Cipher Ranking

Analyze and rank supported cipher suites

Domain

Port

Results

About

The Cipher Suite Ranking tool analyzes and ranks the TLS cipher suites supported by your server, scoring them based on security strength, performance, and modern cryptographic best practices. It evaluates each cipher suite across multiple dimensions — key exchange algorithm, authentication method, bulk encryption strength, and MAC algorithm — to provide an overall security grade.

The ranking helps you identify weak cipher suites that should be disabled, understand the security implications of your cipher ordering, and optimize your configuration for the best balance of security and performance. It also highlights support for forward secrecy ciphers (ECDHE, DHE) and flags known-vulnerable ciphers like RC4, 3DES, and export-grade algorithms.

How to Use

1Enter the domain name you want to analyze (e.g., example.com)
2Optionally specify a custom port number (default 443)
3Click "Rank Ciphers" to analyze all supported cipher suites
4Review the ranked list showing security scores, cipher details, and recommendations

Use Cases

•Security Hardening: Identify and disable weak cipher suites to meet security standards like NIST SP 800-52 and PCI DSS
•Compliance Validation: Verify cipher suite configuration meets regulatory requirements for encryption strength
•Performance Optimization: Order cipher suites to prefer faster, more secure options like AES-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305
•Vulnerability Assessment: Detect support for known-vulnerable ciphers (RC4, 3DES, EXPORT, NULL) that could be exploited
•Migration Planning: Plan cipher suite updates when transitioning from legacy configurations to modern TLS best practices

Tips & Best Practices

•Prioritize cipher suites with ECDHE key exchange for forward secrecy
•Prefer AES-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 over AES-CBC for better performance and security
•Disable all NULL, EXPORT, RC4, DES, and 3DES cipher suites immediately
•Order server cipher suites to prefer TLS 1.3 ciphers over TLS 1.2 when both are supported

Technical Details

●Scoring Algorithm: Weighted scoring based on key exchange (30%), authentication (20%), encryption (30%), and MAC (20%)

●Forward Secrecy: Detects and prioritizes ECDHE and DHE key exchange methods

●Cipher Categories: Classifies ciphers as Secure, Acceptable, Weak, or Insecure based on current standards

●Client Compatibility: Reports which cipher suites are required for compatibility with older clients

Frequently Asked Questions

A strong cipher suite uses secure components: ECDHE or DHE for forward secrecy, ECDSA or RSA for authentication, AES-128/256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305 for encryption, and SHA-256 or SHA-384 for MAC. The overall strength depends on the weakest component — a strong cipher suite must have strong options in all four areas.

It depends on your client base. If you only need to support modern browsers (Chrome 70+, Firefox 63+, Safari 12+), you can safely disable TLS 1.0/1.1 and all legacy ciphers. If you need to support older clients, keep TLS 1.2 with AES-CBC ciphers but ensure RC4, 3DES, and EXPORT are disabled.

Cipher ordering determines which cipher suite the client and server will negotiate during the TLS handshake. The server's first mutually supported cipher is typically chosen, so placing your strongest, most secure cipher suites first ensures they are preferred. Poor ordering may result in negotiating weaker ciphers unnecessarily.