HOWTO: Disable weak protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms on Web Application Proxies, AD FS Servers and Windows Servers running Azure AD Connect

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Hybrid Identity

Most Microsoft-based Hybrid Identity implementations use Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) Servers, Web Application Proxies and Azure AD Connect installations. In this series, labeled Hardening Hybrid Identity, we’re looking at hardening these implementations, using recommended practices.

Note:
This blogpost assumes all Web Application Proxies, AD FS servers and Azure AD Connect installations run Windows Server 2016.

Why harden

Hardening provides additional layers to defense in depth approaches. It changes the default behavior of products and services to make them more resilient to unauthorized changes and compromise.

Reasons why

Protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms are used to encrypt communications in every Hybrid Identity implementation. Typically, ciphers and algorithms to use are based on a negotiation between both ends of a communications channel. The purpose is to use the most secure protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms that both ends support. To use the strongest ciphers and algorithms it’s important to disable the ciphers and algorithms you no longer want to see used.

Microsoft recommends organizations to use strong protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms. For Azure Active Directory, they are changing the negotiation settings on their systems regularly, to avoid downgrades in encryption standards.

Possible negative impact (What could go wrong?)

When the systems of an Hybrid Identity implementation are improperly hardened, there will be no communication between Azure Active Directory and the systems of the implementation, and/or between the systems of the Hybrid Identity implementation.

This may affect authentications directly when using Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) or Pass-through Authentication as authentication method in the Hybrid Identity implementation. This may cause diminished functionality, when Password Hash Sync (PHS) is used as the authentication method. Also, this may cause certificates to expire, monitoring to halt and/or backups to fail. It may also mean admins will no longer be able to (remotely) manage the systems.

When using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to manage the Windows Server installations of the Hybrid Identity implementation, the default security layer in RDP is set to Negotiate which supports both SSL (TLS 1.0) and the RDP Security Layer. Open Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration in Administrative Tools and double-click RDP-Tcp under the Connections group. If it is set to SSL (TLS 1.0) and you are running Windows Server 2008, make sure that you have installed TLS 1.1 and 1.2 support.

For Hybrid Identity implementations featuring Azure AD Connect’s Seamless Single Sign-on (3SO), do not disable RC4_HMAC_MD5 at this time, as this may break.

Getting Ready

To disable weak protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms on Web Application Proxies, AD FS Servers and Windows Servers running Azure AD Connect, make sure to meet the following requirements:

System requirements

Make sure all systems in scope are installed with the latest cumulative Windows Updates. Also make sure you run the latest stable version of Azure AD Connect.

Privilege requirements

Make sure to sign in with an account that has privileges to create and/or change and link Group Policy objects to the Organizational Unit (OU) in which the systems in scope reside.

Who to communicate to

When intending to make changes to systems in the Hybrid Identity implementation, make sure to send a heads-up to these people and/or teams in your organization:

  • Load balancers and networking guys and gals
  • The Active Directory team
  • The people responsible for backups, restores and disaster recovery
  • The people going through the logs, using a SIEM and/or a TSCM solution
  • The monitoring team

One of the challenges you can easily avoid through communications is that multiple persons and/or teams make changes to the configuration. When it breaks, you don’t want to roll-back a bunch of changes, just the one that broke it. Make sure you have the proper freeze/unfreeze moments to achieve that.

Determining weak protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms

Encryption methods are comprised of:

  1. A protocol, like PCT, SSL and TLS
  2. A key exchange method, like ECDHE, DHE and RSA
  3. A cipher suite, like AES, MD5, RC4 and 3DES

Protocols

For the purpose of this blogpost, I’ll stick to disabling the following protocols:

  • PCT v1.0
  • SSL v2
  • SSL v3
  • TLS v1.0
  • TLS v1.1

Note:
PCT v1.0 is disabled by default on Windows Server Operating Systems.
SSL v2 is disabled, by default, in Windows Server 2016, and later versions of Windows Server.

