Federal Information Processing Standards

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are standards and guidelines issued by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for federal government computer systems. FIPS are developed when there are compelling federal government requirements for standards, such as for security and interoperability, but acceptable industry standards or solutions do not exist.

WebSphere Portal Express tolerates WebSphere Application Server's support of FIPS 140-2. WebSphere Application Server integrates cryptographic modules such as Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) and Java Cryptography Extension (JCE), which are FIPS 140-2 certified. Throughout the documentation and the product, the FIPS 140-2 certified IBM JSSE and JCE modules are referred to as IBMJSSEFIPS and IBMJCEFIPS, which distinguishes the FIPS-certified modules from the prior, non-certified IBM JSSE and IBM JCE modules.

The FIPS 140-2 compliant toleration means that WebSphere Portal Express will continue to work after WebSphere Application Server is configured to activate FIPS 140-2 compliant security modules. The WebSphere Portal Express product has no self-contained cryptographic support and as a result is unaware of the module differences. Functions in WebSphere Portal Express that use encryption include:

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections inbound from clients (but this is basically the WebSphere Application Server and HTTP Server support for SSL connections, and is transparent to WebSphere Portal Express)
Internal connections between WebSphere Portal Express administrative functions and WebSphere Application Server administrative services (invoked, for example, when deploying a portlet which must create a Web application in WebSphere Application Server)

It is assumed, though not required, that all the connections listed above will be carried over SSL using FIPS-compliant encryption. Without FIPS 140-2 support connections may not be encrypted. And there is no requirement that every connection be SSL, even with FIPS-enabled cryptography over TLS, but again your connection may not be encrypted.

Important: FIPS 140-2 enablement requires HTTP Server and LDAP server versions that provide support for FIPS 140-2. Consult the documentation for your HTTP server and LDAP server to determine your level of support.

Limitations

There are some restrictions in the level of support that WebSphere Portal Express provides in using FIPS-certified modules:

Lotus Sametime and Lotus QuickPlace currently do not support FIPS 140-2.
By default, Microsoft Internet Explorer might not have TLS enabled. To enable TLS, open the Internet Explorer browser and click Tools > Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, select the Use TLS 1.0 check box.
Netscape Version 4.7.x and earlier might not support TLS.
The IBM Tivoli Directory Server provides the Use FIPS certified implementation option, which enables the directory server the FIPS-certified encryption algorithms uses. For more information, see "Setting the level of encryption" within the IBM Tivoli Directory Server Administration Guide
You can only use FIPS-certified JSSE providers if your servers and clients are using WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0 or later.