ANALYST

BRIEF

SSL Performance Problems

SIGNIFICANT SSL PERFORMANCE LOSS LEAVES MUCH ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Author John W. Pirc

Overview
In early 2013, NSS Labs released the results of its Next Generation Firewall Comparative Analysis Reports (NGFW
CARs). As part of the analysis, NSS assessed the performance of client-side secure sockets layer (SSL) decryption in
seven of the eight NGFWs that were included in that voluntary group test. The resulting impacts on performance
of SSL decryption when included as a feature within the NGFW, or when offloaded to a separate SSL appliance,
were significant.
NSS research showed that 25% 35% of enterprise traffic is SSL and, depending on the industry vertical, the
percentage of SSL traffic can reach as high as 70%. NSS research also found that 2048b ciphers caused a mean
average of 81% in performance loss across all vendors tested. Certificate authorities are intending to cease issue of
1024 bit ciphers and will move to 2048 bit ciphers by December 31, 2013.
Although the performance numbers are cause for concern, the presence of malware within encrypted channels is a
real, albeit relatively small, threat in enterprise environments that warrants decryption and scanning as a best
practice. Figure 1 displays the aggregated results from the vendor tests.

Figure 1 SSL Performance Impacts on Bandwidth and Transaction per Second Loss

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

NSS Labs Findings

The average proportion of SSL traffic within a typical enterprise is 25% 35%.
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The NSS threat database has uncovered a small percentage (~1%) of malware using SSL.
NSS research indicates that the majority of threats that are using SSL as a transport fall under the targeted
persistent attack (TPA) category.
The mean average of performance loss across 7 NGFWs:
~74% with 512b and 1024b ciphers
~81% with 2048b ciphers.
The mean average of transactions per second (TPS) loss across 7 NGFWs:
~86.80% with a 512b cipher
~87.79% with a 1024 cipher
~92.28% with a 2048 cipher
The Sourcefire NGFW had the highest rated TPS performance. However, Sourcefire was the only vendor that
used a dedicated SSL appliance.
The Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 NGFW had the highest rated TPS performance with onboard SSL
decryption.
Juniper was rated the best with regards to performance loss and reduction in TPS.
All vendors had significant performance issues and TPS loss with 2048b ciphers.
NSS has concerns for the viability of SSL inspection in enterprise networks without the use of dedicated SSL
decryption devices.

Our database is a collection of malware samples that are collected in real-time from around the world.

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

NSS Labs Recommendations

Enterprises are advised to review the performance ratings of SSL, in order to decide which platform meets
their performance requirements. Additionally, NSS recommends that a platform be tested before a
purchasing decision is made.
Enterprises should measure the SSL traffic in their current network environment in order to allow for future
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capacity planning. An average yearly increase of ~20% in SSL traffic should be expected.
Consideration should only be given to products that support the creation of rules for bypassing SSL decryption
based on URL categories, such as healthcare, banking, and mobile apps that contain sensitive and personal
information. Depending on an organizations network traffic, this could substantially reduce performance loss
and assist with an organizations compliance with national privacy laws.
Enterprises should seek to offset the SSL risk by deploying endpoint security solutions and breach detection
solutions that are behavior-based, and that are able to detect command and control (C&C) and malware
callbacks via SSL.
Enterprises should educate users about the dangers of accepting a self-signed and non-valid certificate, in the
same way they would educate about SPAM and phishing.

http://www.bluecoat.com/sites/default/files/documents/files/How_to_Gain_Visibility_and_Control_of_Encrypted_SSL_Web_Sessions.a.pdf

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Table of Contents
Overview ................................................................................................................................ 1
NSS Labs Findings .................................................................................................................... 2
NSS Labs Recommendations ................................................................................................... 3
Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 5
SSL and the Enterprise .................................................................................................................................. 5
SSL and the Adversary .................................................................................................................................. 7
2013 NGFW SSL Performance CAR ............................................................................................................... 7
Vendor Performance Numbers .................................................................................................................... 9
Check Point 12600 .................................................................................................................................... 9
Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 ..................................................................................................... 9
Fortinet Fortigate-3600C ........................................................................................................................ 10
Juniper SRX3600 ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Palo Alto Networks PA-5020 ................................................................................................................... 11
Sourcefire 8250 & Sourcefire 8290 ......................................................................................................... 11
Stonesoft 3202 ........................................................................................................................................ 12
Reading List .......................................................................................................................... 13
Contact Information .............................................................................................................. 14

Table Of Figures
Figure 1 SSL Performance Impacts on Bandwidth and Transaction per Second Loss ................................................ 1
Figure 2 Key Strength Distribution ............................................................................................................................. 6
Figure 3 Decryption Times of 512 4096 Ciphers on 2GHz Pentium ........................................................................ 6
Figure 4 SSL Performance Impacts on Bandwidth .................................................................................................... 8
Figure 5 SSL Transaction per Second Loss .................................................................................................................. 8
Figure 6 Check Point 12600 ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 7 Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 ....................................................................................................... 9
Figure 8 Fortinet Fortigate-3600C ........................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 9 Juniper SRX3600 ........................................................................................................................................ 10
Figure 10 Palo Alto Networks PA-5020 ................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 11 Sourcefire 8250 ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 12 Sourcefire 8290 ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 13 Stonesoft 3202 ........................................................................................................................................ 12