Cipher suites and hashing algorithms

For the purpose of this blogpost, I’ll stick to disabling the following ciphers suites and hashing algorithms:

  • RC2
  • RC4
  • MD5
  • 3DES
  • DES
  • NULL
  • All cipher suites marked as EXPORT

Note:
NULL cipher suites provide no encryption.

Note:
The above list is a snapshot of weak ciphers and algorithms dating July 2019. Please consult the SSL Labs Documentation for actual guidance on weak ciphers and algorithms to disable for your organization.

Protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms and the negotiation order to use

For the purpose of this blogpost, I’ll stick with the following protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms, in the following negotiation order:

  1. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
  2. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  3. TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
  4. TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  5. TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
  6. TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
  7. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
  8. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
  9. TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
  10. TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
  11. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
  12. TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
  13. TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
  14. TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

This list provides a preference to cipher suites that offer Perfect Forwarding Secrecy (PFS) with the elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange (ECDHE_*).

How to disable weak protocols

As the systems in scope may or may not be of Active Directory Domain Services, may or may not run Server Core and may or may not allow downloading 3rd party tools, but in all cases you can disable weak protocols using Windows PowerShell with the following scripts:

Note:
As SSL v2 is disabled and removed from Windows Server 2016, and up, and SSL v3 is disabled by default in Windows Server 2016, and up, these protocols do not need to be disabled on Windows Server 2016, and newer versions of Windows Server.

Enable TLS 1.2

To enable TLS 1.2, run the following Windows PowerShell script in an elevated PowerShell window on each of the Windows Server installations in scope of the Hybrid Identity implementation:

Note:
The DisabledByDefault registry value doesn't mean that the protocol is disabled by default. It means the protocol isn’t advertised as available by default during negotiations, but is available if specifically requested.

$SChannelRegPath = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols"

New-Item $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.2\Server" -Force

New-Item $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.2\Client" -Force

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.2\Server" `
-Name Enabled -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.2\Server" `
-Name DisabledByDefault -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.2\Client" `
-Name Enabled -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.2\Client" `
-Name DisabledByDefault -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

Configuring .Net applications to use TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2

Now, we need to configure .Net applications to use either TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2. This is important for built-in Windows functionality and 3rd party applications and services. Run the following Windows PowerShell script in the same elevated PowerShell window as the previous one:

$RegPath1 = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319"

New-ItemProperty -path $RegPath1 `
-name
SystemDefaultTlsVersions -value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -path $RegPath1 `
-name
SchUseStrongCrypto -value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

 

$RegPath2 = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319"

New-ItemProperty -path $RegPath2 `
-name SystemDefaultTlsVersions -value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -path $RegPath2 `
-name SchUseStrongCrypto -value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

Disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1

To disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1, run the following Windows PowerShell script in the same elevated PowerShell window as the previous Windows PowerShell script on each of the Windows Server installations in scope of the Hybrid Identity implementation:

New-Item $SChannelRegPath -Name "TLS 1.0"

New-Item $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.0" -Name SERVER

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.0\SERVER" `
-Name Enabled -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

New-Item $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.1\Server"force

New-Item $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.1\Client"force

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.1\Server" `
-Name Enabled -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.1\Server" `
-Name DisabledByDefault -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.1\Client" `
-Name Enabled -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

New-ItemProperty -Path $SChannelRegPath"\TLS 1.1\Client" `
-Name DisabledByDefault -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD

Restart the server after these configuration changes.

How to disable weak ciphers and algorithms

The systems in scope may or may not be of Active Directory Domain Services, may or may not run Server Core and may or may not allow downloading 3rd party tools. In all cases you can disable weak cipher suites and hashing algorithms by disabling individual TLS cipher suites using Windows PowerShell.

Note:
The below lines of PowerShell do not change the negotiation order of the cipher suites and hashing algorithms. It merely disables individual combinations of unwanted cipher suites and hashing algorithms. This also eliminates the need to keep up with the cipher suites in Windows Server between Windows Server version releases and even between updates.
A win-win situation if you’d ask me!

