topic Re: How to get better grades in the SSL Labs Cert. scan in SASE and Remote Access

How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

Keld_Norman — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 14:19:18 GMT

Can any one here guide me on how to get a better score when I scan my firewall with the SSL Server Test (Powered by Qualys SSL Labs) ?

Is there a quick guide on how to enable forward secrecy, disable tls v1.0, 1.1 and weak ciphers etc. ?

Best regards Keld Norman

Thanks for the anwsers so far - I have collected them all - testet and gotten better scores - here is what i did:

#######################################################################

# HOW TO GET BETTER GRADES IN THE SSLLABS.COM SSL TEST #

#######################################################################

To get from the B to A I did the following:

Alter the portal to only support TLS 1.2

In my 80.10 SmartConsole:

Global Properties -> AdvancedConfiguration -> Portal Properties: Altered minimum version to TLS 1.2

NB: Thanks to Claus Kjær for reminding me of this GUI way of doing things - I were trying to do achieve this by altering conf files with vim in expert shell..

Now to enable perfect forward support:

REF: Specific HTTPS sites that use ECDHE ciphers are not accessible when HTTPS Inspection is enabled (sk110883)

A note about the above sk110883
ECDHE is quite widely used and recommend. It works with elliptical keys and provides forward secrecy. It's used for the key exchange. ECDSA is not widely used though, but it does also use elliptical keys. It it used for authentication

A note about the above sk110883

ECDHE is quite widely used and recommend. It works with elliptical keys and provides forward secrecy. It's used for the key exchange.

ECDSA is not widely used though, but it does also use elliptical keys. It it used for authentication

I logged on to the firewall via secure shell (I have a standalone installation with the manager and firewall running in a VM) and in expert mode pasted the following 3 lines in:

[Expert@firewall:0]#
ckp_regedit -a SOFTWARE//CheckPoint//FW1 CPTLS_ACCEPT_ECDHE 1
ckp_regedit -a SOFTWARE//CheckPoint//FW1 CPTLS_PROPOSE_ECDHE 1
ckp_regedit -a SOFTWARE//CheckPoint//FW1 CPTLS_EC_P384 1

Then a reboot or just a cpstop/start is needed:

[Expert@firewall:0]# nohup $(cpstop ; cpstart) &

Now the grade went from B to A :

Now to look at the suggested link from Dameon Welch Abernathy

Remove the weak ciphers related to TLS 1.2

(ref: https://supportcenter.checkpoint.com/supportcenter/portal?eventSubmit_doGoviewsolutiondetails=&solutionid=sk120774)

So basically I just need to alter this in the file: /web/templates/httpd-ssl.conf.templ

ALTER: SSLCipherSuite HIGH:!RC4:!LOW:!EXP:!aNULL:!SSLv2:!MD5
TO SSLCipherSuite ECDH:!aNULL:!ECDSA:!aECDH:!eNULL:!MD5:!SHA1

Again secure shell to the system - and in export mode paste the lines in purple below:

# Backup the file you want to alter first

[Expert@firewall:0]#

cp /web/templates/httpd-ssl.conf.templ /web/templates/httpd-ssl.conf.templ.backup

# Oneliner to replace the old line with the new using the SED util.

sed -i 's/SSLCipherSuite HIGH:!RC4:!LOW:!EXP:!aNULL:!SSLv2:!MD5/SSLCipherSuite ECDH:!aNULL:!ECDSA:!aECDH:!eNULL:!MD5:!SHA1/' /web/templates/httpd-ssl.conf.templ

# Test if the line was altered:

grep -i ^SSLCipherSuite /web/templates/httpd-ssl.conf.templ

( it should return: SSLCipherSuite ECDH:!aNULL:!ECDSA:!aECDH:!eNULL:!MD5:!SHA1)

Then reboot the firewall..

[Expert@firewall:0]# reboot

The Qualys SSL scan still only shows an A - I still have some weak ciphers 😕

To be continued..

Re: How to get better grades in the SSL Labs Cert. scan

PhoneBoy — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 07:30:12 GMT

Here's a start: Vulnerability scan shows that there are weak ciphers related to TLS 1.2

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

Keld_Norman — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:04:27 GMT

It was a good tip - I'll just need to investigate what impact disabling the last 4 weak ciphers would have if i turn them off:

Cipher Suites
# TLS 1.2 (suites in server-preferred order)
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (`0xc02f`) ECDH secp256r1 (eq. 3072 bits RSA) FS	128
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (`0xc014`) ECDH secp256r1 (eq. 3072 bits RSA) FS	256
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (`0xc013`) ECDH secp256r1 (eq. 3072 bits RSA) FS	128
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (`0x9c`) WEAK	128
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (`0x2f`) WEAK	128
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (`0x35`) WEAK	256
TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA (`0xa`) WEAK	112

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

Alex_Weldon — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 14:16:20 GMT

You should probably add !3DES to the list of modifications as well.

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

Trey_Havener — Wed, 08 May 2019 17:40:28 GMT

One vulnerability scan shows we have weak dh groups. We don't use those groups...but it doesn't like the fact that we even have them available...? How would one go about fixing that.

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

Pedro_Madeira — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 16:25:50 GMT

Hello everyone,

Just to revive this old post, this SK is relevant for versions R80.10, R80.20 and R80.30

Cipher configuration tool for R80.x Gateways

sk126613

https://supportcenter.checkpoint.com/supportcenter/portal?eventSubmit_doGoviewsolutiondetails=&solutionid=sk126613&partition=Advanced&product=Security

Just used this on a customer and works as advertised.

Have fun,

Pedro Madeira

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

An_Nguyen — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 19:02:14 GMT

The SSLLABS scan still show the weak ciphers.

Can we remove all the ciphers except one that is shown ok?

How about preferring PFS ciphers?

Thanks

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

rovame2013 — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 15:43:28 GMT

Nice tutorial!

Waiting for part 2.

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

_Jelle — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 16:52:17 GMT

Hi,

First of all thanks for sharing your investigation, i used some of your findings in my own lab for testing purposes. Could you explain to me if you're trying to get a better grade for your "Multiportal" (Gaia Web Interface) or are you trying to get a better grade for a website that is terminated via HTTPS inspection on your gateway?

I am in a situation where i need to enhance the ciphers proposed when using inbound HTTPS inscpection on R80.10. What i discovered so far is that on R80.10 you can only alter the server preferred cipher order (The server is your Security Gateway), and it is not possible to disable some of the weak ciphers completely.

You are saying that you successfully disabled the weak ciphers if i understand correctly right? If so, does your customer run R80.20 or R80.30?

Because the SK (sk126613) describes the following under the section R80.10:

Important Information:

If a cipher exists in the file but the Security Gateway doesn't support it, the cipher will be ignored.
If there are ciphers on the Security Gateway that are not in the file, the Security Gateway will still use them but give preference to the ciphers in the file.
If there is a syntax error in the file, the changes will not take effect, and the Security Gateway will use the old behavior.
This procedure is not relevant for SSL Inspection.

I am still investigating so if i discover a way to disable the weak ciphers on R80.10 completely i will share this info with you 🙂

Regards,

Jelle

Re: How to get better grades @ SSL Labs Certificate scan

nolankam — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 03:01:59 GMT

Hi I am also facing similar issues on R80.10, specifically to disable

: (TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256)

: (TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA)

: (TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA)