Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a security protocol that provides encryption and authentication for internet communications. SSL is commonly used to secure web traffic by encrypting sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal data transmitted between a web browser and a web server.
SSL works by using public key cryptography to establish a secure connection between the client (web browser) and the server (web server). The SSL handshake process involves the following steps:
- The client sends a request to the server to establish a secure connection.
- The server sends its SSL certificate to the client, which contains the server’s public key.
- The client verifies the authenticity of the server’s certificate and generates a session key to use for encryption.
- The client sends the session key to the server, encrypted with the server’s public key.
- The server decrypts the session key with its private key and the SSL connection is established.
Once the SSL connection is established, all data transmitted between the client and server is encrypted and authenticated, which helps protect it from eavesdropping and tampering by third parties.
SSL has been superseded by Transport Layer Security (TLS), which is the successor to SSL and provides improved security features. However, the term SSL is still commonly used to refer to the security protocol used for securing web traffic.
