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I want to know whether my browser is using SSL or TLS connection if I see HTTPS.

I want to know for IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. I want to know the protocol version.

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  • 7
    btw TLS is essentially SSL 3.1, so you want to know the protocol version.
    – CodesInChaos
    Aug 22, 2012 at 21:23
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    please, specify what browser you are using
    – eversor
    Aug 22, 2012 at 21:33
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    I want to know on all the famous browsers; IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari. Yes, I want to know the protocol version.
    – zhtway
    Aug 22, 2012 at 21:35
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    Are you concerned with benchmarking browsers or are you concerned with the actual traffic? You can capture traffic with Wireshark and see its encrypted. Otherwise, you need to consult each vendor's website.
    – Eric G
    Aug 22, 2012 at 22:07
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    if its google chrome support.google.com/chrome/bin/…
    – BlueBerry - Vignesh4303
    Aug 23, 2012 at 4:46

4 Answers 4

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There are several protocol versions : SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. Internally, TLS 1.0/1.1/1.2 are SSL 3.1/3.2/3.3 respectively (the protocol name was changed when SSL became a standard). I assume that you want to know the exact protocol version that your browser is using.

Internet Explorer

According to what is described on this blog post, Internet Explorer can display the protocol version information. Just hit File->Properties or Right-click -> Properties, and a window would open, under Connection, you'd see something like:

TLS 1.2, RC4 with 128 bit encryption (High); RSA with 2048 bit exchange

Firefox

As of today, Firefox supports TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. You can see the negotiated protocol version if you click the padlock icon (on the left of the URL), then More Information and then under the Technical Details.

Chrome

Chrome can display the version. On earlier versions of Chrome, click on the padlock icon; a popup appears, which contains some details, including the protocol version. example: (verified on version 21.0.1180.82)

The connection uses TLS 1.0

On later versions of Chrome, this information in the security tab of the developer tools. (Credit to nickd)

Opera

Opera shows the protocol version in a way similar to Chrome: click on the padlock icon, then click on the "Details" button. e.g. (verified on version 12.01):

TLS v1.0 256 bit AES (1024 bit DHE_RSA/SHA)

Others

For browsers which do not show the information, you can always obtain it running a network analyzer like Wireshark or Network Monitor: they will happily parse the public headers of the SSL/TLS packets, and show you the version (indeed, all of the data transfers in SSL/TLS are done in individual "records" and the 5-byte header of each record begins with the protocol version over two bytes).

And, of course, the actual protocol version is a choice of the server, based on what the server is configured to accept and the maximum version announced by the client. If the server is configured to do TLS 1.0 only then any connection which actually happens will use TLS 1.0, necessarily.

(Edit: I have incorporated some information from the comments; done a few tests myself. Feel free to enhance this answer as needed.)

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  • Interesting that the Firefox extension shows the cipher, but not the SSL version.
    – Polynomial
    Aug 23, 2012 at 7:40
  • In firefox clicking on the favicon in the address bar and clicking more info shows the same info as the extension. In chrome clicking the icon also shows that info in a popup.
    – ewanm89
    Aug 23, 2012 at 12:13
  • @ewanm89: for the Firefox I am presently using (14.0.1 on a Linux/Ubuntu system), all the information is not present. I can get the server certificate and the used symmetric cipher, but not the exact protocol version (i.e. I don't know if it is SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2).
    – Thomas Pornin
    Aug 23, 2012 at 12:26
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    Later versions of Chrome have this information in the security tab of the developer tools.
    – nickd
    Mar 27, 2017 at 17:33
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    @nickd Indeed; Chrome currently no longer shows any encryption information or certificate information by clicking the padlock, only whether the connection is "secure" or not.
    – TylerH
    May 10, 2018 at 18:54
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From Google Chrome version 56 up

Open Chrome developer tools using F12 shortcut key and select Security tab that would provide the security info as shown below.

enter image description here

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Google Chrome

  1. Click on the padlock at the left of the address bar

enter image description here

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Click on the padlock at the left of the address bar
  2. Then click 'more information'

enter image description here

Internet Explorer

The padlock is to the right of the address bar, but it won't help. Instead

  1. (On a blank bit of the page) right click
  2. Properties

enter image description here

It would be neat if Internet Explorer were consistent with the other browsers. Under the padlock indicator is sensible place to look.

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  • This must be a very recent version of Firefox -- I checked 31 ESR, and it looks exactly the same right up through 128 bit keys, but does not include the TLS version.
    – Coderer
    Aug 21, 2015 at 12:13
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    How can you do it in Chrome Version 57.0.2987.110 (64-bit)? This worked for me in previous versions, but not in this one.
    – ttt
    Mar 24, 2017 at 13:18
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    @JedatKinports See the answer that starts with "From Google Chrome version 56 up" as the above is no longer valid for Chrome.
    – Dijkgraaf
    Feb 19, 2018 at 20:11
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I am still unable to find add-ons or extensions to check ssl protocol version directly from browser session. But what I found is here.

openssl s_client -connect <<domain name>>:443 -ssl2
openssl s_client -connect <<domain name>>:443 -ssl3

openssl command give ssl information. I don't know much detail on openssl command.

This site use openssl to get extensive information. http://www.serversniff.net/sslcheck.php

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    That tells you a little, and can be fixed to tell you more, about what the server supports. It does not tell what a browser supports or gets, which is the question. Also that link is dead: it 302s to cloud.hochnebel.net/sslcheck.php which 404s.
    – dave_thompson_085
    Feb 10, 2015 at 10:11
  • The key here is that is will tell you if the negotiation and ssl handshake fails. This is really important information if you're testing to see whether or not you want to enable SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1, etc.
    – zmonteca
    Apr 27, 2015 at 18:27
  • Can't comment on above (need higher reputation), so I'll add to zhtway's comment above. For newer versions of TLS (1.0, 1.1 and 1.2) just use these newer parameters: # Test for TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 respectively. openssl s_client -connect <<domain name>>:443 -tls1 openssl s_client -connect <<domain name>>:443 -tls1_1 openssl s_client -connect <<domain name>>:443 -tls1_2 You'll be able to tell if it's supported or not if you get a long detailed response including the server certificate.
    – patricknelson
    Dec 6, 2018 at 20:06

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