Re: [TLS] no fallbacks please [was: Downgrade protection, fallbacks, and server time]

[David Benjamin <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 11:07 AM David Benjamin <[e-mail]>
wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 6:43 AM Hubert Kario <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>> On Thursday 02 June 2016 11:39:20 Yoav Nir wrote:
>> > > On 2 Jun 2016, at 10:31 AM, Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
>> > > <[e-mail]> wrote:>
>> > > On Wed, 2016-06-01 at 15:43 -0700, Eric Rescorla wrote:
>> > >> 2% is actually pretty good, but I agree that we're going to need
>> > >> fallback.
>> > >
>> > > Please not. Lets let these fallbacks die. Not every client is a
>> > > browser. TLS 1.3 must be a protocol which doesn't require hacks to
>> > > operate. CBC was removed, lets do the same for insecure fallbacks.
>> >
>> > Not every client is a browser, but some are. So what does the browser
>> > do when a server resets the connection after seeing the ClientHello?
>> >
>> > Blank screen with a failure message?
>>
>> fallback to check if the connection failure is caused by TLSv1.3, and if
>> it is, display error message and put the blame squarely on the server
>
>
(We already do that, by the way. That's exactly what
ERR_SSL_FALLBACK_BEYOND_MINIMUM_VERSION in Chrome is.)


> We browser folk hate these fallbacks just enough as much as you do, if not
> more. I personally spent quite a lot of time and effort getting rid of it
> in Chrome (and I'm happy to say, as of Chrome 50, I seem to have
> succeeded). I'm sure my counterparts at Mozilla went through similar pains.
>
> But reality is what it is. The Law of the Internet is the last thing that
> changed is blamed. We have a limited "budget" we can spend breaking things
> (otherwise I'd have removed almost everything by now!) and there is no
> chance I can break all the hosts I found.
>
> I have been reaching out to figure out the broken vendors, but this is a
> slow process. It will not be flushed this out anytime soon. With TLS 1.3 as
> it stands, I think a browser fallback in the short to medium term is a
> certainty. (If your clients don't need it, then by all means don't add one!
> I envy you.)
>
> David
>