Weak crypto casts shadow over ecommerce

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/23/24711.html

By John Leyden
Posted: 04/04/2002 at 15:19 GMT

US export restrictions and local legislation on cryptography still
casts a shadow over the security of ecommerce site even years after
regulations to permit the use of strong encryption.

That's according to a survey of SSL servers by Netcraft, carried out
last month, which discovered 18 per cent of supposedly secure servers
use potentially vulnerable key lengths.

In most European countries more than 25 per cent are still using short
keys, and in France, which had laws restricting the use of
cryptography until relatively recently, over 40 per cent of sites are
using short keys. This compares to under 16 per cent of secure servers
in North America which use weak encryption.

Since January 2000, the US has allowed companies to export any
encryption product to commercial firms, individuals and other
non-government end-users without a license. These regulations include
exports to all countries bar exports to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North
Korea, Sudan, and Syria, which the US classifies as "terrorist
supporting states".

Netcraft reckons export grade cryptography remains quite common
outside North America partly because the relative weakness of the
server's choice of cryptography is not obvious to sys admins, so there
is so little pressure to make the change.

If browser developers include an indication of key length - rather
than the present lock symbol displayed on all SSL sessions - this may
prompt the necessary upgrades, Netcraft suggests. Admins could act
before then, of course, but given how slowly people applied patches to
upgrade well known flaws to Microsoft's IIS Web server software
perhaps an additional incentive is needed.



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