Network Working Group                                          B. Harris
Request for Comments: 4345                                  January 2006
Category: Standards Track


                      Improved Arcfour Modes for
            the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   This document specifies methods of using the Arcfour cipher in the
   Secure Shell (SSH) protocol that mitigate the weakness of the
   cipher's key-scheduling algorithm.

1.  Introduction

   Secure Shell (SSH) [RFC4251] is a secure remote-login protocol.  It
   allows for the use of an extensible variety of symmetric cipher
   algorithms to provide confidentiality for data in transit.  One of
   the algorithms specified in the base protocol is "arcfour", which
   specifies the use of Arcfour (also known as RC4), a fast stream
   cipher.  As [RFC4253] says, though, "Arcfour (and RC4) has problems
   with weak keys, and should be used with caution."  These problems are
   described in more detail in [MANTIN01], along with a recommendation
   to discard the first 1536 bytes of keystream so as to ensure that the
   cipher's internal state is thoroughly mixed.  This document specifies
   new cipher algorithms for SSH that follow this recommendation.

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].






Harris                      Standards Track                     [Page 1]


RFC 4345             Improved Arcfour Modes for SSH         January 2006


3.  Applicability Statement

   Implementations of Arcfour are typically slightly faster and much
   smaller than those of any other encryption algorithm currently
   defined for SSH.  This must be balanced, though, against the known
   security problems with Arcfour described in Section 5.  In most
   cases, where speed and code size are not critical issues, the
   algorithms specified by [RFC4344] should be used instead.

4.  Algorithm Definitions

   The "arcfour128" algorithm is the RC4 cipher, as described in
   [SCHNEIER], using a 128-bit key.  The first 1536 bytes of keystream
   generated by the cipher MUST be discarded, and the first byte of the
   first encrypted packet MUST be encrypted using the 1537th byte of
   keystream.

   The "arcfour256" algorithm is the same, but uses a 256-bit key.

5.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations in [RFC4251] apply.

   The discarded bytes of keystream MUST be kept secret and MUST NOT be
   transmitted over the network.  The contents of these bytes could
   reveal information about the key.

   There are two classes of attack on Arcfour described in [MIRONOV].
   Strong distinguishers distinguish an Arcfour keystream from
   randomness at the start of the stream and are defended against by the
   algorithm defined in this document.  Weak distinguishers can operate
   on any part of the keystream, and the best ones, described in [FMcG]
   and [MANTIN05], can use data from multiple, different keystreams.  A
   consequence of this is that encrypting the same data (for instance, a
   password) sufficiently many times in separate Arcfour keystreams can
   be sufficient to leak information about it to an adversary.  It is
   thus RECOMMENDED that Arcfour (either in the form described here or
   that described in [RFC4251]) not be used for high-volume password-
   authenticated connections.

6.  IANA Considerations

   The IANA has assigned the Encryption Algorithm Names "arcfour128" and
   "arcfour256" in accordance with [RFC4250].







Harris                      Standards Track                     [Page 2]


RFC 4345             Improved Arcfour Modes for SSH         January 2006


7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC4250]  Lehtinen, S. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Protocol Assigned Numbers", RFC 4250, January 2006.

   [RFC4251]  Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Protocol Architecture", RFC 4251, January 2006.

   [RFC4253]  Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell (SSH)
              Transport Layer Protocol", RFC 4253, January 2006

   [RFC4344]  Bellare, M., Kohno, T., and C. Namprempre, "The Secure
              Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Encryption Modes", RFC 4344,
              January 2006.

   [SCHNEIER] Schneier, B., "Applied Cryptography Second Edition:
              protocols algorithms and source in code in C", John Wiley
              and Sons, New York, NY, 1996.

7.2.  Informative References

   [FMcG]     Fluhrer, S. and D. McGrew, "Statistical Analysis of the
              Alleged RC4 Keystream Generator", Fast Software
              Encryption:  7th International Workshop, FSE 2000, April
              2000, <http://www.mindspring.com/~dmcgrew/rc4-03.pdf>.

   [MANTIN01] Mantin, I., "Analysis of the Stream Cipher RC4", M.Sc.
              Thesis, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2001, <http://
              www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~itsik/RC4/Papers/Mantin1.zip>.

   [MIRONOV]  Mironov, I., "(Not So) Random Shuffles of RC4", Advances
              in Cryptology -- CRYPTO 2002: 22nd Annual International
              Cryptology Conference, August 2002,
              <http://eprint.iacr.org/2002/067.pdf>.

   [MANTIN05] Mantin, I., "Predicting and Distinguishing Attacks on RC4
              Keystream Generator", Advances in Cryptology -- EUROCRYPT
              2005: 24th Annual International Conference on the Theory
              and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, May 2005.







Harris                      Standards Track                     [Page 3]


RFC 4345             Improved Arcfour Modes for SSH         January 2006


Author's Address

   Ben Harris
   2a Eachard Road
   CAMBRIDGE
   CB3 0HY
   UNITED KINGDOM

   EMail: bjh21@bjh21.me.uk

Trademark Notice

   "RC4" and "SSH" are registered trademarks in the United States.






































Harris                      Standards Track                     [Page 4]


RFC 4345             Improved Arcfour Modes for SSH         January 2006


Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
   retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
   INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
   INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
   ietf-ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF
   Administrative Support Activity (IASA).







Harris                      Standards Track                     [Page 5]