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Strong Ciphers for Apache, NGINX and Lighttpd

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The below strong ciphers are copy/pastable for your Apache, NGINX, Lighttpd, haproxy, Postfix, Exim, ProFTPd, Dovecot, Hitch TLS Proxy, Zarafa, MySQL, DirectAdmin, PostgreSQL, OpenSSH Server/Client, Golang Server and UniFi Controller config mirrored directly from https://cipherli.st. They provide strong SSL security for all modern browsers, and you’ll obtain an A+ on the SSL Labs Test. In short, they:

  • Set a strong Forward Secrecy enabled cipher suite
  • Disable SSLv2 and SSLv3
  • Add HTTP Strict Transport Security and X-Frame-Deny headers
  • Enable OCSP Stapling (except on Lighttpd, feature not supported yet)

These examples are meant for sysadmins who have done this before (and sysadmins are forced to support Windows XP with IE < 9, therefore des3cbc), as an easily copy-pastable example, not for newbies who have no idea what all this means. The settings are very secure, but if you don’t know what you are doing might make your website and sub-domains unavailable for a long, long time (see HSTS). Research what you are doing and think before you act.

Using IIS? Check out IIS Crypto. Other software like Zeus, Tomcat? Detailed info? Read the Mozilla Wiki.

Strong SSL Security on Apache2

Apache

SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH
SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
SSLHonorCipherOrder On
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload"
Header always set X-Frame-Options DENY
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff
# Requires Apache >= 2.4
SSLCompression off
SSLUseStapling on
SSLStaplingCache "shmcb:logs/stapling-cache(150000)"
# Requires Apache >= 2.4.11
SSLSessionTickets Off

Rationale and tutorial on Strong SSL Security on Apache

nginx

ssl_protocols TLSv1.3;# Requires nginx >= 1.13.0 else use TLSv1.2
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; 
ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/dhparam.pem; # openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/dhparam.pem 4096
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384;
# I (Travis Runyard) personally use the following:
# ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:HIGH:MEDIUM:!MD5:!aNULL:!EDH:!RC4:!DSS;
ssl_ecdh_curve secp384r1; # Requires nginx >= 1.1.0
ssl_session_timeout  10m;
ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
ssl_session_tickets off; # Requires nginx >= 1.5.9
ssl_stapling on; # Requires nginx >= 1.3.7
ssl_stapling_verify on; # Requires nginx => 1.3.7
resolver $DNS-IP-1 $DNS-IP-2 valid=300s;
resolver_timeout 5s; 
add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload";
add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
You can read about the ChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithm at the Internet Engineering Task Force site here
Or Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly1305
Or the IEEE: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7927078The ChaCha20 stream cipher and the Poly1305 authenticator are cryptographic algorithms designed by Daniel J. Bernstein with the aim of ensuring high-security margins, while achieving high performance on a broad range of software platforms. In response to the concerns raised about the reliability of the existing IETF/TLS cipher suite, its performance on software platforms, and the ease to realize secure implementations thereof, the IETF has recently published the RFC7905 and RFC7539 to promote the use and standardization of the ChaCha20 stream cipher and Poly1305 authenticator in the TLS protocol. Most interestingly, the RFC7539 specifies how to combine together the ChaCha20 stream cipher and Poly1305 authenticator to construct an Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) scheme to provide confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of data. In this work, we present compact, constant-time, and fast implementations of the ChaCha20 stream cipher, Poly1305-ChaCha20 authenticator, and ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD scheme for ARM Cortex-M4 processors, aimed at evaluating the suitability of such algorithms for high-speed and lightweight IoT applications, e.g. to deploy fast and secure TLS connections between IoT nodes and remote cloud servers, when AES hardware acceleration capabilities are not available.

Lighttpd

ssl.honor-cipher-order = "enable"
ssl.cipher-list = "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH"
ssl.use-compression = "disable"
setenv.add-response-header = (
    "Strict-Transport-Security" => "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload",
    "X-Frame-Options" => "DENY",
    "X-Content-Type-Options" => "nosniff"
)
ssl.use-sslv2 = "disable"
ssl.use-sslv3 = "disable"

Rationale and tutorial on Strong SSL Security on Lighttpd

 

SSL Config Testers:

  1. ssldecoder.org
  2. ssllabs.com

Other Software

Pull requests for other software welcome

haproxy

global
   ssl-default-bind-options no-sslv3 no-tls-tickets force-tlsv12
   ssl-default-bind-ciphers AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH
   tune.ssl.default-dh-param 2048

frontend http-in
      mode http
      option httplog
      option forwardfor
      option http-server-close
      option httpclose
      bind 192.0.2.10:80
      redirect scheme https code 301 if !{ ssl_fc }

frontend https-in
    option httplog
    option forwardfor
    option http-server-close
    option httpclose
    rspadd Strict-Transport-Security:\ max-age=31536000;\ includeSubDomains;\ preload
    rspadd X-Frame-Options:\ DENY
    bind 192.0.2.10:443 ssl crt /etc/haproxy/haproxy.pem ciphers AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH force-tlsv12 no-sslv3

