Summary:
In cryptography, RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4 ) is the most widely used software stream cipher and is used in popular Internet protocols such as Transport Layer Security (TLS). While remarkable for its simplicity and speed in software, RC4 has weaknesses that argue against its use in new systems. It is especially vulnerable when the beginning of the output keystream is not discarded, or when nonrandom or related keys are used; some ways of using RC4 can lead to very insecure protocols such as WEP.
As of 2015, there is speculation that some state cryptologic agencies may possess the capability to break RC4 even when used in the TLS protocol. Mozilla and Microsoft recommend disabling RC4 where possible.RFC 7465 prohibits the use of RC4 in TLS.
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How to Completely Disable RC4
Clients and Servers that do not wish to use RC4 ciphersuites, regardless of the other party's supported ciphers, can disable the use of RC4 cipher suites completely by setting the following registry keys. In this manner any server or client that is talking to a client or server that must use RC4, can prevent a connection from happening. Clients that deploy this setting will not be able to connect to sites that require RC4 while servers that deploy this setting will not be able to service clients that must use RC4.
- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 128/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 40/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 56/128]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
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