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I used rsa-json.native to generate RSA keys for a node.js application that will use secure-peer later to connect two clients with each other. Now I have 2 questions:

  • In secure-peer/index.js I've found defaultCiphers = ['RC4'] - is this acceptable? I've heard that RC4 is broken.
  • Are my example RSA keys flawed? They contain the same data at the end and beginning of the keys.

RSA-Key #1:

-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
MIGJAoGBALJWTxyvIedsbg4QffU7vqvBlsHR8w6dfN19bSMiVjdSPoU2mKGN+n/Ck5gTPrWK
zz64JRrLWE7pYsd1YF1RQIbh8eUUNA3cUmVpuAdfolwpE3ixFlaYRgwGjwkaONoGerP9p1SS
VUCwuEfgmS14n5x9AQ/3HJVICQTb/2dryQqFAgMBAAE=
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----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-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

RSA-Key #2:

-----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
MIGJAoGBANMnnH3ZrBRVboez1+u5CS6nHg0M4BwkVGHfHDX3AdGyxxm2L8QFdOK3Uf5b9jCK
MlDGXPoCoqiT6FesQvtXcTSJ4ZkIPvY9BKi2qZ3oK7B50Rc5ULd8MsHoQH+DV436GlV/JRUg
NLgoouykKKryo7dSU2LzwcPc0v7w16HVebIHAgMBAAE=
-----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----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-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
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    $\begingroup$ Just to emphasize: Don't use these specific keys for anything now. If the private key was published, anyone could try it and break your cipher/signature. $\endgroup$
    – Paŭlo Ebermann
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 14:15
  • $\begingroup$ I know, I just used these to make my point clear. I will not use them for anything important. $\endgroup$
    – Florian Wendelborn
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 18:54

1 Answer 1

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defaultCiphers = ['RC4'] - is this acceptable? I've heard that RC4 is broken.

About RC4 vulnerabilities in general, see e.g. Google is using RC4, but isn't RC4 considered unsafe?

RC4 can be secure when you discard (enough of) the beginning of the keystream or use a new key each session. Since node.js calls into OpenSSL, I don't think it does the former and can't see it done in secure-peer either.

From a look at the secure-peer source, it seems like they use Diffie-Hellman to get a shared secret and use that to derive the RC4 key and IV. That is should be safe, but I could be reading it wrong.

To test, you could try printing secret before this line:

var encrypt = crypto.createCipher(cipher, secret);

If it's different each time (for the same pair of peers), it's probably fine. Otherwise, there may be cause for concern.

Are my example RSA keys flawed?

They certainly are now that you published them :)

But, no, probably not. RSA keys are stored in one of several formats that have some leading and trailing data that is similar for keys made using the same implementation.

  1. The keys have format and version tags.
  2. They may have information regarding whether the key is stored encrypted and with what algorithm, presumably the same.
  3. The public key exponent is usually chosen as e.g. 65537 for all keys.
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    $\begingroup$ Small addition re format: rfc4880 is for OpenPGP. The asker's data are OpenSSL formats which are based on PKCS#1 which is rfc3447, and X.509 which is mostly rfc5280 and which builds on PKCS#1. Both are PEM-ized ASN.1 DER, which includes encoding prefixes, a version value for private, and an AlgorithmIdentifier value for public; these result in the first several octets of all keys being mostly the same. The case asked isn't encrypted, but OpenSSL PKCS#1 private key when encrypted is specified in a PEM header, not within in the data. ... $\endgroup$
    – dave_thompson_085
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 9:40
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ ... OpenSSL (especially since 1.0.0) also supports another private-key format PKCS#8 rfc5208 which is ASN.1 with prefixes, version AND AlgorithmIdentifier, and when encrypted DOES have the encryption information in the data -- although the encryption information will be at most partly constant. $\endgroup$
    – dave_thompson_085
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 9:41

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