Encryption Management Server uses the Triple DES cipher for S/MIME email encryption

Products

• Encryption Management Server

Issue/Introduction

By default, the Preferred Cipher for Key Generation in Encryption Management Server is set to AES. However, when encrypting messages using S/MIME, Encryption Management Server uses the 168 bit Triple DES (3DES) cipher.

When a third party using, for example, Microsoft Outlook 2013 to encrypt an email message using an S/MIME certificate generated by Encryption Management Server, Triple DES is used.

Cause

This is by design.

Environment

Encryption Management Server 3.3 and above using S/MIME encryption.

Resolution

Encryption Management Server does not support the AES cipher with S/MIME email encryption.

Symantec Corporation is committed to product quality and satisfied customers. Technical Support filed a Feature Request to add the functionality listed above. This Feature Request is currently being considered by Symantec Corporation to be addressed in a forthcoming version of the product.

There is no guaranteed date for this request from the Encryption Product Management team, or the Encryption Engineering team at this time. Please be sure to refer back to this article periodically as any changes to the status of the request will be reflected here. You can also subscribe to this article to receive notification when it is updated.