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Telnet Environment Option Interoperability Issues
RFC 1571

Document Type RFC - Informational (January 1994)
Updates RFC 1408
Author David A. Borman
Last updated 2013-03-02
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
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RFC 1571
Network Working Group                                          D. Borman
Request for Comments: 1571                           Cray Research, Inc.
Updates: 1408                                               January 1994
Category: Informational

           Telnet Environment Option Interoperability Issues

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

1.  Overview

   RFC 1408 [1], the specification for the Telnet Environment Option,
   specifies definitions for VAR and VALUE that are reversed from the
   BSD implementation of the Telnet Environment option.  Since the BSD
   implementation was the reference implementation that the RFC was
   supposed to document, and is the base for many existing
   implementations, there exists an interoperability problem between
   implementations with conflicting definitions for VAR and VALUE.

   This document describes a method for allowing implementors to ensure
   that their implementation of the Environment option will be
   interoperable with as many other implementations as possible, by
   providing a set of heuristics that can be used to help identify which
   definitions for VAR and VALUE are being used by the other side of the
   connection.

2.  Client Telnet: Parsing a SEND

   The SEND suboption should only contain VAR and USERVAR commands.  It
   should never contain a VALUE.  If while parsing a SEND suboption, a
   VALUE is encountered, the client should assume that the server has
   reversed values for VAR and VALUE, and from that point on the client
   should reverse those values, both in parsing the rest of the SEND
   suboption, and when generating an IS or INFO suboption.  If both
   VALUE and VAR commands are encountered, the SEND command is not well
   formed, and it is implementation dependent as to what will happen.

   If there are not VAR or VALUE commands in the SEND suboption, then
   the client cannot know what values the server is expecting for VAR
   and VALUE.  In this case, it should just assume that the server has
   the correct definitions, and use the correct values for VAR and
   VALUE.

Telnet Working Group                                            [Page 1]
RFC 1571          Environment Option Interoperability       January 1994

3.  Server Telnet: Parsing an IS or INFO

   The IS or INFO in a suboption can only be legally followed by either
   a VAR or a USERVAR.  If an IS or INFO is immediately followed by a
   VAR, then it can be assumed that the client has the correct
   definitions for VAR and VALUE.  If the IS or INFO is immediately
   followed by a VALUE, then it can be assumed that the client has
   reversed definitions for VAR and VALUE, and from that point on the
   server should assume that the VALUE and VAR definitions are reversed.

   If the IS or INFO is immediately followed by a USERVAR, further
   hueristics must be applied to determine what are the client
   definitions for VAR and VALUE. This is because it is legal for a
   USERVAR to be followed by either a VAR or a VALUE.  A VALUE after a
   USERVAR gives the value for the USERVER.  A VAR after a USERVAR
   implies that the USERVAR is undefined.

   The next thing to do is to scan the entire suboption, looking for two
   consecutive instances of VAR or VALUE, or for a VAR or VALUE that is
   empty.  It is not legal for a suboption to contain two VALUEs without
   an intervening VAR or USERVAR, and it is also not legal for a
   suboption to contain an empty VAR.  Thus, if two consecutive VARs or
   an empty VALUE can be found, it can be assumed that the client that
   generated the suboption uses the correct definitions for VAR and
   VALUE.  If two consecutive VALUEs or an empty VAR can be found, then
   it can be assumed that the client that generated the suboption has
   reversed definitions for VAR and VALUE, and from that point on the
   server should assume that the VAR and VALUE definitions are reversed.

   If things are still in doubt, the next test that can be applied is to
   count up how many VARs, USERVARs and VALUEs were received.
   (Consecutive USERVARs without an intervening VALUE or VAR should only
   be counted as one.) Because a VALUE can only follow a VAR or a
   USERVAR, there can never be more VALUEs than the sum of VARs and
   USERVARs, and if all VARs and USERVARs have values, then there will
   be exactly as many VALUEs as there are VARs and USERVARs.  If the
   number of VARs and USERVARs is the same as the total number of
   VALUEs, then the client has correct definitions for VAR and VALUE.
   If the number of VALUEs and USERVARs is the same as the total number
   of VARs, then the client has reversed definitions for VAR and VALUE.

   If the number of VALUEs is more than the sum of VARs and USERVARs, it
   can be assumed that the client has reversed definitions of VAR and
   VALUE, and if there are more VARs than USERVARs and VALUEs, then it
   can be assumed that the client has the correct definitions for VAR
   and VALUE.  However, in order to get to this step, it has already
   been determined that there are no consecutive VARs and VALUEs.  A
   little math will show that this means that the number of VALUEs will

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RFC 1571          Environment Option Interoperability       January 1994

   never exceed the sum of VARs and USERVARs, and the number of VARs
   will never exceed the sum of VALUEs and USERVARs.  Hence, this check
   is redundant and can be skipped.

   If things are still in doubt, the values of the VAR commands can be
   checked to see if they do indeed specify well known variables.  If
   any of them do, then the client is probably using the correct
   definitions for VAR and VALUE.  Otherwise, if any of the VALUEs
   contain well know variable names, then the client probably has
   reversed definitions for VAR and VALUE.

