Knowledge Base

Cipher Suite

F

TLS_­ECDHE_­ECDSA_­WITH_­RC4_­128_­SHA

Summary

Name:
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
IANA Name:
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
Code:
(0xc0, 0x07)
OpenSSL Name:
ECDHE-ECDSA-RC4-SHA
Protocol Versions:
TLS 1.0,TLS 1.1,TLS 1.2

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Components

A+
Key Exchange Method
Name

ECDHE (Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral)

Security

Ephemeral Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman[432][433] is a variant of Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman[114][115] key exchange that has forward secrecy[127][128][129][130], and does protect past sessions against future compromises. If long-term secret keys or passwords are compromised, encrypted communications and sessions recorded in the past cannot be retrieved and decrypted.

Recommendations

Always prefer cipher suites with PFS property over the non-PFS ones. Note that performance considerations implies preferring Ephemeral Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman[432][433] over Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman[405][406][407][408].

A+
Authentication Method
Name

ECDSA

Security

Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm[266][267][268][269] is the elliptic-curve cryptography[118][119][120][121] based variant of the digital signature[107][108][109][110] names Digital Signature Algorithm[258][259][260][261][262][263] algorithm. It is considered secure [270][271] and gives better performance and smaller key sizes.

F
Encryption Type
Name

RC4-128

Security

Encryption algorithm Rivest Cipher 4[370][371][372][373] is a stream cipher[182][183] that is more malleable[134] than a block cipher[78][79][80][81]. It has multiple vulnerabilities[375][376][377][378][379] (eg: related-key attack[68], distinguishing attack[60], ...), so attacker can apply statistical analysis against it to recover the encrypted text.

Recommendations

Remove the cipher suite from the list of cipher suites supported by your server.

A+
Encryption Key Size
Name

128

Security

The symmetric key[185][186][187] withkey size[184] more than 128 bits as it is should be according to National Institute of Standards and Technology[470][471] so it is not vulnerable to preimage attack[67] and it cannreliably prove that message came from the stated sender (its authenticity) and has not been changed, so connection is not open for a man-in-the-middle attack[61].

Recommendations

Remove the cipher suite from the list of cipher suites supported by your server.

A-
Message Authentication Code
Name

SHA-1

Security

message authentication code[135][136][137][138] is a hashed message authentication code[139][140][141][142][143][144][145] which is considered secure[462], despite the fact that the underlayingcryptographic hash function[94][95][96][97] (Secure Hash Algorithm 1[202][203][204]) is considered insecure[205][206][207][208][209][210][211].

Recommendations

If your application or requirements specifically call for the use of a message authentication code[135][136][137][138] that does not provide authenticated encryption[74] prefer block cipher mode of operation[82][83][84][85][86] (eg: counter with CBC-MAC[32][33][34], Galois/Counter Mode[46][47][48][49] or message authentication code[135][136][137][138] (eg: Poly1305[458][459]) that proved authenticated encryption over the ones which does not provide it. In case of a hashed message authentication code[139][140][141][142][143][144][145] prefer message authentication code[135][136][137][138] based on Secure Hash Algorithm 2[212][213][214] over the ones based on Secure Hash Algorithm 1[202][203][204].