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Analysis
During a recent analysis of NGFWs, NSS verified the performance impacts of client-side SSL inspection, and the
results showed considerable room for improvement. This raises concerns for the viability of SSL inspection in
enterprise networks without the use of dedicated SSL decryption devices.
NSS research has found that the use of HTTPS has risen significantly over the past few years; web browser-based
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applications such as Facebook and Twitter, and search engines such as Google are enabling SSL by default as a
result of privacy and security concerns.
Additionally, users increasingly have the ability to install browser add-ons that can force the use of HTTPS within
popular web browsers such as Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. These extensions force the browser to
only access HTTPS first. It is the ultimate irony that the increasing use of SSL in an attempt to make our on-line lives
more secure actually reduces security on the corporate network by creating blind spots for corporate security
infrastructures.
HTTPS has been used for secure web communications on the Internet for almost two decades, but it is only
recently that network security vendors have begun including HTTPS as a feature. This is in response to client
requirements regarding regulatory compliance, search engines and web/mobile applications that are utilizing SSL
by default and, most importantly, in response to malware that is using SSL as a transport to evade network
detection devices.

SSL and the Enterprise

NSS research on the use of HTTPS reveals that within any given enterprise the current percentage of outbound
network traffic that is SSL/TLS encrypted is about 25% 35%. Performance issues relating to SSL can be attributed
to several factors, but the most significant is the length of the certificate key. The larger the key, the more
computing power is required to decrypt it.
Trustworthyinternet.org has a global dashboard known as SSL Pulse that extracts close to 200,000 well known SSL
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websites from Alexa, a company which provides analytics on ~1.5 million websites. The most recent report from
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SSL Pulse shows that out of 172,537 SSL websites surveyed, 91.1% were using 2048 bit ciphers . This information,
when viewed alongside the significant declines in performance and transaction rates that were observed during
testing, questions the wisdom of enabling SSL.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/twitter-adds-ssl-security/1374

http://www.alexa.com

https://www.trustworthyinternet.org/ssl-pulse/

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Figure 2 Key Strength Distribution

Performing HTTPS decryption inline on a NGFW device, or on any security device that is performing deep packet
inspection is a significant undertaking. Figure 3 shows the performance impacts (in milliseconds) that the various
ciphers have on a 2GHz Pentium processor.

Figure 3 Decryption Times of 512 4096 Ciphers on 2GHz Pentium

NSS predicts that the default ciphers will increase in length, which will require more computing power. The
standard default cipher that is acceptable today is 1024b and, according to NIST Special Publication 800-5, the

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http://www.javamex.com/tutorials/cryptography/rsa_key_length.shtml

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

standard default cipher of 2048b will be required by December 31, 2013. Anything below 2048b should be
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transitioned to the new standard. NSS testing results indicate that this will be an issue for most network security
vendors.

SSL and the Adversary

Many attack vectors may be used to compromise an asset, and blind spots within an infrastructure help attackers
to evade detection. The following methods may be used:

Drive-by malware sites using HTTPS

C&Cs that communicate via SSL
Malware with SSL callbacks

Recent research on the NSS threat database found that while it is only a small percentage (~1%) of malware that is
using SSL, this malware is highly sophisticated. These methods of attack pose real risks to an organizations
infrastructure. Additionally, network security devices that lack the ability to inspect SSL traffic allow attackers to
remain undetected by network monitoring.
Some of the attack methods listed above would require the end user to accept a SSL certificate. It can certainly be
argued that sophisticated users will not click and accept a SSL certificate, and that seasoned security professionals
will not accept either a self-signed certificate or one that is accompanied by a warning banner stating that the web
browser can not verify the identity of a website. However, most users will not realize the real risk and will click and
accept.
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To illustrate this point, a recent infographic on Get Cyber Safe, a web site dedicated to educating users on Internet
security, showed that 16 million emails per day pass undetected through spam filters, 8 million of these are
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opened, and more than 800,000 users will click on the malicious links contained within these emails.

2013 NGFW SSL Performance CAR

Earlier this year, NSS released a NGFW comparative analysis report that detailed the results of SSL performance
testing of Check Point, Dell SonicWALL, Fortinet, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks, SourceFire and Stonesoft. The
following analysis examines the vendors ability to intercept, decrypt, process, and re-encrypt HTTPS traffic at
network loads of varying size and varying connections per second, with SSL inspection enabled.
Through the creation of genuine, session-based HTTPS traffic with varying session lengths, the vendor is forced to
track valid TCP sessions, thus ensuring a higher workload than for simple packet-based background traffic. This
provides a test environment that is as close to real world as it is possible to achieve in a lab environment, while
still ensuring accuracy and repeatability.

