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TLS-DHE-PSK-WITH-AES-256-GCM-SHA384 Cipher Suite
A breakdown of the Cipher Suite TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, its strengths, and its weaknesses.
Key Exchange Mechanism
Diffie Hellman Ephemeral - DHE
Grade - B
Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral (DHE) in cipher suites refers to a key exchange method where each session generates temporary, one-time-use (ephemeral) keys. This ensures forward secrecy, meaning if one session’s key is compromised, past and future sessions remain secure. DHE provides an added layer of protection against decryption by ensuring keys are used briefly and then discarded, enhancing security in TLS communications.
Authentication
Pre-Shared Key - PSK
Grade - A
PSK (Pre-Shared Key) cipher suites are used for authentication in secure communication protocols like TLS. They allow parties to establish a shared secret beforehand, ensuring confidentiality and integrity of data exchanges without the overhead of public key infrastructure (PKI), suitable for constrained environments or specific security requirements.
Cipher
Advanced Encryption Standard - AES
Grade - A
AES should be used in cipher suites because it offers strong security with efficient performance, large block size (128 bits), and resistance to known attacks. Its widespread adoption and thorough analysis by the cryptographic community ensure reliability and robustness for encrypting sensitive data.
Hash
Secure Hash Algorithm 384 Bit - SHA384
Grade - A
Improving greatly from SHA1, SHA-256 and above create secure hashes through robust cryptographic algorithms that ensure collision resistance and preimage resistance. They process input data in fixed-size blocks, applying complex mathematical transformations that make it computationally impractical to reverse-engineer the original data from its hash.
Cipher Mode
Galois/Counter Mode - GCM
Grade - A
GCM (Galois Counter Mode) is a mode of operation for block ciphers, offering both encryption and authentication. Widely used in cipher suites, GCM ensures data confidentiality and integrity with high efficiency and performance. It combines the Counter (CTR) mode for encryption with a Galois field-based authentication tag for data integrity. GCM’s parallelizable nature makes it particularly fast and suitable for high-speed networks and secure communications. By incorporating GCM, cipher suites provide robust security against unauthorized access and tampering, making it a preferred choice for modern cryptographic protocols.
