Received TLS alert from the server: Handshake failed (40)

Question

I've got new web server with proftpd onboard. The problem is I can't connect to it through filezilla FTP client because it gives me an error

Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Response:   220 FTP Server ready.
Command:    AUTH TLS
Response:   234 AUTH TLS successful
Status: Initializing TLS...
Error:  Received TLS alert from the server: Handshake failed (40)
Error:  Could not connect to server

I found that the error corresponds to the proftpd log /var/log/proftpd/tls.log/var/log/proftpd/tls.log record:

Jul 24 13:50:47 mod_tls/2.4.2[1572]: unable to accept TLS connection: protocol error: 
  (1) error:1408A0C1:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_CLIENT_HELLO:no shared cipher

Which means that the ftp client supports none of the encryption algorythms proposed by the server. As a result, the connection fails.

I have also found a TLSCipherSuite directive in /etc/proftpd.conf that disables ADH, DES, SSLv2 and SSLv3 ciphers.

TLSCipherSuite                 ALL:!ADH:!DES:!SSLv2:!SSLv3

When I remove :!SSLv3 from the directive and restart the server, filezilla connects without any problems. But enabling SSLv3 seems to be a bad idea because it is vulnerable and insecure, according to the http://disablessl3.com/

Question

So my question is what can I do to make proftpd provide at least one secure cipher to successfully negotiate with filezilla FTP client?

Additional note

There is a similar question Recieved TLS alert from the server: Handshake failed (40) that tells

Use only plain FTP (insecure)

but I want connection to be secure thus the answer for me is unsuitable.

Additional note #2

List of available ciphers:

[root@server ~]# openssl ciphers -v 'ALL:!ADH:!DES:!SSLv2:!SSLv3'
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=ECDSA Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA384
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=ECDSA Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA384
DHE-DSS-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=DSS  Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256   TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=RSA  Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA256
DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA256   TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=DSS  Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA256
ECDH-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/RSA Au=ECDH Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDH-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/ECDSA Au=ECDH Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
ECDH-RSA-AES256-SHA384  TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/RSA Au=ECDH Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA384
ECDH-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/ECDSA Au=ECDH Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA384
AES256-GCM-SHA384       TLSv1.2 Kx=RSA      Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(256) Mac=AEAD
AES256-SHA256           TLSv1.2 Kx=RSA      Au=RSA  Enc=AES(256)  Mac=SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=ECDSA Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=RSA  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH     Au=ECDSA Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
DHE-DSS-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=DSS  Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256   TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=RSA  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
DHE-DSS-AES128-SHA256   TLSv1.2 Kx=DH       Au=DSS  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
ECDH-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/RSA Au=ECDH Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
ECDH-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/ECDSA Au=ECDH Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
ECDH-RSA-AES128-SHA256  TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/RSA Au=ECDH Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
ECDH-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 TLSv1.2 Kx=ECDH/ECDSA Au=ECDH Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256
AES128-GCM-SHA256       TLSv1.2 Kx=RSA      Au=RSA  Enc=AESGCM(128) Mac=AEAD
AES128-SHA256           TLSv1.2 Kx=RSA      Au=RSA  Enc=AES(128)  Mac=SHA256

Solution 1

The root of problem was an absence of TLSProtocol directive in /etc/proftpd.conf. Default value is TLSv1 and it prevents usage of TLSv1.2.

I have added

  TLSProtocol                   TLSv1.2

to /etc/proftpd.conf, restarted the server and the problem was solved.

https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45829&p=157134#p157134 http://www.proftpd.org/docs/contrib/mod_tls.html#TLSProtocol

Although it solved my case, it is also recommended to use

  TLSProtocol                   ALL -SSLv3

instead.

https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?p=157135#p157135

Solution 2

Assuming you're using the system-installed OpenSSL libraries (e.g. your RedHat RPM installation), you can view the available ciphers by running:

openssl ciphers -v 'ALL:!ADH:!DES:!SSLv2:!SSLv3'

If filezilla simply doesn't speak SSLv3/TLSv1 (roughly equivalent), you're out of luck and should look if there is an updated version available that does.

There may be another configuration/ciphersuite setting that is suitable for your workload, but getting it from this forum without properly analysing the requirements of your situation is not advisable.

Comments

[Liam Dennehy]

Now you need to see which ciphers and SSL/TLS versions are supported by your filezilla client. If there isn't at least one that overlaps, this will never work.