4 Network Working Group M. Salter
5 Internet-Draft National Security Agency
6 Intended status: Informational E. Rescorla
7 Expires: December 4, 2007 Network Resonance
11 Suite B Cipher Suites for TLS
12 draft-rescorla-tls-suiteb-01.txt
16 By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
17 applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
18 have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes
19 aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79.
21 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
22 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
23 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
26 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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28 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
29 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
31 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
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34 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
35 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
37 This Internet-Draft will expire on December 4, 2007.
41 Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).
45 The United States Government has published guidelines for "NSA Suite
46 B Cryptography" dated July, 2005, which defines cryptographic
47 algorithm polcy for national security applications. This document
48 defines a profile of TLS which is conformant with Suite B.
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62 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
63 2. Conventions Used In This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
64 3. Suite B Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
65 4. Suite B Compliance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
66 4.1. Security Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
67 4.2. Acceptable Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
68 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
69 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
70 7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
71 8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
72 8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
73 8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
74 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
75 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 8
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118 In July, 2005 the National Security Agency posted "Fact Sheet, NSA
119 Suite B Cryptography" which stated:
121 To complement the existing policy for the use of the Advanced
122 Encryption Standard (AES) to protect national security systems
123 and information as specified in The National Policy on the use of
124 the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to Protect National
125 Security Systems and National Security Information (CNSSP-15),
126 the National Security Agency (NSA) announced Suite B Cryptography
127 at the 2005 RSA Conference. In addition to the AES, Suite B
128 includes cryptographic algorithms for hashing, digital
129 signatures, and key exchange.
131 Suite B only specifies the cryptographic algorithms to be
132 used. Many other factors need to be addressed in determining
133 whether a particular device implementing a particular set of
134 cryptographic algorithms should be used to satisfy a particular
137 Among those factors are "requirements for interoperability both
138 domestically and internationally".
140 This document is a profile of of TLS 1.2 [I-D.ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis]
141 and of the cipher suites defined in [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac], but
142 does not itself define any new cipher suites. This profile requires
146 2. Conventions Used In This Document
148 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
149 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
150 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
153 3. Suite B Requirements
155 The "Suite B Fact Sheet" requires that key establishment and
156 authentication algorithms be based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography,
157 that the encryption algorithm be AES [AES], and that the function
158 used for key derivation and data integrity be SHA [SHS]. It defines
159 two security levels, of 128 and 192 bits.
161 In particular it states:
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174 Encryption: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) -
175 FIPS 197 (with keys sizes of 128 and 256
178 Digital Signature: Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm -
179 FIPS 186-2 (using the curves with 256 and
180 384-bit prime moduli)
182 Key Exchange: Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman or Elliptic
183 Curve MQV Draft NIST Special Publication
184 800-56 (using the curves with 256 and
185 384-bit prime moduli)
187 Hashing: Secure Hash Algorithm - FIPS 180-2
188 (using SHA-256 and SHA-384)
190 All implementations of Suite B must, at a minimum, include AES
191 with 128-bit keys, the 256-bit prime modulus elliptic curve and
192 SHA-256 as a common mode for widespread interoperability.
194 The 128-bit security level corresponds to an elliptic curve size of
195 256 bits, AES-128, and SHA-256. The 192-bit security level
196 corresponds to an elliptic curve size of 384 bits, AES-256, and SHA-
200 4. Suite B Compliance Requirements
202 To be considered "Suite B compatible" at least one of the Galois
203 Counter Mode (GCM) CipherSuites defined in [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac]
204 MUST be negotiated. In compliance with the guidance in the Suite B
205 Fact Sheet every TLS implementation of Suite B SHOULD implement
206 TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256.
210 As described in Section 1, Suite B specifies two security levels, 128
211 and 192 bit. The following table lists the security levels for each
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228 +-----------------------------------------+----------------+
229 | Cipher Suite | Security Level |
230 +-----------------------------------------+----------------+
231 | TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 | 128 |
232 | TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 | 128 |
233 | TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 | 192 |
234 | TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 | 192 |
235 +-----------------------------------------+----------------+
237 4.2. Acceptable Curves
239 RFC 4492 defines a variety of elliptic curves. For cipher suites
240 defined in this specification, only secp256r1 (23) or secp384r1 (24)
241 may be used. (These are the same curves that appear in FIPS 186-2 as
242 P-256 and P-384, respectively.) For cipher suites at the 128-bit
243 security level, secp256r1 MUST be used. For cipher suites at the
244 192-bit security level, secp384r1 MUST be used. RFC 4492 requires
245 that uncompressed (0) form be supported. ansiX962_compressed_prime(1)
246 point formats MAY be supported.
248 Clients desiring to negotiate only a Suite B-compliant connection
249 MUST generate a "Supported Elliptic Curves Extension" containing only
250 the allowed curves. These curves MUST match the cipher suite
251 security levels being offered. Clients which are willing to do both
252 Suite B-compliant and non-Suite B-compliant connections MAY omit the
253 extension or send the extension but offer other curves as well as the
254 appropriate Suite B ones.
256 Servers desiring to negotiate a Suite B-compliant connection SHOULD
257 check for the presence of the extension, but MUST NOT negotiate
258 inappropriate curves even if they are offered by the client. This
259 allows a Client which is willing to do either Suite B-compliant or
260 non-Suite B-compliant modes to interoperate with a server which will
261 only do Suite B-compliant modes. If the client does not advertise an
262 acceptable curve, the server MUST generate a fatal
263 "handshake_failure" alert and terminate the connection. Clients MUST
264 check the chosen curve to make sure it is acceptable.
267 5. Security Considerations
269 Most of the security considerations for this document are described
270 in TLS 1.2 [I-D.ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis], RFC 4492 [RFC4492], and
271 [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac]. Readers should consult those documents.
273 In order to meet the goal of a consistent security level for the
274 entire cipher suite, in Suite B mode TLS implementations MUST ONLY
275 use the curves defined in Section 4.2. Otherwise, it is possible to
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284 have a set of symmetric algorithms with much weaker or stronger
285 security properties than the asymmetric (ECC) algorithms.
288 6. IANA Considerations
290 This document defines no actions for IANA.
295 This work was supported by the US Department of Defense.
300 8.1. Normative References
302 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
303 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
305 [RFC4492] Blake-Wilson, S., Bolyard, N., Gupta, V., Hawk, C., and B.
306 Moeller, "Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Cipher Suites
307 for Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 4492, May 2006.
309 [I-D.ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis]
310 Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The TLS Protocol Version
311 1.2", draft-ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis-03 (work in progress),
314 [AES] National Institute of Standards and Technology,
315 "Specification for the Advanced Encryption Standard
316 (AES)", FIPS 197, November 2001.
318 [SHS] National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Secure
319 Hash Standard", FIPS 180-2, August 2002.
321 [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac]
322 Rescorla, E., "TLS Elliptic Curve Cipher Suites with SHA-
323 256/384 and AES Galois Counter Mode", April 2007.
325 8.2. Informative References
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343 National Security Agency
345 Fort Meade 20755-6709
348 Email: msalter@restarea.ncsc.mil
353 2483 E. Bayshore #212
357 Email: ekr@networkresonance.com
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396 Full Copyright Statement
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