SSL certificates and poor implementations

April 3, 2006 · 1 min read

We all know what a SSL cert is, right? Well then why are most certs so poorly implemented? I think the problem lies with most system administrators getting the cert at the last minute (when users report seeing an expired cert on the site) and sticking it in. Often though, several weak ciphers are allowed. I assume that everything below 128 bit encryption is a weak cipher (and hopfully you do too)
Anyways, here are a few tools to check how the SSL encryption of your site looks to hackers:

Good luck! And have fun!
Oh and if you want to check out the remediation for this, here are some links coutesy of Dimitrios Petropoulos (on the owasp list):
IIS:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=245030
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;187498

Apache:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod\_ssl.html#sslciphersuite

IBM HTTP Server:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/webservers/httpservers/doc/v1312/ibm/9acdssl.htm(look for SSLVersion and SSLCipherSpec)

iPlanet v6:
http://docs.sun.com/source/816-5682-10/esecurty.htm#1008479

This article is part of the GWB Archives. Original Author: Rishi Pande

New on Geeks with Blogs

  • We Won The One Award I Actually Care About

    Full Scale made the Inc. 5000 for the fifth year straight, the 12th listing across my three companies. Here is why the one award you cannot buy is worth stopping for.

  • Your Customers Build the Features Now

    I let a tool I liked sit dead for a year rather than build the features I wanted. An MCP server meant I never had to, and your customers can do the same to your product.

  • Get the Size of a Directory in Linux the Easy Way

    du -sh for the quick answer, ncdu for the cleanup, df for the disk itself: every command for checking directory size in Linux, plus why du and df never agree.

  • Vim Search and Replace: The Ultimate Guide

    One :%s command replaces every match in a file before a find dialog would even open. The Vim substitute patterns worth the muscle memory: flags, ranges, capture groups, and multi-file edits.