   If all the above heuristics fail, then the server has done all it can
   to determine what type of client it is, and it should just be assumed
   that the client is using the correct definitions for VAR and VALUe.

4.  Client Summary

       The SEND suboption contains only VAR and USERVAR commands.
           The server is ok.
       The SEND suboption contains VALUE commands.
           The server is reversed.
       No VAR or VALUE commands are found.
           Assume the server is ok.

5.  Server Summary

       IS/INFO is followed by VAR.
           The client is ok.
       IS/INFO is followed by VALUE.
           The client is reversed.
       There are two consecutive VARs.
           The client is ok.
       There are consecutive VALUEs.
           The client is reversed.
       There is an empty VALUE.
           The client is ok.
       There is an empty VAR.
           The client is reversed.
       The number of USERVARs and VARs is equal to the number of VALUEs.
           Assume the client is ok.
       The number of USERVARs and VALUEs is equal to the number of VARs.
           Assume the client is reversed.
       There are VARs with names that are well known.
           Assume the client is ok.
       There are VALUEs with names that are well known.
           Assume the client is reversed.
       Anything else.
           Assume the client is ok.

Telnet Working Group                                            [Page 3]
RFC 1571          Environment Option Interoperability       January 1994

UTA                                                           Y. Sheffer
Internet-Draft                                                    Intuit
Intended status: Best Current Practice                           R. Holz
Expires: August 24, 2015                                             TUM
                                                          P. Saint-Andre
                                                                    &yet
                                                       February 20, 2015

             Recommendations for Secure Use of TLS and DTLS
                       draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-11

Abstract

   Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Datagram Transport Layer Security
   (DTLS) are widely used to protect data exchanged over application
   protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP, SIP, and XMPP.  Over the
   last few years, several serious attacks on TLS have emerged,
   including attacks on its most commonly used cipher suites and their
   modes of operation.  This document provides recommendations for
   improving the security of deployed services that use TLS and DTLS.
   The recommendations are applicable to the majority of use cases.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 24, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of

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   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  General Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Protocol Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       3.1.1.  SSL/TLS Protocol Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       3.1.2.  DTLS Protocol Versions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.1.3.  Fallback to Lower Versions  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.2.  Strict TLS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.3.  Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.4.  TLS Session Resumption  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.5.  TLS Renegotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.6.  Server Name Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   4.  Recommendations: Cipher Suites  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.1.  General Guidelines  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.2.  Recommended Cipher Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.2.1.  Implementation Details  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.3.  Public Key Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.4.  Modular Exponential vs. Elliptic Curve DH Cipher Suites .  12
     4.5.  Truncated HMAC  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  Applicability Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     5.1.  Security Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     5.2.  Opportunistic Security  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     7.1.  Host Name Validation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     7.2.  AES-GCM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     7.3.  Forward Secrecy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     7.4.  Diffie-Hellman Exponent Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     7.5.  Certificate Revocation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   8.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   Appendix A.  Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     A.1.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-08 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     A.2.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-07 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     A.3.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     A.4.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     A.5.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25

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     A.6.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     A.7.  draft-ietf-uta-tls-bcp-02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     A.8.  draft-ietf-tls-bcp-01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     A.9.  draft-ietf-tls-bcp-00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
     A.10. draft-sheffer-tls-bcp-02  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     A.11. draft-sheffer-tls-bcp-01  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
     A.12. draft-sheffer-tls-bcp-00  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27

1.  Introduction

   Transport Layer Security (TLS) [RFC5246] and Datagram Transport
   Security Layer (DTLS) [RFC6347] are widely used to protect data
   exchanged over application protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP,
   SIP, and XMPP.  Over the last few years, several serious attacks on
   TLS have emerged, including attacks on its most commonly used cipher
   suites and their modes of operation.  For instance, both the AES-CBC
   [RFC3602] and RC4 [RFC7465] encryption algorithms, which together
   have been the most widely deployed ciphers, have been attacked in the
   context of TLS.  A companion document [RFC7457] provides detailed
   information about these attacks and will help the reader understand
   the rationale behind the recommendations provided here.

   Because of these attacks, those who implement and deploy TLS and DTLS
   need updated guidance on how TLS can be used securely.  This document
   provides guidance for deployed services as well as for software
   implementations, assuming the implementer expects his or her code to
   be deployed in environments defined in Section 5.  In fact, this
   document calls for the deployment of algorithms that are widely
   implemented but not yet widely deployed.  Concerning deployment, this
   document targets a wide audience, namely all deployers who wish to
   add authentication (be it one-way only or mutual), confidentiality,
   and data integrity protection to their communications.

   The recommendations herein take into consideration the security of
   various mechanisms, their technical maturity and interoperability,
   and their prevalence in implementations at the time of writing.
   Unless it is explicitly called out that a recommendation applies to
   TLS alone or to DTLS alone, each recommendation applies to both TLS
   and DTLS.

   It is expected that the TLS 1.3 specification will resolve many of
   the vulnerabilities listed in this document.  A system that deploys
   TLS 1.3 should have fewer vulnerabilities than TLS 1.2 or below.
   This document is likely to be updated after TLS 1.3 gets noticeable
   deployment.

