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TLS-ECDH-anon-WITH-RC4-128-SHA Cipher Suite
A breakdown of the Cipher Suite TLS_ECDH_anon_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, its strengths, and its weaknesses.
Key Exchange Mechanism
Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman - ECDH
Grade - B
Static Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) does not use ephemeral (temporary) keys, meaning it violates perfect forward secrecy. ECDHE should be used in preference.
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
Secure Hash Algorithm - SHA
Grade - D
Chosen prefix attacks for SHA1 are feasible at an accessible cost to a well-funded adversary. This level of expense, while significant, does not pose a substantial barrier to attackers with sufficient resources, making such attacks a credible threat.
Key Size
128 Bit - 128
Grade - A
128-bit symmetric encryption keys are considered secure because they provide an astronomically large number of possible combinations (2^128), making brute-force attacks computationally infeasible with current technology. This level of security is sufficient for most practical purposes and is widely adopted in various encryption protocols.
