2 Network Working Group M. Salter
3 Internet-Draft National Security Agency
4 Intended status: Informational E. Rescorla
5 Expires: October 25, 2007 Network Resonance
9 Suite B Cipher Suites for TLS
10 draft-ietf-tls-suiteb-00.txt
14 By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any
15 applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware
16 have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes
17 aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79.
19 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
20 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
21 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
24 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
25 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
26 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
27 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
29 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
30 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
32 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
33 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
35 This Internet-Draft will expire on October 25, 2007.
39 Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007).
43 The United States Government has published guidelines for "NSA Suite
44 B Cryptography" dated July, 2005, which defines cryptographic
45 algorithm polcy for national security applications. This document
46 defines a profile of TLS which is conformant with Suite B.
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60 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
61 2. Conventions Used In This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
62 3. Suite B Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
63 4. Suite B Compliance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
64 4.1. Security Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
65 4.2. Acceptable Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
66 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
67 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
68 7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
69 8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
70 8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
71 8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
72 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
73 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 8
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116 In July, 2005 the National Security Agency posted "Fact Sheet, NSA
117 Suite B Cryptography" which stated:
119 To complement the existing policy for the use of the Advanced
120 Encryption Standard (AES) to protect national security systems
121 and information as specified in The National Policy on the use of
122 the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to Protect National
123 Security Systems and National Security Information (CNSSP-15),
124 the National Security Agency (NSA) announced Suite B Cryptography
125 at the 2005 RSA Conference. In addition to the AES, Suite B
126 includes cryptographic algorithms for hashing, digital
127 signatures, and key exchange.
129 Suite B only specifies the cryptographic algorithms to be
130 used. Many other factors need to be addressed in determining
131 whether a particular device implementing a particular set of
132 cryptographic algorithms should be used to satisfy a particular
135 Among those factors are "requirements for interoperability both
136 domestically and internationally".
138 This document is a profile of of TLS 1.2 [I-D.ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis]
139 and of the cipher suites defined in [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac], but
140 does not itself define any new cipher suites. This profile requires
144 2. Conventions Used In This Document
146 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
147 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
148 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
151 3. Suite B Requirements
153 The "Suite B Fact Sheet" requires that key establishment and
154 authentication algorithms be based on Elliptic Curve Cryptography,
155 that the encryption algorithm be AES [AES], and that the function
156 used for key derivation and data integrity be SHA [SHS]. It defines
157 two security levels, of 128 and 192 bits.
159 In particular it states:
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172 Encryption: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) -
173 FIPS 197 (with keys sizes of 128 and 256
176 Digital Signature: Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm -
177 FIPS 186-2 (using the curves with 256 and
178 384-bit prime moduli)
180 Key Exchange: Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman or Elliptic
181 Curve MQV Draft NIST Special Publication
182 800-56 (using the curves with 256 and
183 384-bit prime moduli)
185 Hashing: Secure Hash Algorithm - FIPS 180-2
186 (using SHA-256 and SHA-384)
188 All implementations of Suite B must, at a minimum, include AES
189 with 128-bit keys, the 256-bit prime modulus elliptic curve and
190 SHA-256 as a common mode for widespread interoperability.
192 The 128-bit security level corresponds to an elliptic curve size of
193 256 bits, AES-128, and SHA-256. The 192-bit security level
194 corresponds to an elliptic curve size of 384 bits, AES-256, and SHA-
198 4. Suite B Compliance Requirements
200 To be considered "Suite B compatible" at least one of the Galois
201 Counter Mode (GCM) CipherSuites defined in [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac]
202 MUST be negotiated. In compliance with the guidance in the Suite B
203 Fact Sheet every TLS implementation of Suite B SHOULD implement
204 TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256.
208 As described in Section 1, Suite B specifies two security levels, 128
209 and 192 bit. The following table lists the security levels for each
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226 +-----------------------------------------+----------------+
227 | Cipher Suite | Security Level |
228 +-----------------------------------------+----------------+
229 | TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 | 128 |
230 | TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 | 128 |
231 | TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 | 192 |
232 | TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 | 192 |
233 +-----------------------------------------+----------------+
235 4.2. Acceptable Curves
237 RFC 4492 defines a variety of elliptic curves. For cipher suites
238 defined in this specification, only secp256r1 (23) or secp384r1 (24)
239 may be used. (These are the same curves that appear in FIPS 186-2 as
240 P-256 and P-384, respectively.) For cipher suites at the 128-bit
241 security level, secp256r1 MUST be used. For cipher suites at the
242 192-bit security level, secp384r1 MUST be used. RFC 4492 requires
243 that uncompressed (0) form be supported. ansiX962_compressed_prime(1)
244 point formats MAY be supported.
246 Clients desiring to negotiate only a Suite B-compliant connection
247 MUST generate a "Supported Elliptic Curves Extension" containing only
248 the allowed curves. These curves MUST match the cipher suite
249 security levels being offered. Clients which are willing to do both
250 Suite B-compliant and non-Suite B-compliant connections MAY omit the
251 extension or send the extension but offer other curves as well as the
252 appropriate Suite B ones.
254 Servers desiring to negotiate a Suite B-compliant connection SHOULD
255 check for the presence of the extension, but MUST NOT negotiate
256 inappropriate curves even if they are offered by the client. This
257 allows a Client which is willing to do either Suite B-compliant or
258 non-Suite B-compliant modes to interoperate with a server which will
259 only do Suite B-compliant modes. If the client does not advertise an
260 acceptable curve, the server MUST generate a fatal
261 "handshake_failure" alert and terminate the connection. Clients MUST
262 check the chosen curve to make sure it is acceptable.
265 5. Security Considerations
267 Most of the security considerations for this document are described
268 in TLS 1.2 [I-D.ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis], RFC 4492 [RFC4492], and
269 [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac]. Readers should consult those documents.
271 In order to meet the goal of a consistent security level for the
272 entire cipher suite, in Suite B mode TLS implementations MUST ONLY
273 use the curves defined in Section 4.2. Otherwise, it is possible to
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282 have a set of symmetric algorithms with much weaker or stronger
283 security properties than the asymmetric (ECC) algorithms.
286 6. IANA Considerations
288 This document defines no actions for IANA.
293 This work was supported by the US Department of Defense.
298 8.1. Normative References
300 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
301 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
303 [RFC4492] Blake-Wilson, S., Bolyard, N., Gupta, V., Hawk, C., and B.
304 Moeller, "Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Cipher Suites
305 for Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 4492, May 2006.
307 [I-D.ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis]
308 Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The TLS Protocol Version
309 1.2", draft-ietf-tls-rfc4346-bis-03 (work in progress),
312 [AES] National Institute of Standards and Technology,
313 "Specification for the Advanced Encryption Standard
314 (AES)", FIPS 197, November 2001.
316 [SHS] National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Secure
317 Hash Standard", FIPS 180-2, August 2002.
319 [I-D.ietf-tls-ecc-new-mac]
320 Rescorla, E., "TLS Elliptic Curve Cipher Suites with SHA-
321 256/384 and AES Galois Counter Mode", April 2007.
323 8.2. Informative References
333 Salter & Rescorla Expires October 25, 2007 [Page 6]
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341 National Security Agency
343 Fort Meade 20755-6709
346 Email: msalter@restarea.ncsc.mil
351 2483 E. Bayshore #212
355 Email: ekr@networkresonance.com
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394 Full Copyright Statement
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445 Salter & Rescorla Expires October 25, 2007 [Page 8]