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   These are minimum recommendations for the use of TLS in the vast
   majority of implementation and deployment scenarios, with the
   exception of unauthenticated TLS (see Section 5).  Other
   specifications that reference this document can have stricter
   requirements related to one or more aspects of the protocol, based on
   their particular circumstances (e.g., for use with a particular
   application protocol); when that is the case, implementers are
   advised to adhere to those stricter requirements.  Furthermore, this
   document provides a floor, not a ceiling, so stronger options are
   always allowed (e.g., depending on differing evaluations of the
   importance of cryptographic strength vs. computational load).

   Community knowledge about the strength of various algorithms and
   feasible attacks can change quickly, and experience shows that a
   security BCP is a point-in-time statement.  Readers are advised to
   seek out any errata or updates that apply to this document.

2.  Terminology

   A number of security-related terms in this document are used in the
   sense defined in [RFC4949].

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  General Recommendations

   This section provides general recommendations on the secure use of
   TLS.  Recommendations related to cipher suites are discussed in the
   following section.

3.1.  Protocol Versions

3.1.1.  SSL/TLS Protocol Versions

   It is important both to stop using old, less secure versions of SSL/
   TLS and to start using modern, more secure versions; therefore, the
   following are the recommendations concerning TLS/SSL protocol
   versions:

   o  Implementations MUST NOT negotiate SSL version 2.

      Rationale: Today, SSLv2 is considered insecure [RFC6176].

   o  Implementations MUST NOT negotiate SSL version 3.

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      Rationale: SSLv3 [RFC6101] was an improvement over SSLv2 and
      plugged some significant security holes, but did not support
      strong cipher suites.  SSLv3 does not support TLS extensions, some
      of which (e.g., renegotiation_info) are security-critical.  In
      addition, with the emergence of the POODLE attack [POODLE], SSLv3
      is now widely recognized as fundamentally insecure.  See
      [I-D.ietf-tls-sslv3-diediedie] for further details.

   o  Implementations SHOULD NOT negotiate TLS version 1.0 [RFC2246]
      unless no higher version is available in the negotiation.

      Rationale: TLS 1.0 (published in 1999) does not support many
      modern, strong cipher suites.  In addition, TLS 1.0 lacks a per-
      record IV for CBC-based cipher suites and does not warn against
      common padding errors.

   o  Implementations SHOULD NOT negotiate TLS version 1.1 [RFC4346]
      unless no higher version is available in the negotiation.

      Rationale: TLS 1.1 (published in 2006) is a security improvement
      over TLS 1.0, but still does not support certain stronger cipher
      suites.

   o  Implementations MUST support TLS 1.2 [RFC5246] and MUST prefer to
      negotiate TLS version 1.2 over earlier versions of TLS.

      Rationale: Several stronger cipher suites are available only with
      TLS 1.2 (published in 2008).  In fact, the cipher suites
      recommended by this document (Section 4.2 below) are only
      available in TLS 1.2.

   This BCP applies to TLS 1.2, and also to earlier versions.  It is not
   safe for readers to assume that the recommendations in this BCP apply
   to any future version of TLS.

3.1.2.  DTLS Protocol Versions

   DTLS, an adaptation of TLS for UDP datagrams, was introduced when TLS
   1.1 was published.  The following are the recommendations with
   respect to DTLS:

   o  Implementations SHOULD NOT negotiate DTLS version 1.0 [RFC4347].

      Version 1.0 of DTLS correlates to version 1.1 of TLS (see above).

   o  Implementations MUST support, and prefer to negotiate, DTLS
      version 1.2 [RFC6347].

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      Version 1.2 of DTLS correlates to Version 1.2 of TLS (see above).
      (There is no Version 1.1 of DTLS.)

3.1.3.  Fallback to Lower Versions

   Clients that "fall back" to lower versions of the protocol after the
   server rejects higher versions of the protocol MUST NOT fall back to
   SSLv3 or earlier.

   Rationale: Some client implementations revert to lower versions of
   TLS or even to SSLv3 if the server rejected higher versions of the
   protocol.  This fallback can be forced by a man in the middle (MITM)
   attacker.  TLS 1.0 and SSLv3 are significantly less secure than TLS
   1.2, the version recommended by this document.  While TLS 1.0-only
   servers are still quite common, IP scans show that SSLv3-only servers
   amount to only about 3% of the current Web server population.  (At
   the time of this writing, an explicit method for preventing downgrade
   attacks is being defined in [I-D.ietf-tls-downgrade-scsv].)

3.2.  Strict TLS

   The following recommendations are provided to help prevent SSL
   Stripping (the attack is summarized in Section 2.1 of [RFC7457]):

   o  In cases where an application protocol allows implementations or
      deployments a choice between strict TLS configuration and dynamic
      upgrade from unencrypted to TLS-protected traffic (such as
      STARTTLS), clients and servers SHOULD prefer strict TLS
      configuration.

   o  Application protocols typically provide a way for the server to
      offer TLS during an initial protocol exchange, and sometimes also
      provide a way for the server to advertise support for TLS (e.g.,
      through a flag indicating that TLS is required); unfortunately,
      these indications are sent before the communication channel is
      encrypted.  A client SHOULD attempt to negotiate TLS even if these
      indications are not communicated by the server.

   o  HTTP client and server implementations MUST support the HTTP
      Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header [RFC6797], in order to
      allow Web servers to advertise that they are willing to accept
      TLS-only clients.

   o  Web servers SHOULD use HSTS to indicate that they are willing to
      accept TLS-only clients, unless they are deployed in such a way
      that using HSTS would in fact weaken overall security (e.g., it
      can be problematic to use HSTS with self-signed certificates, as
      described in Section 11.3 of [RFC6797]).

