3.7.2.2. Working with Cipher Suites in GnuTLS
GnuTLS is a communications library that implements the
SSL
and TLS
protocols and related technologies.
Note
The GnuTLS installation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers optimal default configuration values that provide sufficient security for the majority of use cases. Unless you need to satisfy special security requirements, it is recommended to use the supplied defaults.
Use the
gnutls-cli
command with the -l
(or --list
) option to list all supported cipher suites:
gnutls-cli -l
~]$ gnutls-cli -l
To narrow the list of cipher suites displayed by the
-l
option, pass one or more parameters (referred to as priority strings and keywords in GnuTLS documentation) to the --priority
option. See the GnuTLS documentation at http://www.gnutls.org/manual/gnutls.html#Priority-Strings for a list of all available priority strings. For example, issue the following command to get a list of cipher suites that offer at least 128 bits of security:
gnutls-cli --priority SECURE128 -l
~]$ gnutls-cli --priority SECURE128 -l
To obtain a list of cipher suites that satisfy the recommendations outlined in Section 3.7.1, “Choosing Algorithms to Enable”, use a command similar to the following:
The above command limits the output to ciphers with at least 128 bits of security while giving preference to the stronger ones. It also forbids
RSA
key exchange and DSS
authentication.
Note that this is a rather strict configuration, and it might be necessary to relax the conditions in real-world scenarios to allow for a compatibility with a broader range of clients.