Network Working Group E. Rescorla
Request for Comments: 5289 RTFM, Inc.
Category: Informational August 2008
TLS Elliptic Curve Cipher Suites with
SHA-256/384 and AES Galois Counter Mode (GCM)
Status of This Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Abstract
RFC 4492 describes elliptic curve cipher suites for Transport Layer
Security (TLS). However, all those cipher suites use HMAC-SHA-1 as
their Message Authentication Code (MAC) algorithm. This document
describes sixteen new cipher suites for TLS that specify stronger MAC
algorithms. Eight use Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC) with
SHA-256 or SHA-384, and eight use AES in Galois Counter Mode (GCM).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Cipher Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.1. HMAC-Based Cipher Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2. Galois Counter Mode-Based Cipher Suites . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Rescorla Informational [Page 1]
RFC 5289 TLS ECC New MAC August 2008
1. Introduction
RFC 4492 [RFC4492] describes Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) cipher
suites for Transport Layer Security (TLS). However, all of the RFC
4492 suites use HMAC-SHA1 as their MAC algorithm. Due to recent
analytic work on SHA-1 [Wang05], the IETF is gradually moving away
from SHA-1 and towards stronger hash algorithms. This document
specifies TLS ECC cipher suites that use SHA-256 and SHA-384 [SHS]
rather than SHA-1.
TLS 1.2 [RFC5246], adds support for authenticated encryption with
additional data (AEAD) cipher modes [RFC5116]. This document also
specifies a set of ECC cipher suites using one such mode, Galois
Counter Mode (GCM) [GCM]. Another document [RFC5288] provides
support for GCM with other key establishment methods.
2. Conventions Used in This Document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
3. Cipher Suites
This document defines 16 new cipher suites to be added to TLS. All
use Elliptic Curve Cryptography for key exchange and digital
signature, as defined in RFC 4492.
3.1. HMAC-Based Cipher Suites
The first eight cipher suites use AES [AES] in Cipher Block Chaining
(CBC) [CBC] mode with an HMAC-based MAC:
CipherSuite TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 = {0xC0,0x23};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 = {0xC0,0x24};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 = {0xC0,0x25};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 = {0xC0,0x26};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 = {0xC0,0x27};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 = {0xC0,0x28};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 = {0xC0,0x29};
CipherSuite TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 = {0xC0,0x2A};
These eight cipher suites are the same as the corresponding cipher
suites in RFC 4492 (with names ending in "_SHA" in place of "_SHA256"
or "_SHA384"), except for the MAC and Pseudo Random Function (PRF)
algorithms.
Rescorla Informational [Page 2]
RFC 5289 TLS ECC New MAC August 2008
These SHALL be as follows:
o For cipher suites ending with _SHA256, the PRF is the TLS PRF
[RFC5246] with SHA-256 as the hash function. The MAC is HMAC
[RFC2104] with SHA-256 as the hash function.
o For cipher suites ending with _SHA384, the PRF is the TLS PRF
[RFC5246] with SHA-384 as the hash function. The MAC is HMAC
datatracker.ietf.org