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   Rationale: Combining unprotected and TLS-protected communication
   opens the way to SSL Stripping and similar attacks, since an initial
   part of the communication is not integrity protected and therefore
   can be manipulated by an attacker whose goal is to keep the
   communication in the clear.

3.3.  Compression

   In order to help prevent compression-related attacks (summarized in
   Section 2.6 of [RFC7457]), implementations and deployments SHOULD
   disable TLS-level compression ([RFC5246], Section 6.2.2), unless the
   application protocol in question has been shown not to be open to
   such attacks.

   Rationale: TLS compression has been subject to security attacks, such
   as the CRIME attack.

   Implementers should note that compression at higher protocol levels
   can allow an active attacker to extract cleartext information from
   the connection.  The BREACH attack is one such case.  These issues
   can only be mitigated outside of TLS and are thus out of scope of the
   current document.  See Section 2.6 of [RFC7457] for further details.

3.4.  TLS Session Resumption

   If TLS session resumption is used, care ought to be taken to do so
   safely.  In particular, when using session tickets [RFC5077], the
   resumption information MUST be authenticated and encrypted to prevent
   modification or eavesdropping by an attacker.  Further
   recommendations apply to session tickets:

   o  A strong cipher suite MUST be used when encrypting the ticket (as
      least as strong as the main TLS cipher suite).

   o  Ticket keys MUST be changed regularly, e.g., once every week, so
      as not to negate the benefits of forward secrecy (see Section 7.3
      for details on forward secrecy).

   o  For similar reasons, session ticket validity SHOULD be limited to
      a reasonable duration (e.g., half as long as ticket key validity).

   Rationale: session resumption is another kind of TLS handshake, and
   therefore must be as secure as the initial handshake.  This document
   (Section 4) recommends the use of cipher suites that provide forward
   secrecy, i.e. that prevent an attacker who gains momentary access to
   the TLS endpoint (either client or server) and its secrets from
   reading either past or future communication.  The tickets must be
   managed so as not to negate this security property.

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3.5.  TLS Renegotiation

   Where handshake renegotiation is implemented, both clients and
   servers MUST implement the renegotiation_info extension, as defined
   in [RFC5746].

   The most secure option for countering the Triple Handshake attack is
   to refuse any change of certificates during renegotiation.  In
   addition, TLS clients SHOULD apply the same validation policy for all
   certificates received over a connection.  The [triple-handshake]
   document suggests several other possible countermeasures, such as
   binding the master secret to the full handshake (see
   [I-D.ietf-tls-session-hash]) and binding the abbreviated session
   resumption handshake to the original full handshake.  Although the
   latter two techniques are still under development and thus do not
   qualify as current practices, those who implement and deploy TLS are
   advised to watch for further development of appropriate
   countermeasures.

3.6.  Server Name Indication

   TLS implementations MUST support the Server Name Indication (SNI)
   extension defined in Section 3 of [RFC6066] for those higher level
   protocols which would benefit from it, including HTTPS.  However,
   unlike implementation, the use of SNI in particular circumstances is
   a matter of local policy.

   Rationale: SNI supports deployment of multiple TLS-protected virtual
   servers on a single address, and therefore enables fine-grained
   security for these virtual servers, by allowing each one to have its
   own certificate.

4.  Recommendations: Cipher Suites

   TLS and its implementations provide considerable flexibility in the
   selection of cipher suites.  Unfortunately, some available cipher
   suites are insecure, some do not provide the targeted security
   services, and some no longer provide enough security.  Incorrectly
   configuring a server leads to no or reduced security.  This section
   includes recommendations on the selection and negotiation of cipher
   suites.

4.1.  General Guidelines

   Cryptographic algorithms weaken over time as cryptanalysis improves:
   algorithms that were once considered strong become weak.  Such
   algorithms need to be phased out over time and replaced with more
   secure cipher suites.  This helps to ensure that the desired security

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   properties still hold.  SSL/TLS has been in existence for almost 20
   years and many of the cipher suites that have been recommended in
   various versions of SSL/TLS are now considered weak or at least not
   as strong as desired.  Therefore this section modernizes the
   recommendations concerning cipher suite selection:

   o  Implementations MUST NOT negotiate the cipher suites with NULL
      encryption.

      Rationale: The NULL cipher suites do not encrypt traffic and so
      provide no confidentiality services.  Any entity in the network
      with access to the connection can view the plaintext of contents
      being exchanged by the client and server.  (Nevertheless, this
      document does not discourage software from implementing NULL
      cipher suites, since they can be useful for testing and
      debugging.)

   o  Implementations MUST NOT negotiate RC4 cipher suites.

      Rationale: The RC4 stream cipher has a variety of cryptographic
      weaknesses, as documented in [RFC7465].  Note that DTLS
      specifically forbids the use of RC4 already.

   o  Implementations MUST NOT negotiate cipher suites offering less
      than 112 bits of security, including so-called "export-level"
      encryption (which provide 40 or 56 bits of security).

