Linked Questions
10 questions linked to/from My understanding of how HTTPS works (gmail for example)
417
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How is it possible that people observing an HTTPS connection being established wouldn't know how to decrypt it?
I've often heard it said that if you're logging in to a website - a bank, GMail, whatever - via HTTPS, that the information you transmit is safe from snooping by 3rd parties. I've always been a little ...
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166
votes
11
answers
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Is visiting HTTPS websites on a public hotspot secure?
It's often said that HTTPS SSL/TLS connections are encrypted and said to be secure because the communication between the server and me is encrypted (also provides server authentication) so if someone ...
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80
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10
answers
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Why is HTTPS not the default protocol?
Why is HTTP still commonly used, instead what I would believe much more secure HTTPS?
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69
votes
4
answers
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Understanding 2048 bit SSL and 256 bit encryption
On DigiCert's page, they advertise a 2048 bit SSL with a 256 bit encryption: http://www.digicert.com/256-bit-ssl-certificates.htm
What exactly is the difference here and why are two encryption bits ...
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28
votes
4
answers
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How do the processes for digital certificates, signatures and ssl work?
I have been trying to understand how ssl works. Instead of Alice and Bob, lets consider client and server communication.
Server has a digital certificate acquired from a CA. It also has public and ...
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25
votes
3
answers
20k
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Why is faking SSL certificate difficult?
In the news that comes from Iran, you hear that Iran has succeeded in making fake ssl certificates, so that they can find people's gmail account credentials.
Some analysts are saying this is possible ...
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4
votes
3
answers
2k
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Public key in SSL protocol
I have gone through many of the posts including My understanding of how HTTPS works (gmail for example). Everywhere it's mentioning that before creating a https connection, the browser verifies the ...
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4
votes
1
answer
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Purpose of certificates signed and trusted by CA
Another newbie question but I just don't get the purpose of certificates signed and trusted by CA. We already have public/private keys, hash functions to sign/encrypt messages so why do we need ...
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5
votes
1
answer
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ECDHE_RSA and gmail
I'm using Chrome on Ubuntu Linux to connect to Gmail. The connection info says that ECDHE_RSA is used for the https symmetric key exchange.
Based on my understanding of TLS and Gmail, my client ...
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2
votes
2
answers
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What number of bits does a browser use to generate a key?
The question comes from the accepted answer in this thread:
My understanding of how HTTPS works (gmail for example)
The Gmail server sends your client a certificate.
The certificate includes the ...
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