What is this issue type?
This issue is raised when SecurityScorecard detects that a TLS service on your digital footprint is advertising one or more weak cipher suites - cryptographic configurations that are outdated, insufficiently secure, or known to be vulnerable to attack.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the protocol that encrypts communications between clients (browsers, apps) and servers. Every TLS connection negotiates a cipher suite - a combination of algorithms that handles key exchange, authentication, bulk encryption, and message integrity. When a server advertises weak cipher suites, an attacker in a privileged network position may be able to force a downgrade to that weaker option and then intercept, decrypt, or tamper with the traffic.
Common attack scenarios enabled by weak cipher suites include:
BEAST / POODLE : exploit CBC mode block ciphers in older TLS versions
Lucky13 : timing side-channel attack against CBC cipher suites
SWEET32 : birthday attack against 64-bit block ciphers (3DES, SEED)
Downgrade attacks : forcing a client to negotiate a weak suite the server advertises but shouldn't
How does SecurityScorecard detect this?
SecurityScorecard's scanners perform active TLS handshakes against discovered hosts and enumerate the full set of cipher suites each server is willing to negotiate. Findings are attributed to your scorecard when the domain or IP is part of your verified digital footprint.
Each finding includes:
Target — the domain or hostname observed
Port — the port where the weak cipher was detected (commonly 443, but also 25, 465, 587, 8443, etc.)
IP address — where the observation was made; may differ from your primary IP if a CDN or load balancer is in use
Observations — the specific weak cipher suite(s) detected
Last observed — the most recent scan date; findings auto-resolve once the cipher suite is no longer advertised
If a follow-up scan no longer detects the weak cipher on that target and port, the finding will close automatically without requiring a manual dispute.
Detected weak cipher suites
SecurityScorecard flags a weak cipher when the key length is insufficient (less than 128 bits), or when the cipher suite matches one of the patterns or exact names listed below.
Pattern-based detection
Any cipher suite whose name contains or matches one of the following strings is flagged. These cover broadly insecure algorithm families:
md4, md5 — broken hash functions, vulnerable to collision attacks
rc2, rc4 — stream/block ciphers with known statistical biases and practical decryption attacks
rsa_export, tls_dh_*_export, tls_dhe_*_export — deliberately weakened "export-grade" ciphers (40–56 bit keys) introduced due to 1990s US export regulations; exploited by the FREAK and Logjam attacks
Exact cipher suite detection
As of 2026-06-27, the following specific cipher suites are flagged by exact name. Each links to its entry on ciphersuite.info for further technical detail - provided as a third-party reference only; SecurityScorecard does not endorse this resource.
DHE-DSS cipher suites
DSS (Digital Signature Standard) relies on DSA keys, which are typically limited to 1024 bits by legacy implementations — below the 2048-bit minimum recommended by NIST SP 800-57. This makes the key exchange vulnerable to offline discrete-logarithm attacks.
SEED and CAMELLIA-CBC cipher suites
SEED is a legacy Korean national block cipher not recommended for new deployments. CAMELLIA in CBC mode is susceptible to padding oracle attacks (Lucky13) and does not provide authenticated encryption — it lacks the integrity guarantees of modern AEAD modes like GCM.
Truncated MAC (CCM_8)
CCM_8 uses a shortened 8-byte authentication tag instead of the standard 16 bytes. This reduces the work required for a tag forgery attack from 2¹²⁸ to 2⁶⁴ operations, which is within reach of well-resourced attackers and falls below NIST's minimum security strength requirements.
Questions about domains and IPs appearing
Why do unfamiliar IP addresses appear?
The IP address in a finding reflects where the observation was made, not necessarily an asset you own. If a CDN (Cloudflare, Akamai, Incapsula, etc.) is serving your certificate, the IP will belong to that CDN. Use it as a pointer to identify which provider or infrastructure layer needs remediation.
My website looks fine in a browser - why is this flagged?
Browsers typically negotiate the strongest cipher suite a server offers, so day-to-day browsing won't reveal weak options. SecurityScorecard's scanner explicitly tests for weak cipher suite support, even if those ciphers would only be used as a fallback. A server advertising a weak cipher suite is still vulnerable, even if modern clients don't use it by default.
Why are there so many duplicate findings?
CDNs rotate IP addresses frequently. Each IP from which SecurityScorecard observes the certificate with a weak cipher counts as a separate observation. This is expected behavior - remediating the cipher configuration at the CDN or server level will resolve all associated findings.
How to verify the issue yourself
Test TLS - quick browser-based spot check
A lightweight online scanner for a fast single-domain check of protocol and cipher suite configuration. No account or installation needed. However, it does not check for TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CCM_8.
testssl.sh - any port, internal or private services
A free, open-source CLI tool requiring no installation. Works on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows (WSL/Cygwin). Can test any TLS-enabled port — HTTPS, SMTP, IMAP, LDAP, etc. Results are local only; nothing is sent to a third party, making it suitable for internal or sensitive services.
docker run --rm drwetter/testssl.sh <ip>:<port>
<port> is the exact port in the finding details.
<ip> is the exact ip in the finding details.
ex:
docker run --rm drwetter/testssl.sh 8.8.8.8:8443Nmap (with NSE) - network-wide scanning and multi-host auditing
A free, open-source CLI security tool compatible with Linux, Windows, and macOS. By utilizing its built-in Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) script ssl-enum-ciphers, it can scan broad subnets or individual targets to enumerate open ports and evaluate their specific TLS configurations. All scans run entirely locally for complete data privacy, making it highly effective for mapping out cipher suite coverage across large-scale or enterprise-wide infrastructure.
nmap --script ssl-enum-ciphers -p <port> <ip>
<port> is the exact port in the finding details.
<ip> is the exact ip in the finding details.
ex:
nmap --script ssl-enum-ciphers -p 443 8.8.8.8
How to remediate
Recommended approach: Rather than only disabling individual weak cipher suites, explicitly allowlist strong cipher suites and disable everything else. This is more durable - it prevents new weak suites from being inadvertently enabled through a future software update or configuration change.
TLS version guidance
TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 were formally deprecated by IETF RFC 8996 (March 2021) and are now disabled by default in all major browsers. Do not support them. TLS 1.2 remains acceptable only when paired with strong AEAD cipher suites. TLS 1.3 is strongly preferred - it eliminates CBC mode, static RSA key exchange, and other entire classes of weak configurations at the protocol level.
See: Why Use TLS 1.3? (Cloudflare)
If you manage your own server
Work with your server or infrastructure administrator to update the cipher suite configuration in your web server, load balancer, or application server settings.
If you use a CDN or third-party provider
Contact the provider or update your TLS policy in their dashboard. Refer to their documentation:
Resolution options in SecurityScorecard
Once the weak cipher suite is no longer advertised, the finding will auto-resolve on the next scan cycle. If you believe the finding is incorrect, you can submit a resolution request through your scorecard:
Technical remediation : confirm you have made the configuration change and request a rescan clicking on 'Fixed'. If it is declined, it is still observed.
Compensating Control : use this if disabling the weak cipher suite directly is not currently feasible (for example, due to a legacy system dependency or a vendor-controlled service), but you have an internal control in place that meaningfully reduces the risk. Select Other resolutions → I have a compensating control and provide a clear description of the control.
False positive : if you believe the detection is incorrect and such weak cipher suite is not being offered by the exact endpoint described in the finding.