      Rationale: Based on [RFC3766], at least 112 bits of security is
      needed.  40-bit and 56-bit security are considered insecure today.
      TLS 1.1 and 1.2 never negotiate 40-bit or 56-bit export ciphers.

   o  Implementations SHOULD NOT negotiate cipher suites that use
      algorithms offering less than 128 bits of security.

      Rationale: Cipher suites that offer between 112-bits and 128-bits
      of security are not considered weak at this time, however it is
      expected that their useful lifespan is short enough to justify
      supporting stronger cipher suites at this time.  128-bit ciphers
      are expected to remain secure for at least several years, and
      256-bit ciphers until the next fundamental technology
      breakthrough.  Note that, because of so-called "meet-in-the-
      middle" attacks [Multiple-Encryption] some legacy cipher suites
      (e.g., 168-bit 3DES) have an effective key length which is smaller
      than their nominal key length (112 bits in the case of 3DES).
      Such cipher suites should be evaluated according to their
      effective key length.

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   o  Implementations SHOULD NOT negotiate cipher suites based on RSA
      key transport, a.k.a. "static RSA".

      Rationale: These cipher suites, which have assigned values
      starting with the string "TLS_RSA_WITH_*", have several drawbacks,
      especially the fact that they do not support forward secrecy.

   o  Implementations MUST support and prefer to negotiate cipher suites
      offering forward secrecy, such as those in the Ephemeral Diffie-
      Hellman and Elliptic Curve Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman ("DHE" and
      "ECDHE") families.

      Rationale: Forward secrecy (sometimes called "perfect forward
      secrecy") prevents the recovery of information that was encrypted
      with older session keys, thus limiting the amount of time during
      which attacks can be successful.  See Section 7.3 for a detailed
      discussion.

4.2.  Recommended Cipher Suites

   Given the foregoing considerations, implementation and deployment of
   the following cipher suites is RECOMMENDED:

   o  TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

   o  TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

   o  TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

   o  TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

   These cipher suites are supported only in TLS 1.2 because they are
   authenticated encryption (AEAD) algorithms [RFC5116].

   Typically, in order to prefer these suites, the order of suites needs
   to be explicitly configured in server software (see [BETTERCRYPTO]
   for helpful deployment guidelines, but note that its recommendations
   differ from the current document in some details).  It would be ideal
   if server software implementations were to prefer these suites by
   default.

   Some devices have hardware support for AES-CCM but not AES-GCM, so
   they are unable to follow the foregoing recommendations regarding
   cipher suites.  There are even devices that do not support public key
   cryptography at all, but they are out of scope entirely.

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4.2.1.  Implementation Details

   Clients SHOULD include TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 as the
   first proposal to any server, unless they have prior knowledge that
   the server cannot respond to a TLS 1.2 client_hello message.

   Servers MUST prefer this cipher suite over weaker cipher suites
   whenever it is proposed, even if it is not the first proposal.

   Clients are of course free to offer stronger cipher suites, e.g.,
   using AES-256; when they do, the server SHOULD prefer the stronger
   cipher suite unless there are compelling reasons (e.g., seriously
   degraded performance) to choose otherwise.

   This document does not change the mandatory-to-implement TLS cipher
   suite(s) prescribed by TLS.  To maximize interoperability, RFC 5246
   mandates implementation of the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA cipher
   suite, which is significantly weaker than the cipher suites
   recommended here (the GCM mode does not suffer from the same
   weakness, caused by the order of MAC-then-Encrypt in TLS
   [Krawczyk2001], since it uses an Authenticated Encryption with
   Associated Data (AEAD) mode of operation).  Implementers should
   consider the interoperability gain against the loss in security when
   deploying the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA cipher suite.  Other
   application protocols specify other cipher suites as mandatory to
   implement (MTI).

   Note that some profiles of TLS 1.2 use different cipher suites.  For
   example, [RFC6460] defines a profile that uses the
   TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 and
   TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 cipher suites.

   [RFC4492] allows clients and servers to negotiate ECDH parameters
   (curves).  Both clients and servers SHOULD include the "Supported
   Elliptic Curves" extension [RFC4492].  For interoperability, clients
   and servers SHOULD support the NIST P-256 (secp256r1) curve
   [RFC4492].  In addition, clients SHOULD send an ec_point_formats
   extension with a single element, "uncompressed".

4.3.  Public Key Length

   When using the cipher suites recommended in this document, two public
   keys are normally used in the TLS handshake: one for the Diffie-
   Hellman key agreement and one for server authentication.  Where a
   client certificate is used, a third public key is added.

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   With a key exchange based on modular exponential (modp) Diffie-
   Hellman groups ("DHE" cipher suites), DH key lengths of at least 2048
   bits are RECOMMENDED.

   Rationale: For various reasons, in practice DH keys are typically
   generated in lengths that are powers of two (e.g., 2^10 = 1024 bits,
   2^11 = 2048 bits, 2^12 = 4096 bits).  Because a DH key of 1228 bits
   would be roughly equivalent to only an 80-bit symmetric key
   [RFC3766], it is better to use keys longer than that for the "DHE"
   family of cipher suites.  A DH key of 1926 bits would be roughly
   equivalent to a 100-bit symmetric key [RFC3766] and a DH key of 2048
   bits might be sufficient for at least the next 10 years
   [NIST.SP.800-56A].  See Section 4.4 for additional information on the
   use of modp Diffie-Hellman in TLS.

