[gormami]

For all those saying that FIPS is a step backwards in crypto, you are right, the standards always lag the state of the art. That said, CMMC is coming into it's own in the US MilGov space, and a LOT of small businesses need to be CMMC compliant, which requires FIPS certified crypto. So having an open sourced FIPS compliant option is a good thing for them. Good on WolfSSL for helping out that space.

[ronsor]

I feel like the issue with FIPS is not even the lagging behind, but the fact that FIPS-approved algorithms are often harder to implement than non-FIPS alternatives.

WireGuard itself is the perfect example: ChaCha20-Poly1305 is relatively simple to implement without screwing up. Curve25519 fits as well. Blake2s is fast even with only 32-bit integers.

A good AES implementation without any subtle vulnerabilities is hard. They left plenty of footguns on the table for you. DJB has plenty of criticisms of secp256r1 and similar curves, which is why Ed25519 and Curve25519 exist in the first place.

The algorithms might be fine, but the difficulty and complexity increases the odds that something will go wrong. Even your trusted implementation might have a bug or get one later, and there's more places for those to hide.

[tptacek]

Ordinary implementers aren't doing de novo implementations of AES, and the gap between the P-curves and Curve25519 has closed, so this feels like a critique that might have been more germane 10-15 years ago?

[MisterTea]

In the process of becoming CMMC compliant. Contractor is supposedly "the best in the industry and well respected" but is clearly ignorant of anything beyond the most basic MS AD setup paired with Cisco Gear. My favorite part is the security policies CMMC requires are bonkers like IT needing to evaluate and white list individual websites. So if a worker is doing research and needs to visit dozens of websites you have to do a security audit of the site and white list each one. -OR- you can pay a monthly fee to some rent seeking middle man who maintains a vetted white list. All these policies do is invent new ways for people to grift companies.

[gnarlynarwhal42]

Are you referring to SC.L2-3.13.6?

The intent of this control is absolutely not to require a whitelist of individual websites.

This control is meant to apply to ports and protocols aka tighten up and document your firewall rules

If you are referring to SI.L2-3.14.7, you also do not need to whitelist websites. A pDNS service helps here but is not required. There are free options available, one of which is offered to small businesses in the DIB through the NSA's CCC program. This also gets you vulnerability scanning and some other stuff, all free.

Let me know if you have any questions. CMMC isnt a cakewalk but it needs to be done right if you don't want to fail your $40k C3PAO assessment :)

[MisterTea]

Thank you for that information.

I am unfortunately now ignorant in this area. Without going into detail I was partly involved with IT but no longer after a restructuring and "staff reduction." IT duties were fully transferred to the CMMC vendor. The vendor is either ignorant or lying as they may be a reseller or getting kick backs for the white list. Frustrating but I am now powerless.