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Transport Layer Security (TLS) Alerts

ThousandEyes HTTP server tests allow users to detect and alert on common Transport Layer Security (TLS) issues, including missing or expired certificates, unsupported TLS versions, and weak or specific cipher suites. This section covers how to access TLS session information, and how to configure alerts.

Certificate Chains

See Certificate Chain Basics for more information.

TLS Session Information

TLS session information is displayed in a slide-out panel accessible by clicking the Details link in the Response column in the Table view:
The panel displays the TLS version, cipher suite, certificate chain, and details about each certificate in the chain, as well as separate tabs for the HTTP request and response headers:
When a TLS error is detected, the Details link mentioned above is moved from the Response column to the Error column, and follows a summary description of the error found. The example image below shows that a certificate has expired:
When the Details link is clicked, the slide-out panel provides details of the error:

TLS Alert Rule Configuration

To configure an alert rule for TLS information:
  1. 1.
    Either open an existing HTTP server alert rule, or create a new one (see Creating and Editing Alert Rules for more information).
  2. 2.
    In the Alert Conditions section, open the drop-down menu, and select the desired condition:
    • Certificate
    • SSL Version
    • Cipher Suite
  3. 3.
    Set the condition values:
    Alert Condition
    Option
    Description
    Values
    Certificate
    expires within
    Defines the number of days before certificate expiry the alert should trigger.
    Number of days (default value is 30)
    SSL Version
    in
    Sends an alert if the SSL version used is in the defined list. Multiple versions can be selected at once.
    • TLS 1.0
    • TLS 1.1
    • TLS 1.2
    • TLS 1.3
    ​
    not in
    Sends an alert if the SSL version used is not in the defined list. Multiple versions can be selected at once.
    • TLS 1.0
    • TLS 1.1
    • TLS 1.2
    • TLS 1.3
    Cipher Suite
    is weak
    Triggers an alert if the cipher suite is considered weak/not recommended. See Recommended Cipher Suites below for more information.
    N/A
    ​
    not in
    Triggers an alert for any cipher suites in a comma separated list.
    Important: ThousandEyes uses the OpenSSL naming convention for cipher suites, which is different from the IANA naming convention.
    See Recommended Cipher Suites for IANA-OpenSSL cipher suite name mappings.
  4. 4.
    Optional: Click the Plus icon and repeat steps two and three to configure additional TLS alert conditions.
  5. 5.
    Click Create New Alert Rule or Save Changes to save the alert rule.
The example below shows each of the TLS options configured:
The table below is a list of recommended cipher suites:
IANA Name
Open SSL Name
RFC
TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
DHE-PSK-CHACHA20-POLY1305
​RFC7905​
TLS_ECDHE_PSK_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
ECDHE-PSK-CHACHA20-POLY1305
​RFC7905​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
DHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
​RFC7905​
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
​RFC7905​
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
​RFC7905​
TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_AES_256_CCM
DHE-PSK-AES256-CCM
​RFC6655​
TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_AES_128_CCM
DHE-PSK-AES128-CCM
​RFC6655​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CCM
DHE-RSA-AES256-CCM
​RFC6655​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CCM
DHE-RSA-AES128-CCM
​RFC6655​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CCM_8
DHE-RSA-AES256-CCM8
​RFC6655​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CCM_8
DHE-RSA-AES128-CCM8
​RFC6655​
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
​RFC5289​
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
​RFC5289​
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
​RFC5289​
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
​RFC5289​
TLS_AES_128_CCM_SHA256
TLS_AES_128_CCM_SHA256
​RFC8446​
TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256
​RFC8446​
TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
​RFC8446​
TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
​RFC8446​
TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
DHE-PSK-AES256-GCM-SHA384
​RFC5487​
TLS_DHE_PSK_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
DHE-PSK-AES128-GCM-SHA256
​RFC5487​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
​RFC5288​
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
​RFC5288​

Troubleshooting

See Chain Validation Failure Scenarios for more information.

Caveats

  • If the target site uses HTTP/2 and issues at least one redirect, and the last request is to the same domain as the previous request, then the certificates will be lost.
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Alert Rules for Devices
Last modified 3mo ago