.Core, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
   PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
   <cryptoClass
   RijndaelCSP="System.Security.Cryptography.AesCryptoServiceProvider, System.Core, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
   </cryptoClasses>
   <nameEntry
   name="SHA256"
   class="SHA256CSP" />
   <nameEntry
   name="https://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#aes256-cbc"
   class="RijndaelCSP" />
   </cryptoNameMapping>
   </cryptographySettings>
   </mscorlib>
   

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Email Router

Add Registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSCRM Email\MSCRMFIPSCompliance = 1 (Dword) on Email Router server, then install Email Router.

More information

If the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 platform is configured by using the procedures here, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 will exclusively use FIPS Certified algorithms and components for all covered cryptographic functions and will be operating in FIPS 140-2 compliant mode.