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    SHA1 for HMAC

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
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    • C Offline
      coreybrett
      last edited by

      I understand the defaults in 2.4.4 were updated to reflect modern crypto.
      I'm curious why SHA1 is considered weak for the hash.
      Is there a performance diff between SHA1 and SHA256?

      According to these articles, SHA1 is still ok for HMAC.
      But perhaps something has changed since they were written?

      https://vikingvpn.com/blogs/transparency/understanding-googles-sha-1-collision-and-openvpn-hmac-sha1

      https://blog.equinux.com/2017/03/sha-1-collision-and-what-it-means-for-your-vpn-security/

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      • jimpJ Offline
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        Though SHA1 may still be safe right now, if your goal is "secure by default" why pick something you know is a ticking time bomb?

        There may be a performance difference between SHA1 and SHA256 but it largely depends on your hardware and workload.

        If that bothers you, use AES-GCM which does the encryption and hashing in one (accelerated) step.

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        • C Offline
          coreybrett
          last edited by

          Thanks for the feed back.
          Can I do GCM with a PSK S2S tunnel?

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          • jimpJ Offline
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
            last edited by

            With IPsec, yes. With OpenVPN, no. OpenVPN shared key mode isn't compatible with GCM (IIRC it requires SSL/TLS)

            Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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