   As noted in [RFC3766], correcting for the emergence of a TWIRL
   machine would imply that 1024-bit DH keys yield about 65 bits of
   equivalent strength and that a 2048-bit DH key would yield about 92
   bits of equivalent strength.

   With regard to ECDH keys, the IANA named curve registry contains
   160-bit elliptic curves which are considered to be roughly equivalent
   to only an 80-bit symmetric key [ECRYPT-II].  Curves of less than
   192-bits SHOULD NOT be used.

   When using RSA servers SHOULD authenticate using certificates with at
   least a 2048-bit modulus for the public key.  In addition, the use of
   the SHA-256 hash algorithm is RECOMMENDED (see [CAB-Baseline] for
   more details).  Clients SHOULD indicate to servers that they request
   SHA-256, by using the "Signature Algorithms" extension defined in
   TLS 1.2.

4.4.  Modular Exponential vs. Elliptic Curve DH Cipher Suites

   Not all TLS implementations support both modular exponential (modp)
   and elliptic curve (EC) Diffie-Hellman groups, as required by
   Section 4.2.  Some implementations are severely limited in the length
   of DH values.  When such implementations need to be accommodated, the
   following are RECOMMENDED (in priority order):

   1.  Elliptic Curve DHE with appropriately negotiated parameters
       (e.g., the curve to be used) and a MAC algorithm stronger than
       HMAC-SHA1 [RFC5289]

   2.  TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 [RFC5288], with 2048-bit
       Diffie-Hellman parameters

   3.  TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, with 1024-bit parameters.

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   Rationale: Although Elliptic Curve Cryptography is widely deployed
   there are some communities where its uptake has been limited for
   several reasons, including its complexity compared to modular
   arithmetic and longstanding perceptions of IPR concerns (which, for
   the most part, have now been resolved [RFC6090]).  Note that ECDHE
   cipher suites exist for both RSA and ECDSA certificates so moving to
   ECDHE cipher suites does not require moving away from RSA based
   certificates.  On the other hand, there are two related issues
   hindering effective use of modp Diffie-Hellman cipher suites in TLS:

   o  There are no standardized, widely implemented protocol mechanisms
      to negotiate the DH groups or parameter lengths supported by
      client and server.

   o  Many servers choose DH parameters of 1024 bits or fewer.

   o  There are widely deployed client implementations that reject
      received DH parameters if they are longer than 1024 bits.  In
      addition, several implementations do not perform appropriate
      validation of group parameters and are vulnerable to attacks
      referenced in Section 2.9 of [RFC7457]

   Note that with DHE and ECDHE cipher suites, the TLS master key only
   depends on the Diffie-Hellman parameters and not on the strength of
   the RSA certificate; moreover, 1024 bit modp DH parameters are
   generally considered insufficient at this time.

   With modp ephemeral DH, deployers ought to carefully evaluate
   interoperability vs. security considerations when configuring their
   TLS endpoints.

4.5.  Truncated HMAC

   Implementations MUST NOT use the Truncated HMAC extension, defined in
   Section 7 of [RFC6066].

   Rationale: the extension does not apply to the AEAD cipher suites
   recommended above.  However it does apply to most other TLS cipher
   suites.  Its use has been shown to be insecure in [PatersonRS11].

5.  Applicability Statement

   The recommendations of this document primarily apply to the
   implementation and deployment of application protocols that are most
   commonly used with TLS and DTLS on the Internet today.  Examples
   include, but are not limited to:

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   o  Web software and services that wish to protect HTTP traffic with
      TLS.

   o  Email software and services that wish to protect IMAP, POP3, or
      SMTP traffic with TLS.

   o  Instant-messaging software and services that wish to protect XMPP
      or IRC traffic with TLS.

   o  Realtime media software and services that wish to protect SRTP
      traffic with DTLS.

   This document does not modify the implementation and deployment
   recommendations (e.g., mandatory-to-implement cipher suites)
   prescribed by existing application protocols that employ TLS or DTLS.
   If the community that uses such an application protocol wishes to
   modernize its usage of TLS or DTLS to be consistent with the best
   practices recommended here, it needs to explicitly update the
   existing application protocol definition (one example is
   [I-D.ietf-uta-xmpp], which updates [RFC6120]).

   Designers of new application protocols developed through the Internet
   Standards Process are expected to conform to the best practices
   recommended here, unless they provide documentation of compelling
   reasons that would prevent such conformance (e.g., widespread
   deployment on constrained devices that lack support for the necessary
   algorithms).

5.1.  Security Services

   This document provides recommendations for an audience that wishes to
   secure their communication with TLS to achieve the following:

   o  Confidentiality: all application-layer communication is encrypted
      with the goal that no party should be able to decrypt it except
      the intended receiver.

   o  Data integrity: any changes made to the communication in transit
      are detectable by the receiver.

   o  Authentication: an end-point of the TLS communication is
      authenticated as the intended entity to communicate with.

