In my previous post Forward Secrecy Encryption for Apache, I’ve described an Apache SSLCipherSuite setup to support forward secrecy which allowed TLS 1.0 and up, avoided SSLv2 but included SSLv3.
With the new PODDLE attack (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption), SSLv3 (and earlier versions) should generally be avoided. Which means the cipher configurations discussed previously need to be updated.
I’ll first recap the configuration requirements:
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Use Perfect Forward Secrecy where possible.
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Prefer known strong ciphers.
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Avoid RC4, CRIME, BREACH and POODLE attacks.
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Support browsing down to Windows XP.
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Enable HSTS as a bonus.
The Windows XP point is a bit tricky, since IE6 as shipped with XP originally only supports SSLv3, but later service packs brought IE8 which at least supports TLS 1.0 with 3DES.
Here’s the updated configuration:
SSLEngine On
SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3
SSLHonorCipherOrder on
# Prefer PFS, allow TLS, avoid SSL, for IE8 on XP still allow 3DES
SSLCipherSuite "EECDH+ECDSA+AESGCM EECDH+aRSA+AESGCM EECDH+ECDSA+SHA384 EECDH+ECDSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+SHA384 EECDH+aRSA+SHA256 EECDH+AESGCM EECDH EDH+AESGCM EDH+aRSA HIGH !MEDIUM !LOW !aNULL !eNULL !LOW !RC4 !MD5 !EXP !PSK !SRP !DSS"
# Prevent CRIME/BREACH compression attacks
SSLCompression Off
# Commit to HTTPS only traffic for at least 180 days
Header add Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15552000"Last but not least, I have to recommend www.ssllabs.com again, which is a great resource to test SSL/TLS setups. In the ssllabs, the above configuration yields an A-rating for testbit.eu.
UPDATE: The above configuration also secures HTTPS connections against the FREAK (CVE-2015-0204) attack, as can be tested with the following snippet:
openssl s_client -connect testbit.eu:443 -cipher EXPORTConnection attempts to secure sites should result in a handshake failure.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Mozilla Foundation provides a webserver configuration generator that almost guarantees an A+ rating on ssllabs: Generate Mozilla Security Recommended Web Server Configuration Files.