Install the ExtraHop session key forwarder on a Windows server
The ExtraHop session key forwarder runs as a process on a monitored Windows server
running SSL services. The forwarder establishes an SSL-secured connection to an ExtraHop Discover
appliance to send all SSL session keys. The session keys enable the Discover appliance to decrypt
SSL/TLS sessions that otherwise could not be decrypted, either because the session is encrypted
with Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) ciphers or the Discover appliance does not have the private key
for RSA handshakes.
After the session keys are forwarded, they are immediately deleted from memory on the Windows server.
Before you begin
- Read our blog post: What is Perfect Forward Secrecy?
- See the list of supported cipher suites that can be decrypted by the Discover appliance when session key forwarding is configured.
- Make sure that the Discover appliance is running firmware version 7.1 or later.
- Make sure that the Discover appliance is licensed for SSL Decryption.
- Install the session key forwarder on one or more Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 2012 R2 servers running SSL-based services with the native Windows SSL framework. OpenSSL on Windows is not currently supported.
- Session key processing on the Discover appliance requires that you upload the server certificate and private key file for any monitored SSL-encrypted service to the Discover appliance. Go to the page in the Admin UI to upload a .pem file that includes both a private key and certificate. You can also upload a password-protected PKCS#12 (.PFX) file.
- Make sure that the server certificates have an RSA public key. DSA and ECDSA public keys are not currently supported.
- The session key forwarder on the Windows server must be able to access a trusted CA certificate from the Windows certificate store to validate the certificate (or chain of certificates) that the Discover appliance presents.
- The traffic for each monitored SSL server must be part of the data feed to the Discover appliance.
Install the software with the installation wizard
Warning: | The installation requires a restart of the server. Do not start the installation unless you are able to restart the server after the installation completes. |
- Log into the Windows 2008 R2 or 2012 R2 server.
- Download the latest version of the session key forwarder software.
- Double-click the ExtraHopSessionKeyForwarder.msi file and click Next.
- Select the box to accept the terms of the license agreement and then click Next.
- Type the name of the Discover appliance where you want to forward session keys and then click Next.
- Click Install.
- When the installation completes, click Finish, and then click Yes to reboot the server.
Command-line installation option
The following steps show you how to install the session key forwarder from a Windows command prompt or Windows PowerShell.
Warning: | The installation requires a restart of the server. Do not start the installation unless you are able to restart the server after the installation completes. |
Enable the SSL session key receiver service
You must enable the session key receiver service on the Discover appliance before the appliance can receive and decrypt sessions keys from the session key forwarder. By default, this service is disabled.
View connected session key forwarders
You can view recently connected session key forwarders after you install the session key forwarder on your server and enable the SSL session key receiver service on the Discover appliance. Note that this page only displays session key forwarders that have connected over the last few minutes, not all session key forwarders that are currently connected.
- Log into the Admin UI on the Discover appliance.
- In the System Configuration section, click Capture.
- Click SSL Shared Secrets.
Validate session key forwarding
Perform these steps to make sure that the installation was successful and the session key forwarder is forwarding the keys to the Discover appliance.
- Log into the Windows 2008 R2 or 2012 R2 server.
-
Open the Services MMC snap-in. Ensure both services, “ExtraHop Secret Agent”
and ExtraHop Registry Service” show the status as “Running”.
-
If either service is not running, troubleshoot the issue
by completing the following steps.
- Open the Event Viewer MMC snap-in and navigate to Windows Logs > Application.
- Locate the most recent entries for the ExtraHopAgent source. Common reasons for failure and their associated error messages are listed in the Troubleshoot common error messages section below.
- If the Services and Event Viewer snap-in do not indicate any issues, apply a workload to the monitored services and go to the Discover appliance to verify that secret-based decryption is working.

Troubleshoot common error messages
The following table shows common error messages that you can troubleshoot. If you see a different error or the proposed solution does not resolve your issue, contact ExtraHop Support.
Message | Cause | Solution |
---|---|---|
connect: dial tcp <IP address>:4873: connectex: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond | The monitored server cannot route any traffic to the Discover appliance. | Ensure firewall rules allow connections to be initiated by the monitored server to TCP port 4873 on the Discover appliance. |
connect: dial tcp <IP address>:4873: connectex: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it | The monitored server can route traffic to the Discover appliance, but the receiving process is not listening. | Ensure that the Discover appliance is licensed for both the SSL Decryption and SSL Shared Secrets features. |
connect: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority | The monitored server is not able to chain up the Discover appliance certificate to a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). | Ensure that the Windows certificate store for the computer account has trusted root certificate authorities that establish a chain of trust for the Discover appliance. |
connect: x509: cannot validate certificate for <IP address> because it doesn't contain any IP SANs | An IP address was supplied as the EDA_HOSTNAME parameter when installing the forwarder, but the SSL certificate presented by the Discover appliance does not include an IP address as a Subject Alternate Name (SAN). | Select from the following three solutions.
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Uninstall the software
If you no longer want the ExtraHop session key forwarder software installed, or if any of the original installation parameters have changed (Discover appliance hostname or certificate) and you need to reinstall the software with new parameters, do the following:
Important: | You must restart the server for the configuration changes to take effect. |
-
Log into the Windows server and choose one of the following options to remove
the software:
- Open the Control Panel and click Uninstall a program. Select ExtraHop Session Key Forwarder from the list and then click Uninstall.
- Run the following command to remove the software and associated registry
entries:
msiexec /x C:\ExtraHopSessionKeyForwarder.msi
Where C:\ExtraHopSessionKeyForwarder.msi is the path to the installer file.
- Click Yes to confirm.
- After the software is removed, click Yes to restart the system
Appendix
Installation parameters
The session key forwarder software is provided as an MSI package. A complete installation of the forwarder requires specifying the EDA_HOSTNAME parameter. Two additional parameters, EDA_CERTIFICATEPATH or SERVERNAMEOVERRIDE, might be required and are described in the tables below.
MSI Installation Parameter | EDA_HOSTNAME |
Registry Entry | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ExtraHop\EDAHost |
Description | The Discover appliance hostname or IP address where SSL session keys will be
sent. This parameter is required. |
MSI Installation Parameter | EDA_CERTIFICATEPATH |
Registry Entry | N/A |
Description |
The monitored server must trust the issuer of the Discover appliance SSL certificate through the server’s certificate store. In some environments, the Discover appliance works with the self-signed certificate that the ExtraHop firmware generates upon installation. In this case, the certificate must be added to the certificate store. The EDA_CERTIFICATEPATH parameter enables a file-based PEM-encoded certificate to be imported into the Windows certificate store at installation. If the parameter is not specified at installation and a self-signed or other CA certificate must be placed into the certificate store manually, the administrator must import the certificate to Certificates (Computer Account) > Trusted Root Certification Authorities on the monitored system. This parameter is optional if the monitored server was previously configured to trust the SSL certificate of the Discover appliance through the Windows certificate store. |
MSI Installation Parameter | SERVERNAMEOVERRIDE |
Registry Entry | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ExtraHop\ServerNameOverride |
Description | If there is a mismatch between the Discover appliance hostname that the forwarder knows (EDA_HOSTNAME) and the common name (CN) that is presented in the SSL certificate of the Discover appliance, then the forwarder must be configured with the correct CN. This parameter is optional. We recommend that you regenerate the SSL self-signed certificate based on the hostname from the SSL Certificate section of the Admin UI instead of specifying this parameter. |
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