   With regard to authentication, TLS enables authentication of one or
   both end-points in the communication.  In the context of
   opportunistic security [RFC7435], TLS is sometimes used without
   authentication.  As discussed in Section 5.2, considerations for
   opportunistic security are not in scope for this document.

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   If deployers deviate from the recommendations given in this document,
   they need to be aware that they might lose access to one of the
   foregoing security services.

   This document applies only to environments where confidentiality is
   required.  It recommends algorithms and configuration options that
   enforce secrecy of the data-in-transit.

   This document also assumes that data integrity protection is always
   one of the goals of a deployment.  In cases where integrity is not
   required, it does not make sense to employ TLS in the first place.
   There are attacks against confidentiality-only protection that
   utilize the lack of integrity to also break confidentiality (see for
   instance [DegabrieleP07] in the context of IPsec).

   This document addresses itself to application protocols that are most
   commonly used on the Internet with TLS and DTLS.  Typically, all
   communication between TLS clients and TLS servers requires all three
   of the above security services.  This is particularly true where TLS
   clients are user agents like Web browsers or email software.

   This document does not address the rarer deployment scenarios where
   one of the above three properties is not desired, such as the use
   case described under Section 5.2 below.  As another scenario where
   confidentiality is not needed, consider a monitored network where the
   authorities in charge of the respective traffic domain require full
   access to unencrypted (plaintext) traffic, and where users
   collaborate and send their traffic in the clear.

5.2.  Opportunistic Security

   There are several important scenarios in which the use of TLS is
   optional, i.e., the client decides dynamically ("opportunistically")
   whether to use TLS with a particular server or to connect in the
   clear.  This practice, often called "opportunistic security", is
   described at length in [RFC7435] and is often motivated by a desire
   for backward compatibility with legacy deployments.

   In these scenarios, some of the recommendations in this document
   might be too strict, since adhering to them could cause fallback to
   cleartext, a worse outcome than using TLS with an outdated protocol
   version or cipher suite.

   This document specifies best practices for TLS in general.  A
   separate document containing recommendations for the use of TLS with
   opportunistic security is to be completed in the future.

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6.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests no actions of IANA.  [Note to RFC Editor:
   please remove this whole section before publication.]

7.  Security Considerations

   This entire document discusses the security practices directly
   affecting applications using the TLS protocol.  This section contains
   broader security considerations related to technologies used in
   conjunction with or by TLS.

7.1.  Host Name Validation

   Application authors should take note that TLS implementations
   frequently do not validate host names and must therefore determine if
   the TLS implementation they are using does and, if not, write their
   own validation code or consider changing the TLS implementation.

   It is noted that the requirements regarding host name validation (and
   in general, binding between the TLS layer and the protocol that runs
   above it) vary between different protocols.  For HTTPS, these
   requirements are defined by Section 3 of [RFC2818].

   Readers are referred to [RFC6125] for further details regarding
   generic host name validation in the TLS context.  In addition, the
   RFC contains a long list of example protocols, some of which
   implement a policy very different from HTTPS.

   If the host name is discovered indirectly and in an insecure manner
   (e.g., by an insecure DNS query for an MX or SRV record), it SHOULD
   NOT be used as a reference identifier [RFC6125] even when it matches
   the presented certificate.  This proviso does not apply if the host
   name is discovered securely (for further discussion, see for example
   [I-D.ietf-dane-srv] and [I-D.ietf-dane-smtp-with-dane]).

   Host name validation typically applies only to the leaf "end entity"
   certificate.  Naturally, in order to ensure proper authentication in
   the context of the PKI, application clients need to verify the entire
   certification path in accordance with [RFC5280] (see also [RFC6125]).

7.2.  AES-GCM

   Section 4.2 above recommends the use of the AES-GCM authenticated
   encryption algorithm.  Please refer to [RFC5246], Section 11 for
   general security considerations when using TLS 1.2, and to [RFC5288],
   Section 6 for security considerations that apply specifically to AES-
   GCM when used with TLS.

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7.3.  Forward Secrecy

   Forward secrecy (also often called Perfect Forward Secrecy or "PFS"
   and defined in [RFC4949]) is a defense against an attacker who
   records encrypted conversations where the session keys are only
   encrypted with the communicating parties' long-term keys.  Should the
   attacker be able to obtain these long-term keys at some point later
   in time, he will be able to decrypt the session keys and thus the
   entire conversation.  In the context of TLS and DTLS, such compromise
   of long-term keys is not entirely implausible.  It can happen, for
   example, due to:

   o  A client or server being attacked by some other attack vector, and
      the private key retrieved.

   o  A long-term key retrieved from a device that has been sold or
      otherwise decommissioned without prior wiping.

   o  A long-term key used on a device as a default key [Heninger2012].

   o  A key generated by a Trusted Third Party like a CA, and later
      retrieved from it either by extortion or compromise
      [Soghoian2011].

   o  A cryptographic break-through, or the use of asymmetric keys with
      insufficient length [Kleinjung2010].

   o  Social engineering attacks against system administrators.

   o  Collection of private keys from inadequately protected backups.

   Forward secrecy ensures in such cases that the session keys cannot be
   determined even by an attacker who obtains the long-term keys some
   time after the conversation.  It also protects against an attacker
   who is in possession of the long-term keys, but remains passive
   during the conversation.

