Re: 9.2.2 Cipher fallback and FF<->Jetty interop problem

On Sep 23, 2014, at 1:00 PM, Andrei Popov <Andrei.Popov@microsoft.com> wrote:

> I am in full agreement: it is hard to get the world to disable weak ciphers and old TLS versions. Right now addressing a new TLS vulnerability involves:
> 1. Updating TLS RFCs;
> 2. Patching TLS stacks;
> 3. Getting patched TLS stacks deployed. 
> 
> Requiring certain TLS versions and cipher suites in HTTP RFCs means that now we also need to:
> 4. Update HTTP RFCs when TLS vulnerabilities are discovered;
> 5. Patch HTTP stacks for TLS vulnerabilities;
> 6. Get patched HTTP stacks deployed.
> 
> So it seems that instead of keeping the problem encapsulated at the TLS layer and figuring out how to better solve it there, we're spreading it to the application layer. I think this would be counter-productive.

Indeed. Why not go with a gentler social hack that accomplishes a similar result? If user agents start warning about weaker ciphers, in a similar (yet gentler) way to certificate warnings, then server administrators will be motivated to update and/or configure their TLS stacks. This type of social hack would benefit all web protocols, not just http/2.

--
Jason T. Greene
WildFly Lead / JBoss EAP Platform Architect
JBoss, a division of Red Hat

Received on Tuesday, 23 September 2014 18:27:17 UTC