· 1 min read
TLS-DH-anon-EXPORT-WITH-RC4-40-MD5 Cipher Suite
A breakdown of the Cipher Suite TLS_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5, its strengths, and its weaknesses.
Key Exchange Mechanism
Diffie Hellman - DH
Grade - B
Static Diffie Hellman (DH) does not use emphemeral (temporary) keys, meaning it violates perfect forward secrecy. Ephemeral Diffie Hellman (EDH) should be used instead.
Cipher
Rivest Cipher 4 - RC4
Grade - D
RC4 should not be used as a cipher due to several vulnerabilities, including biases in its keystream and susceptibility to various attacks such as the Fluhrer-Mantin-Shamir attack. These weaknesses compromise the confidentiality and integrity of encrypted data, making RC4 unsuitable for secure communications in modern cryptographic applications. Deprecated in RFC 7465.
Hash
Message Digest 5 - MD5
Grade - F
MD5 is considered highly insecure because chosen prefixes can be generated with minimal computing power. This vulnerability allows attackers to create different inputs that produce the same hash, leading to potential data breaches and integrity issues. Consequently, MD5 is unsuitable for modern cryptographic needs and should be avoided in favor of more secure algorithms.
Key Size
40 Bit - 40
Grade - F
A 40-bit cipher length is too short because it can be easily broken through brute-force attacks due to the limited number of possible keys (2^40). Modern computational power allows attackers to quickly try all potential keys, making 40-bit encryption insufficient for protecting sensitive data.
