Setting SSL cipher suite preferences

In Adaptive Server, sp_ssladmin has two command options to display and set cipher suite preferences: lsciphers and setciphers. With these options, the set of cipher suites that Adaptive Server uses can be restricted, giving control to the system security officer over the kinds of encryption algorithms that may be used by client connections to the server or outbound connections from Adaptive Server. The default behavior for use of SSL cipher suites in Adaptive Server is the same as in earlier versions; it uses an internally defined set of preferences for cipher suites.

To display the values for any set cipher suite preferences, enter:

sp_ssladmin lsciphers

To set a specific cipher suite preference, enter:

sp_ssladmin setciphers, {"FIPS" | "Strong" | "Weak" | "All" | quoted_list_of_ciphersuites }

where:

The detailed contents of the predefined sets are in Table 9-1.

sp_ssladmin setciphers sets cipher suite preferences to the given ordered list. This restricts the available SSL cipher suites to the specified set of “FIPS”, “Strong”, “Weak”, “All”, or a quoted list of cipher suites. This takes effect on the next listener started, and requires that you restart Adaptive Server to ensure that all listeners use the new settings.

You can display any cipher suite preferences that have been set using sp_ssladmin lsciphers. If no preferences have been set, sp_ssladmin lsciphers returns 0 rows to indicate no preferences are set and Adaptive Server uses its default (internal) preferences.

Table 9-1: Predefined cipher suites in Adaptive Server

Set name

Cipher suite names included in the set

FIPS

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

Strong

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

Weak

TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

All

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

Table 9-2 describes Cipher suites no longer supported for Adaptive Server 15.0 and later. 15.0. Attempts to use use any dropped cipher suite results in an SSLHandshake failure and a failure to connect to Adaptive Server.

Table 9-2: Dropped Cipher suites

Set name

Cipher suite names dropped from the set

FIPS

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

Strong

None dropped

Weak

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHATLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHATLS_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

Others

TLS_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHATLS_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5TLS_DH_anon_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHATLS_DH_anon_WITH_DES_CBC_SHATLS_DH_anon_WITH_RC4_128_MD5TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_MD5TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA