---
title: Use Only Strong Ciphers
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: Docs > Datadog Security > OOTB Rules > Use Only Strong Ciphers
---

# Use Only Strong Ciphers
 
## Description{% #description %}

Limit the ciphers to strong algorithms. Counter (CTR) mode is also preferred over cipher-block chaining (CBC) mode. The following line in `/etc/ssh/sshd_config` demonstrates use of those ciphers:

```
Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
```

The man page `sshd_config(5)` contains a list of supported ciphers.

## Rationale{% #rationale %}

Based on research conducted at various institutions, it was determined that the symmetric portion of the SSH Transport Protocol (as described in RFC 4253) has security weaknesses that allowed recovery of up to 32 bits of plaintext from a block of ciphertext that was encrypted with the Cipher Block Chaining (CBD) method. From that research, new Counter mode algorithms (as described in RFC4344) were designed that are not vulnerable to these types of attacks and these algorithms are now recommended for standard use.

## Remediation{% #remediation %}

### Shell script{% #shell-script %}

The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.

```bash
#!/bin/bash

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if dpkg-query --show --showformat='${db:Status-Status}' 'linux-base' 2>/dev/null | grep -q '^installed$'; then

mkdir -p /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
touch /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf
chmod 0600 /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf

LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*Ciphers\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"
LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*Ciphers\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d"/*.conf
if [ -e "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf" ] ; then
    
    LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^\s*Ciphers\s\+/Id" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf"
else
    touch "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf"
fi
# make sure file has newline at the end
sed -i -e '$a\' "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf"

cp "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf" "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf.bak"
# Insert at the beginning of the file
printf '%s\n' "Ciphers aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com" > "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf"
cat "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf.bak" >> "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf"
# Clean up after ourselves.
rm "/etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/00-complianceascode-hardening.conf.bak"

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi
```