   Forward secrecy is generally achieved by using the Diffie-Hellman
   scheme to derive session keys.  The Diffie-Hellman scheme has both
   parties maintain private secrets and send parameters over the network
   as modular powers over certain cyclic groups.  The properties of the
   so-called Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP) allow the parties to
   derive the session keys without an eavesdropper being able to do so.
   There is currently no known attack against DLP if sufficiently large
   parameters are chosen.  A variant of the Diffie-Hellman scheme uses
   Elliptic Curves instead of the originally proposed modular
   arithmetics.

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   Unfortunately, many TLS/DTLS cipher suites were defined that do not
   feature forward secrecy, e.g., TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256.  This
   document therefore advocates strict use of forward-secrecy-only
   ciphers.

7.4.  Diffie-Hellman Exponent Reuse

   For performance reasons, many TLS implementations reuse Diffie-
   Hellman and Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman exponents across multiple
   connections.  Such reuse can result in major security issues:

   o  If exponents are reused for a long time (e.g., more than a few
      hours), an attacker who gains access to the host can decrypt
      previous connections.  In other words, exponent reuse negates the
      effects of forward secrecy.

   o  TLS implementations that reuse exponents should test the DH public
      key they receive for group membership, in order to avoid some
      known attacks.  These tests are not standardized in TLS at the
      time of writing.  See [RFC6989] for recipient tests required of
      IKEv2 implementations that reuse DH exponents.

7.5.  Certificate Revocation

   The following considerations and recommendations represent the
   current state of the art regarding certificate revocation, even
   though no complete and efficient solution exists for the problem of
   checking the revocation status of common public key certificates
   [RFC5280]:

   o  Although Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) are the most widely
      supported mechanism for distributing revocation information, they
      have known scaling challenges that limit their usefulness (despite
      workarounds such as partitioned CRLS and delta CRLs).

   o  Proprietary mechanisms that embed revocation lists in the Web
      browser's configuration database cannot scale beyond a small
      number of the most heavily used Web servers.

   o  The On-Line Certification Status Protocol (OCSP) [RFC6960]
      presents both scaling and privacy issues.  In addition, clients
      typically "soft-fail", meaning that they do not abort the TLS
      connection if the OCSP server does not respond (however, this
      might be a workaround to avoid denial of service attacks if an
      OSCP responder is taken offline).

   o  OCSP stapling (Section 8 of [RFC6066]) resolves the operational
      issues with OCSP, but is still ineffective in the presence of a

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      MITM attacker because the attacker can simply ignore the client's
      request for a stapled OCSP response.

   o  OCSP stapling as defined in [RFC6066] does not extend to
      intermediate certificates used in a certificate chain.  Although
      [RFC6961] addresses this shortcoming, it is a recent addition
      without much deployment.

   o  Both CRLs and OSCP depend on relatively reliable connectivity to
      the Internet, which might not be available to certain kinds of
      nodes (such as newly provisioned devices that need to establish a
      secure connection in order to boot up for the first time).

   With regard to common public key certificates, servers SHOULD support
   the following as a best practice given the current state of the art
   and as a foundation for a possible future solution:

   1.  OCSP [RFC6960]

   2.  Both the status_request extension defined in [RFC6066] and the
       status_request_v2 extension defined in [RFC6961] (this might
       enable interoperability with the widest range of clients)

   3.  The OCSP stapling extension defined in [RFC6961]

   The considerations in this section do not apply to scenarios where
   the DANE-TLSA resource record [RFC6698] is used to signal to a client
   which certificate a server considers valid and good to use for TLS
   connections.

8.  Acknowledgments

   Thanks to RJ Atkinson, Uri Blumenthal, Viktor Dukhovni, Stephen
   Farrell, Daniel Kahn Gillmor, Paul Hoffman, Simon Josefsson, Watson
   Ladd, Orit Levin, Ilari Liusvaara, Johannes Merkle, Bodo Moeller,
   Yoav Nir, Massimiliano Pala, Kenny Paterson, Patrick Pelletier, Tom
   Ritter, Joe St. Sauver, Joe Salowey, Rich Salz, Brian Smith, Sean
   Turner, and Aaron Zauner for their feedback and suggested
   improvements.  Thanks also to Brian Smith, who has provided a great
   resource in his "Proposal to Change the Default TLS Ciphersuites
   Offered by Browsers" [Smith2013].  Finally, thanks to all others who
   commented on the TLS, UTA, and other discussion lists but who are not
   mentioned here by name.

   Robert Sparks and Dave Waltermire provided helpful reviews on behalf
   of the General Area Review Team and the Security Directorate,
   respectively.

Sheffer, et al.          Expires August 24, 2015               [Page 19]References

   [1] Borman, D., Editor, "Telnet Environment Option", RFC 1408, Cray
       Research, Inc., January 1993.

Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memeo.

Author's Address

   David A. Borman
   Cray Research, Inc.
   655F Lone Oak Drive
   Eagan, MN 55123

   Phone: (612) 452-6650
   EMail: dab@CRAY.COM

   Telnet Working Group Mailing List: telnet-ietf@CRAY.COM

Telnet Working Group                                            [Page 4]