Tip!
To get an overview of the current negotiation order, use the following line of PowerShell:

Get-TlsCipherSuite | Format-Table Name 

Use the following lines on Windows Server 2016 installations to remove weak cipher suites and hashing algorithms:

Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_NULL_SHA384"
Disable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_NULL_SHA256"

Testing proper hardening

After hardening it’s time to test the hardening. Everyone should sign off (not literally, unless that’s procedure) on the correct working of the Windows Servers running Azure AD Connect. Does authentication to cloud applications still work? Does rolling over the certificate still work? Does monitoring still work? Can we still make back-ups? Can we still restore the backups we make?

Typically, hardening is rolled out to one Windows Server. When testing the hardening of the functionality behind the load balancer, make sure that the load balancer points you to the hardened system, not another one. In an environment with a Staging Mode Azure AD Connect installation, the hardening can be performed on this Windows Server installation and tested with the normal Staging Mode (imports only) synchronization cycles. When hardening is approved upon, the actively synchronizing Azure AD Connect installation can be switched, or hardened, too.

Note:
The registry changes are step 2 of two steps to harden protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms of the Hybrid Identity implementation. Make sure to Enforce Azure AD Connect to use TLS 1.2 only on the Windows Servers running Azure AD Connect, before testing.

Rolling Back Hardening

To roll back hardening, use the following lines of Windows PowerShell:

$SChannelRegPath = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols"

Remove-ItemName "TLS 1.0" –Path $SChannelRegPath
Remove-ItemName "TLS 1.1" –Path $SChannelRegPath
Remove-ItemName "TLS 1.2" –Path $SChannelRegPath

Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_NULL_SHA384"
Enable-TlsCipherSuite -Name "TLS_PSK_WITH_NULL_SHA256"

             

Concluding

Get rid of old protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms in your Hybrid Identity implementation, so they cannot be used to negotiate the security of the connections down.

Further reading

Managing SSL/TLS Protocols and Cipher Suites for AD FS
245030 How to restrict cryptographic algorithms and protocols in Schannel.dll
187498 How to disable PCT 1.0, SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, or TLS 1.0 in IIS
Recommendations for TLS/SSL Cipher Hardening
How to Update Your Windows Server Cipher Suite for Better Security
A Cipher Best Practice: Configure IIS for SSL/TLS Protocol

26 Responses to HOWTO: Disable weak protocols, cipher suites and hashing algorithms on Web Application Proxies, AD FS Servers and Windows Servers running Azure AD Connect

  1.  

    Hello Sander, I am using similar updates in my PS script for hardening my Network/IIS setup. I appreciate the PowerShell work included in this post.

  2.  

    Thanks for this article. Much easier using the PS commands rather than editing the Registry or configuring complex XML files.

  3.  

    Dear Sir ,

    Please clarify if my system is using TLS v1.0 and i disable the weak cipher suites .Will my services running on TLSv1.0 be affected.

    • Hi Anthony,

      Yes. Any services that specifically use TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 will break.

      On your Web Application Proxies, AD FS Servers and Windows Servers running Azure AD Connect, this may be services like anti-malware, backup and monitoring. However, all the built-in services and all the services required on these servers use TLS 1.2 these days.

      Specifically, I would enable TLS 1.2 on Domain Controllers, too, but not disable TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 on them.
      (Domain Controllers are not the scope of this blogpost.)

      In terms of authentication clients, disabling TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 disables the use of per-version 11 Internet Explorer versions on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (all no longer supported configurations by Microsoft), Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 8, Java 6u45, Java 7u25, Android version 4.3 and below (all no longer supported by Google) and Safari version 5.1.9 on OS X 10.6.8 and Safari 6.0.4 on OS X 10.8.4 (both no longer supported by Apple) for communications with the AD FS infrastructure.

       
  4.  

    Thanks for this Posting, I have borrowed your PS scripts to remove weak cipher suites and hashing algorithms. This has saved me much frustration on setting those items.