Postfix

smtpd_use_tls=yes
smtpd_tls_security_level = may
smtpd_tls_auth_only = yes
smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/ssl/postfix.cert
smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/ssl/postfix.key
smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2,!SSLv3,!TLSv1,!TLSv1.1
smtpd_tls_protocols=!SSLv2,!SSLv3,!TLSv1,!TLSv1.1
smtpd_tls_mandatory_ciphers = medium
tls_medium_cipherlist = AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH

Exim

tls_certificate = /etc/exim.cert
tls_privatekey = /etc/exim.key
tls_advertise_hosts = *
tls_require_ciphers = AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH
openssl_options = +no_sslv2 +no_sslv3

ProFTPd

TLSEngine on
TLSLog /var/ftpd/tls.log
TLSProtocol TLSv1.2
TLSRequired on
TLSCipherSuite AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH
TLSRSACertificateFile /etc/proftpd.cert
TLSRSACertificateKeyFile /etc/proftpd.key

Dovecot

ssl = yes
ssl_cert = </etc/dovecot.cert
ssl_key = </etc/dovecot.key
ssl_protocols = !SSLv2 !SSLv3
ssl_cipher_list = AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers = yes # >Dovecot 2.2.6
ssl_dh_parameters_length = 4096 # >Dovecot 2.2

Hitch TLS Proxy

ciphers = "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH"
prefer-server-ciphers = on

Zarafa

These settings can be set in /etc/zarafa/server.cfg and gateway.cfg.

Medium security

server_ssl_protocols = !SSLv2 !SSLv3
server_ssl_ciphers = ALL:!LOW:!SSLv2:!SSLv3:!EXP:!aNULL
server_ssl_prefer_server_ciphers = yes or no

High security

server_ssl_protocols = !SSLv2 !SSLv3 !TLSv1 !TLSv1.1  # >= Debian 7 / CentOS 7
server_ssl_ciphers = EECDH+ECDSA+AESGCM:EECDH+aRSA+AESGCM:EECDH+ECDSA+SHA384:EECDH+ECDSA+SHA256:EECDH+aRSA+SHA384:EECDH+aRSA+SHA256:EECDH+aRSA+RC4:EECDH:EDH+aRSA:RC4:!aNULL:!eNULL:!LOW:!3DES:!MD5:!EXP:!PSK:!SRP:!DSS
server_ssl_prefer_server_ciphers = yes or no

MySQL

[mysqld]
ssl-ca=/etc/mysql-ssl/ca-cert.pem
ssl-cert=/etc/mysql-ssl/server-cert.pem
ssl-key=/etc/mysql-ssl/server-key.pem
ssl-cipher=AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH
# replication:
GRANT REPLICATION SLAVE ON *.* to 'repl'@'%' REQUIRE SSL;
STOP SLAVE;
CHANGE MASTER MASTER_SSL=1,
MASTER_SSL_CA='/etc/mysql-ssl/ca-cert.pem',
MASTER_SSL_CERT='/etc/mysql-ssl/client-cert.pem',
MASTER_SSL_KEY='/etc/mysql-ssl/client-key.pem';
SHOW SLAVE STATUS\G;
START SLAVE;
SHOW SLAVE STATUS\G;

DirectAdmin

ssl_cipher=AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH
SSL=1
cacert=/usr/local/directadmin/conf/cacert.pem
cakey=/usr/local/directadmin/conf/cakey.pem
carootcert=/usr/local/directadmin/conf/carootcert.pem

PostgreSQL

ssl = on
ssl_ciphers = 'AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH'
password_encryption = on

OpenSSH Server

Protocol 2
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
MACs hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-ripemd160,umac-128@openssh.com

OpenSSH Client

HashKnownHosts yes
Host github.com
    MACs hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512
Host *
  ConnectTimeout 30
  KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
  MACs hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-ripemd160,umac-128@openssh.com
  Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
  ServerAliveInterval 10
  ControlMaster auto
  ControlPersist yes
  ControlPath ~/.ssh/socket-%r@%h:%p

Golang Server

package main

import (
    "crypto/tls"
    "log"
    "net/http"
)

func main() {
    mux := http.NewServeMux()
    mux.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
        w.Header().Add("Strict-Transport-Security", "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains")
        w.Write([]byte("This is an example server.\n"))
    })
    cfg := &tls.Config{
        MinVersion:               tls.VersionTLS12,
        CurvePreferences:         []tls.CurveID{tls.CurveP521, tls.CurveP384, tls.CurveP256},
        PreferServerCipherSuites: true,
        CipherSuites: []uint16{
            tls.TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384,
            tls.TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
            tls.TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384,
            tls.TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA,
        },
    }
    srv := &http.Server{
        Addr:         ":443",
        Handler:      mux,
        TLSConfig:    cfg,
        TLSNextProto: make(map[string]func(*http.Server, *tls.Conn, http.Handler), 0),
    }
    log.Fatal(srv.ListenAndServeTLS("tls.crt", "tls.key"))
}

UniFi Controller

unifi.https.ciphers=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA256,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
unifi.https.sslEnabledProtocols=TLSv1.2

100% credit goes to the information source: cipherli.st and source code on GitHub.

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