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doc: clarify supported versus enabled TLS ciphers #42063

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Feb 22, 2022
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doc: clarify supported versus enabled TLS ciphers #42063

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doc: clarify supported versus enabled TLS ciphers
tniessen Feb 20, 2022
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doc: match heading in link text
tniessen Feb 20, 2022
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7 changes: 5 additions & 2 deletions doc/api/tls.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -1799,7 +1799,7 @@ changes:
See [OpenSSL man pages](https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.1.1/man3/SSL_CTX_set1_sigalgs_list.html)
for more info.
* `ciphers` {string} Cipher suite specification, replacing the default. For
more information, see [modifying the default cipher suite][]. Permitted
more information, see [Modifying the default TLS cipher suite][]. Permitted
ciphers can be obtained via [`tls.getCiphers()`][]. Cipher names must be
uppercased in order for OpenSSL to accept them.
* `clientCertEngine` {string} Name of an OpenSSL engine which can provide the
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2101,6 +2101,9 @@ Returns an array with the names of the supported TLS ciphers. The names are
lower-case for historical reasons, but must be uppercased to be used in
the `ciphers` option of [`tls.createSecureContext()`][].

Not all supported ciphers are enabled by default. See
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@thernstig thernstig Feb 21, 2022 •
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ciphers -> cipher suites (though that should also change the above line "TLS ciphers" -> "TLS cipher suites".

Maybe I am nit-picky here, but each string shown is a suite that contains many ciphers, although of course "ciphers" (plural) covers that in a sense.

At the same time, the option is called ciphers and not cipher_suites, so keeping "ciphers" only might make sense.

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You are right, node uses the terms ciphers and cipher suites similarly, which is technically not quite correct. I can try to make things more consistent in a follow-up PR.

[Modifying the default TLS cipher suite][].

Cipher names that start with `'tls_'` are for TLSv1.3, all the others are for
TLSv1.2 and below.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2169,6 +2172,7 @@ added: v11.4.0
[Chrome's 'modern cryptography' setting]: https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/education/tls#TOC-Cipher-Suites
[DHE]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange
[ECDHE]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman
[Modifying the default TLS cipher suite]: #modifying-the-default-tls-cipher-suite
[Mozilla's publicly trusted list of CAs]: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/raw-file/tip/security/nss/lib/ckfw/builtins/certdata.txt
[OCSP request]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCSP_stapling
[OpenSSL Options]: crypto.md#openssl-options
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2220,6 +2224,5 @@ added: v11.4.0
[certificate object]: #certificate-object
[cipher list format]: https://www.openssl.org/docs/man1.1.1/man1/ciphers.html#CIPHER-LIST-FORMAT
[forward secrecy]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_forward_secrecy
[modifying the default cipher suite]: #modifying-the-default-tls-cipher-suite
[perfect forward secrecy]: #perfect-forward-secrecy
[specific attacks affecting larger AES key sizes]: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/another_new_aes.html