SSL Configuration
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52. SSL Configuration
52.1
Introduction to SSL
As the computer networking technology spreads, the security of the network has
been taking more and more important impact on the availability and the usability of the
networking application. The network security has become one of the greatest barriers of
modern networking applications.
To protect sensitive data transferred through Web, Netscape introduced the Secure
Socket Layer
– SSL protocol, for its Web browser. Up till now, SSL 2.0 and 3.0 has been
released. SSL 2.0 is obsolete because of security problems, and it is not supported on the
switches of Network. The SSL protocol uses the public-key encryption, and has become
the industry standard for secure communication on internet for Web browsing. The Web
browser integrates HTTP and SSL to realize secure communication.
SSL is a safety protocol to protect private data transmission on the Internet. SSL
protocols are designed for secure transmission between the client and the server, and
authentication both at the server sides and optional client. SSL protocols must build on
reliable transport layer (such as TCP). SSL protocols are independent for application layer.
Some protocols such as HTTP, FTP, TELNET and so on, can build on SSL protocols
transparently. The SSL protocol negotiates for the encryption algorithm, the encryption
key and the server authentication before data is transmitted. Ever since the negotiation is
done, all the data being transferred will be encrypted.
Via above introduction, the security channel is provided by SSL protocols have below
three characteristics:
Privacy. First they encrypt the suite through negotiation, then all the messages be
encrypted.
Affirmation. Though the client authentication of the conversational is optional, but the
server is always authenticated.
Reliability. The message integrality inspect is included in the sending message (use
MAC).
52.1.1
Basic Element of SSL
The basic strategy of SSL provides a safety channel for random application data
forwarding between two communication programs. In theory, SSL connect is similar with
encrypt TCP connect. The position of SSL protocol is under application layer and on the