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-57/sp800-57_PART3_key-management_Dec2009.pdf

http://www.getcybersafe.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/nfgrphcs/nfgrphcs-2012-10-11-eng.aspx

http://www.getcybersafe.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/nfgrphcs/nfgrphcs-2012-10-11-eng.aspx

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Each transaction consists of a SSL handshake followed by a single HTTP(S) GET request, and there are no
transaction delays (the Web server responds immediately to all requests). All packets contain valid payload (a mix
of binary and ASCII objects) and address data, and the test represents a live network (albeit one that is biased
towards HTTPS traffic) at various network loads. Figure 4 and Figure 5 provide a consolidated view of the vendor
results.

Figure 4 SSL Performance Impacts on Bandwidth

Figure 5 SSL Transaction per Second Loss

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Vendor Performance Numbers

Check Point 12600
The Check Point 12600 NGFW is currently performance rated at 5Gbps by Check Point. During SSL performance
testing, the actual performance was rated at 4.22Gbps. It was also noted that the TPS versus the megabits per
second (Mbps) remained relatively consistent with the 512b and 1024b ciphers. NSS anticipated a linear drop in
performance and TPS as the ciphers doubled in size, but this was not the case. The 2048b cipher caused a decrease
in TPS of 300, but performance was maintained at 550 Mbps. This is an 87 percent reduction from the vendor
advertised performance.

Figure 6 Check Point 12600

Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800

The Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 12Gbps. During
NSS testing, the actual performance was rated at 16.6Gbps. There was an expected linear reduction in TPS versus
Mbps. The performance decrease between 512b and 1024b was marginal, but there was a significant performance
loss at 2048b.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

84% w/512b
85% w/1024b
94% w/2048b

Figure 7 Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800

NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Fortinet Fortigate-3600C
The Fortinet Fortigate-3600C NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 60Gbps. During NSS testing,
the actual performance was rated at 7,580Mbps. The expectation of a linear drop in TPS versus Mbps was constant
as the cipher strengths increased. The performance decreases across all ciphers were marginal, but the overall
performance impact was the greatest across all vendors.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

92.995% w/512b
93.497% w/1024b
94.077% w/2048b

Figure 8 Fortinet Fortigate-3600C

Juniper SRX3600
The Juniper SRX3600 NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 11Gbps. During NSS testing, the actual
performance was rated at 3.3Gbps. Juniper performed the best out of all the vendors with the lowest performance
degradation. Additionally, Juniper demonstrated the highest throughput with 1024b and 2048b ciphers with
onboard SSL. The TPS versus Mbps did not follow the anticipated linear reduction that was common with other
products.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

34% w/512b
13% w/1024b
36% w/2048b

Figure 9 Juniper SRX3600

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NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Palo Alto Networks PA-5020
The Palo Alto Networks PA-5020 NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 2Gbps. During NSS testing,
the actual performance was rated at 2.3Gbps. The TPS versus Mbps followed a linear reduction with marginal
performance degradation between 1024b and 2048b ciphers.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

66% w/512b
78% w/1024b
79% w/2048b

Figure 10 Palo Alto Networks PA-5020

Sourcefire 8250 & Sourcefire 8290

The Sourcefire 8250 NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 10Gbps. During NSS testing, the actual
performance was rated at 12.9Gbps. The Sourcefire 8250 was the only vendor that utilized a dedicated SSL
appliance during testing. The TPS achieved were the highest of all the devices tested.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

77.13% w/512b
77.52% w/1024b
82.95% w/2048b

Figure 11 Sourcefire 8250

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NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

The Sourcefire 8290 NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 40Gbps. During NSS testing, the actual
performance was rated at 52.3Gbps. The TPS and Mbps remained the same as the 8250. This is not a reflection of
the performance capabilities of the 8250 and 8290, but rather of the processing limitation of the dedicated SSL
appliance.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

94.359% w/512b
94.456% w/1024b
95.794% w/2048b

Figure 12 Sourcefire 8290

Stonesoft 3202
The Stonesoft 3202 NGFW is currently performance rated by the vendor at 3Gbps. During NSS testing, the actual
performance was rated at 2.7Gbps. The TPS and the Mbps followed the predictive linear reduction as the cipher
strength increased.
Impact on performance for tested ciphers:

54% w/512b
60% w/1024b
76% w/2048b

Figure 13 Stonesoft 3202

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NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Reading List
The Targeted Persistent Attack (TPA) The Misunderstood Security Threat Every Enterprise Faces. NSS Labs
https://www.nsslabs.com/reports/analysis-brief-targeted-persistent-attack-tpa-misunderstood-security-threat-
every-enterprise
2013 Next Generation Firewall Comparative Analysis. NSS Labs
https://www.nsslabs.com/reports/2013-next-generation-firewall-comparative-analysis

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NSS Labs

SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement

Contact Information
NSS Labs, Inc.
206 Wild Basin Rd
Building A, Suite 200
Austin, TX 78746 USA
+1 (512) 961-5300
info@nsslabs.com
www.nsslabs.com


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