World celebrates, cyber-snoops cry as TLS 1.3 internet crypto approved Forward-secrecy protocol come

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World celebrates, cyber-snoops cry as TLS 1.3 internet crypto approved
Forward-secrecy protocol comes with the 28th draft

A much-needed update to internet security has finally passed at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), after four years and 28 drafts.

Internet engineers meeting in London, England, approved the updated TLS 1.3 protocol despite a wave of last-minute concerns that it could cause networking nightmares.

TLS 1.3 won unanimous approval (well, one "no objection" amid the yeses), paving the way for its widespread implementation and use in software and products from Oracle's Java to Google's Chrome browser.

The new protocol aims to comprehensively thwart any attempts by the NSA and other eavesdroppers to decrypt intercepted HTTPS connections and other encrypted network packets. TLS 1.3 should also speed up secure communications thanks to its streamlined approach.

The critical nature of the protocol, however, has meant that progress has been slow and, on occasion, controversial. This time last year, Google paused its plan to support the new protocol in Chrome when an IT schools administrator in Maryland reported that a third of the 50,000 Chromebooks he managed bricked themselves after being updating to use the tech.

Most recently, banks and businesses complained that, thanks to the way the new protocol does security, they will be cut off from being able to inspect and analyze TLS 1.3 encrypted traffic flowing through their networks, and so potentially be at greater risk from attack.

People using TLS 1.3 will only be able to use more recent systems that are much harder to crack – at least for now. Any effort to force the conversation to use a weaker 1.2 system will be detected and flagged as a problem.

Another very important advantage to TLS 1.3 – but also one that some security experts are concerned about – is called "0-RTT Resumption" which effectively allows the client and server to remember if they have spoken before, and so forego all the checks, using previous keys to start talking immediately.

That will make connections much faster but the concern of course is that someone malicious could get hold of the "0-RTT Resumption" information and pose as one of the parties. Although internet engineers are less concerned about this security risk – which would require getting access to a machine – than the TLS 1.2 system that allowed people to hijack and listen into a conversation.

In short, it's a win-win but will require people to put in some effort to make it all work properly.

The big losers will be criminals and security services who will be shut out of secure communications – at least until they figure out a way to crack this new protocol. At which point the IETF will start on TLS 1.4.