Tomcat: TLSv1.2 with strong ciphers not working

Question

I installed Tomcat-7, configured support for TLSv1.2 on port 8443.
My Connector configuration:
protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" SSLEnabled="true" scheme="https" secure="true" sslProtocol="TLSv1.2" sslEnabledProtocols="TLSv1.2"

I then configured a list of strong ciphers I wanted to use. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384

As I have read, Tomcat can either use Java JSSE or OpenSSL
JSSE protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
OpenSSL protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol"
My tomcat connector is configured with JSSE protocol.

It works if I add the following ciphers with SHA1. (No GCM with SHA1) TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA.

I have downloaded the Java cryptographic extensions policy files. Tried with both Java 7 and Java 8.

Before I installed the Cryptographic Extensions I got the following error while starting up Tomcat

INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8443"]
mai 20, 2014 3:57:43 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.jsse.JSSESocketFactory     getEnableableCiphers
WARNING: None of the ciphers specified are supported by the SSL engine :     TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384,TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384

According to Java 7 Documentation all these strong ciphers with GCM-SHA384 and CBC-SHA384 should be supported: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/security/StandardNames.html#ciphersuites

If I change the ciphers just a little bit:

INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-8443"]
mai 20, 2014 4:21:11 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.net.jsse.JSSESocketFactory getEnableableCiphers
WARNING: None of the ciphers specified are supported by the SSL engine : TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA584,TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA584,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA584,TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA584

That would indicate that that my list of ciphers are supported by my Tomcat/Java.

Could the problem be with the Browser? I have tried the latest Chromium and Firefox. After checking some commits I found out that Chromium does support SHA256, SHA384 and AES-GCM.

DJViking DJViking · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-22T07:13:38

Found out that neither Chromium nor Firefox support these higher ciphers.
The strongest/highest cipher available is TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
No support for SHA384 and no AES_256_GCM

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/viewMyClient.html
Cipher Suites (in order of preference)
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (0xc02b)
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (0xc02f)
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (0x9e)
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (0xc00a)
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (0xc009)
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (0xc013)
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (0xc014)
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA (0xc007)
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA (0xc011)
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (0x33)
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (0x32)
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (0x39)
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (0x9c)
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA (0x2f)
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA (0x35)
TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA (0xa)
TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA (0x5)
TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5 (0x4)

Tomcat: TLSv1.2 with strong ciphers not working

4 Answers