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TLS-ECCPWD-WITH-AES-256-GCM-SHA384 Cipher Suite
A breakdown of the Cipher Suite TLS_ECCPWD_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, its strengths, and its weaknesses.
Key Exchange Mechanism
Elliptic Curve Cryptography Password - ECCPWD
Grade - A
ECCPWD (Elliptic Curve Cryptography Password-based key Derivation) is a cryptographic protocol that enhances security in password-based authentication systems. It leverages elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to derive strong encryption keys from passwords, significantly reducing vulnerability to brute-force attacks. ECCPWD integrates seamlessly into cipher suites, providing robust encryption and authentication for secure communication. Its efficiency and high security make it particularly suitable for modern applications, ensuring that even weak, low-entropy passwords are protected by the strength of ECC.
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.
