SSL: A quick primer

Most information security professionals have at least a passing familiarity with the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. You're probably aware it's used to authenticate and encrypt Internet communications. However, you might not be familiar with what goes on "under the hood" of SSL. If you currently use SSL in your environment or plan to use it in the future, it's important that you have a basic understanding of the protocol's capabilities and its common uses.

SSL has three basic capabilities that may be used independently or in combination to provide security to network-based communications. These capabilities are:

The use of SSL for authentication requires that the authenticating party possess an SSL certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA). These certificates are normally quite expensive (in the ballpark of $300/year). Therefore, when securing Web traffic (the most common use of SSL), it's often the case that the server authenticates itself to the client, but the client does not authenticate itself to the server. After all, it's not likely that a Web site will be able to convince its users to purchase an SSL certificate!

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The beauty of SSL is that it allows authenticated, encrypted communication between parties previously unknown to each other. This process is facilitated through the use of the Public Key Infrastructure of Certificate and Registration Authorities. When a client wishes to initiate SSL communication with a server, it uses a process known as handshaking:

During the initial steps of the handshaking process, the client and server also negotiate the exact cryptographic algorithms that will be used to secure the session.

The true power of SSL security lies in its ubiquitous nature, especially for Web communications. Virtually every computer on the planet is now equipped with a Web browser that supports SSL communication.