  5.  

    Wild that this topic is still active. I'm leaving this for anyone who finds themself in the same weird boat that led me to search for it" "Enable-" and "Disable-TlsCipherSuite" commands were not working, seemed to be completely ignored by the system, usually with no error message or any other kind of feedback.

    Apparently the cipher list had somehow got corrupted and wasn't editable. There was a leading space in the name of the last cipher on the list when listed via Get-TlsCipherSuite; I suspect this might have been related somehow, though whether as symptom or cause I have no idea (also, all the other attributes for that suite were blank or "0"). Solution was to completely redo the list via a locally-applied GPO.

  6.  

    Thanks for the knowledge Sander.

    I am new to this Security level configurations.

    We have to disable the Cipher suites which are weak in Windows 2008 Server.

    Is it possible to remove them for a specific application or is it server level which is applicable to all the applications hosted on the server?

    Do the same process applicable for Windows 2008 server?

    • Windows Server 2008 is no longer supported. systems with this operating system should be decommissioned.
      I recommend to put your efforts in decommissioning/migrating these systems instead of hardening them.

      The Disable-TlsCipherSuite Windows PowerShell cmdlet was first introduced in Windows Server 2016.

       
  7.  

    Is this missing the TLS1.0 Client Disabling?

    Why does disabling TLS1.1 set both Enabled and DisabledbyDefault but TLS only sets one value?

    • Nope. TLS 1.0 doesn't have these options.
      To disable TLS 1.0 you simply set one value

       
  8.  

    Thanks Sander. The script provided above references a specific version number. Do we have to check the actual version on the server and modify the script accordingly?

    • No, there is no need to change it.
      The specific registry key applies to all .Net Framework 4 versions.

       
  9.  

    Thanks! Your lines of PowerShell saved me alot of time having to do this on some Aazure AD Connect servers.
    Some of the lines to disable cipher suites didn't run, though. It looks like they're not valid on Windows Server 2019 as they've been removed?

    • That is correct.
      Out of the box, Windows Server 2019 already has certain weak cipher suites disabled.

       
  10.  

    While I'm disabling the TLS 1.0 and Cipher suites (Weak One) on client machines via makinging changes in Regedit, not able to use multiple applications (Outlook, Teams etc).
    What could be the reason, do we need to make changes on the server?

    • Yes.

      Network traffic between hosts, including between clients and servers, is encrypted based on an initial negotiation.
      When you disable negotiation options on devices, but these negotiation options are not (yet) available on the Windows Server installation(s) your device is unable to perform a negotiation.
      Up to Windows Server 2016, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 are not enabled by default for the Operating System or .Net-based applications.

       
  11.  

    Just a quick question, is this the current weak cipher list or is there any that may need to be added?

    Thank you for the list though, makes it much easier to deal with.

    • Yes, The blogpost is two years old, but I updated it a couple of months ago.

       
  12.  

    Thank you for the commands! They were helpful for clearing an ACAS alert. Quick question. Where in the registry can I see the disabled ciphersuites? Or are those settings stored in a different location? Thanks again!

  13.  

    May I know the reason why weak ciphers, hashes suites disabled in the Windows 2019 servers

  14.  

    Hi,

    Is there any command which will provide the SSL/TLS details like which is enabled or disabled?

  15.  

    Do you have this set up in a GPO?

    I tried to put this into a GPO for both 2016/19 servers but they don't seem to be working.

    Cheers

  16. I most certainly have not.

    Especially when disabling TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1, the entire environment, including non-domain-joined devices and non-Microsoft products and services need to be configured in the same way to make this work.

    Therefor, I prefer using PowerShell with pssessions to set the changes and perform the necessary reboots.

     
  17.  

    Much appreciate which your script reduced my manual work

  18.  

    Hi Sander,

    This is great work.
    Thank you for your input and PowerShell scripts / commands.

  19.  

    Dear Sander, now with Server 2022 using TLS 1.3, could you article being updated please ? (And many thanks for the above sharing!

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