7.8 Ensure DES Cipher Suites is Disabled

Information

The DES Cipher Suite is considered a weak symmetric-key cipher, therefore it is recommended that it be disabled.

Rationale:

By disabling DES, there is a better chance of maintaining data confidentiality and integrity.

Impact:

The DES Cipher Suite will not be avaiable.

Solution

Perform the following to disable DES 56/56 cipher:

Set the following Registry key to 0.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\DES 56/56:Enabled

To disable using PowerShell enter the following command:

(Get-Item 'HKLM:\').OpenSubKey('SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers', $true).CreateSubKey('DES 56/56')

New-ItemProperty -path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\DES 56/56' -name 'Enabled' -value '0' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Force | Out-Null

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/13949

Item Details

Category: ACCESS CONTROL, IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION, SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATIONS PROTECTION

References: 800-53|AC-17(2), 800-53|IA-5, 800-53|IA-5(1), 800-53|SC-8, 800-53|SC-8(1), CSCv7|14.4

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: c1947de2fb475266fb4d40573264759809d8629aa7b944bebb8cad18b4e14b6b