5.12.1.1Concepts

SSL is used to authenticate endpoints and to secure the contents of the application-level communication. An SSL-secured connection begins by establishing the identities of the peers, and establishing an encryption method and key in a secure way. Application-level communication can then begin. All incoming traffic is decrypted by the intermediate SSL layer and then forwarded on to the application; outgoing traffic is encrypted by the SSL layer before transmission.

SSL uses encryption with symmetric keys for data transfer, encryption with asymmetric keys for exchanging symmetric keys, and one-way hash functions for data integrity. The following sections briefly describe encryption and message-digest concepts, and how they are used to implement data confidentiality, data integrity, and the authentication mechanism.

5.12.1.1.1Encryption

Encryption is a process of disguising a message. Encryption transforms a clear-text message into cipher text.

Figure 5-85: Encryption

Decryption converts cipher text back into the original, comprehensible clear text.

Figure 5-86: Decryption

Most encryption processes involve the use of an algorithm and a key. For example, in the previous illustration, the algorithm was “replace alphabets by moving forward” and the key was 2.

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IBM 10 SP1 EAL4 manual Concepts, Encryption