IE relies on SCHANNEL.DLL (the the operating system's cryptography engine)
for SSL/TLS. Supported symmetric algorithms in Windows XP and Windows Server
2003 are documented in
http://technet2.microsoft.com/window...dfbea1033.mspx.

Windows Vista and Server 2008 add AES and ECC ciphers. Details at
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Window...ad9861033.mspx.
There are no plans to add AES or ECC to Windows XP or Server 2003.

--
Steve Riley
steve.riley@microsoft.com
http://blogs.technet.com/steriley
http://www.protectyourwindowsnetwork.com



"Dan" <Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BA044064-6CEA-49F4-891F-0A98349FDC72@microsoft.com...
> I was wondering if Internet Explorer 7 in Windows XP Professional will be
> upgraded to support encryption standards beyond 128 cipher strength.
> Windows
> Vista Internet Explorer supports stronger cipher strength as well as
> Mozilla
> Firefox 2.0.x. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.x can support 256 bit AES and 168 bit
> cipher strengths. I think Windows Vista Internet Explorer can also
> support
> the 256 bit AES cipher strength but what about users that use Windows XP
> Professional that is still in full support by Microsoft and only retired
> selling XP to stores as of June 30, 2008.