RFC 6649 · BEST CURRENT PRACTICE · 2012

Deprecate DES, RC4-HMAC-EXP, and Other Weak Cryptographic Algorithms in Kerberos

Overview

RFC 6649, “Deprecate DES, RC4-HMAC-EXP, and Other Weak Cryptographic Algorithms in Kerberos”, is a Best Current Practice document published in July 2012 by L. Hornquist Astrand, T. Yu. It updates RFC 1964, RFC 4120, RFC 4121, RFC 4757. It obsoletes RFC 1510. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.

Abstract

The Kerberos 5 network authentication protocol, originally specified in RFC 1510, can use the Data Encryption Standard (DES) for encryption. Almost 30 years after first publishing DES, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finally withdrew the standard in 2005, reflecting a long-established consensus that DES is insufficiently secure. By 2008, commercial hardware costing less than USD 15,000 could break DES keys in less than a day on average. DES is long past its sell-by date. Accordingly, this document updates RFC 1964, RFC 4120, RFC 4121, and RFC 4757 to deprecate the use of DES, RC4-HMAC-EXP, and other weak cryptographic algorithms in Kerberos. Because RFC 1510 (obsoleted by RFC 4120) supports only DES, this document recommends the reclassification of RFC 1510 as Historic. This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

Abstract as published in the RFC, via rfc-editor.org.

What “Best Current Practice” means

Documents the IETF community's recommended operational or procedural practice rather than a protocol specification.

Read this RFC

The canonical text of RFC 6649 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in TXT,HTML.

Relationships to other RFCs
This RFC obsoletes
RFC 1510
This RFC updates
RFC 1964 RFC 4120 RFC 4121 RFC 4757
Other RFCs from 2012

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