New installs using lesser ciphers by default?

Richard G

Verified User
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
13,680
Location
Maastricht
Due to somebody I wanted to help, my eye catched on something weird about ciphers.
Older server:
Code:
PORT    STATE SERVICE
465/tcp open  smtps
| ssl-enum-ciphers:
|   TLSv1.2:
|     ciphers:
|       TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 - strong
|       TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 - strong
|       TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 - strong
|       TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 - strong
|     compressors:
|       NULL
|_  least strength: strong
So everything strong and good.

But on newly installed VPS with Debian 11 and also newly installed Alma 8.x server
Code:
PORT    STATE SERVICE
465/tcp open  smtps
| ssl-enum-ciphers:
|   TLSv1.2:
|     ciphers:
|       TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (ecdh_x25519) - A
|       TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (ecdh_x25519) - A
|       TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 (ecdh_x25519) - A
|       TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (dh 4096) - A
|       TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (dh 4096) - A
|     compressors:
|       NULL
|     cipher preference: server
|     warnings:
|       Key exchange (ecdh_x25519) of lower strength than certificate key
|_  least strength: A
So now it's not "strong" anymore but A, and we got the key exchange notice about a lower strength then certificate key?
Probably caused by that chacha20 key?

It's default DA install. Shouldn't this be at least same strength?
 
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