SSL协议 and How SSL works (转）

SSL协议的工作流程：

      服务器认证阶段：1） 客户端向服务器发送一个开始信息“Hello”以便开始一个新的会话连接；2） 服务器根据客户的信息确定是否需要生成新的主密钥，如需要则服务器在响应客户的“Hello”信息时将包含生成主密钥所需的信息；3） 客户根据收到的服务器响应信息，产生一个主密钥，并用服务器的公开密钥加密后传给服务器；4） 服务器恢复该主密钥，并返回给客户一个用主密钥认证的信息，以此让客户认证服务器。
      用户认证阶段：在此之前，服务器已经通过了客户认证，这一阶段主要完成对客户的认证。经认证的服务器发送一个提问给客户，客户则返回（数字）签名后的提问和其公开密钥，从而向服务器提供认证。
      从SSL 协议所提供的服务及其工作流程可以看出，SSL协议运行的基础是商家对消费者信息保密的承诺，这就有利于商家而不利于消费者。在电子商务初级阶段，由于运 作电子商务的企业大多是信誉较高的大公司，因此这问题还没有充分暴露出来。但随着电子商务的发展，各中小型公司也参与进来，这样在电子支付过程中的单一认 证问题就越来越突出。虽然在SSL3.0中通过数字签名和数字证书可实现浏览器和Web服务器双方的身份验证，但是SSL协议仍存在一些问题，比如，只能 提供交易中客户与服务器间的双方认证，在涉及多方的电子交易中，SSL协议并不能协调各方间的安全传输和信任关系。在这种情况下，Visa和 MasterCard两大信用卡公组织制定了SET协议，为网上信用卡支付提供了全球性的标准。

 

SSL协议的握手过程 　　

      为了便于更好的认识和理解 SSL 协议，这里着重介绍 SSL 协议的握手协议。SSL 协议既用到了公钥加密技术(非对称加密)又用到了对称加密技术，SSL对传输内容的加密是采用的对称加密，然后对对称加密的密钥使用公钥进行非对称加密。 这样做的好处是，对称加密技术比公钥加密技术的速度快，可用来加密较大的传输内容， 公钥加密技术相对较慢，提供了更好的身份认证技术，可用来加密对称加密过程使用的密钥。
      SSL 的握手协议非常有效的让客户和服务器之间完成相互之间的身份认证，其主要过程如下：
　　① 客户端的浏览器向服务器传送客户端 SSL 协议的版本号，加密算法的种类，产生的随机数，以及其他服务器和客户端之间通讯所需要的各种信息。

　　② 服务器向客户端传送 SSL 协议的版本号，加密算法的种类，随机数以及其他相关信息，同时服务器还将向客户端传送自己的证书。

　　③ 客户利用服务器传过来的信息验证服务器的合法性，服务器的合法性包括： 证书是否过期，发行服务器证书的 CA 是否可靠，发行者证书的公钥能否正确解开服务器证书的“发行者的数字签名”，服务器证书上的域名是否和服务器的实际域名相匹配。如果合法性验证没有通过， 通讯将断开；如果合法性验证通过，将继续进行第四步。

　　④ 用户端随机产生一个用于后面通讯的“对称密码”，然后用服务器的公钥（服务器的公钥从步骤②中的服务器的证书中获得）对其加密，然后将加密后的“预主密码”传给服务器。

　　⑤ 如果服务器要求客户的身份认证（在握手过程中为可选），用户可以建立一个随机数然后对其进行数据签名，将这个含有签名的随机数和客户自己的证书以及加密过的“预主密码”一起传给服务器。

　　⑥ 如果服务器要求客户的身份认证，服务器必须检验客户证书和签名随机数的 合法性，具体的合法性验证过程包括：客户的证书使用日期是否有效，为客户提供证书的CA 是否可靠，发行CA 的公钥能否正确解开客户证书的发行 CA 的数字签名，检查客户的证书是否在证书废止列表（CRL）中。检验如果没有通过，通讯立刻中断；如果验证通过，服务器将用自己的私钥解开加密的“预主密码 ”，然后执行一系列步骤来产生主通讯密码（客户端也将通过同样的方法产生相同的主通讯密码）。

　　⑦ 服务器和客户端用相同的主密码即“通话密码”，一个对称密钥用于 SSL 协议的安全数据通讯的加解密通讯。同时在 SSL 通讯过程中还要完成数据通讯的完整性，防止数据通讯中的任何变化。

　　⑧ 客户端向服务器端发出信息，指明后面的数据通讯将使用的步骤⑦中的主密码为对称密钥，同时通知服务器客户端的握手过程结束。

　　⑨ 服务器向客户端发出信息，指明后面的数据通讯将使用的步骤⑦中的主密码为对称密钥，同时通知客户端服务器端的握手过程结束。
　　⑩ SSL 的握手部分结束，SSL 安全通道的数据通讯开始，客户和服务器开始使用相同的对称密钥进行数据通讯，同时进行通讯完整性的检验。

 

双向认证 SSL 协议的具体过程
　　① 浏览器发送一个连接请求给安全服务器。

　　② 服务器将自己的证书，以及同证书相关的信息发送给客户浏览器。

　　③ 客户浏览器检查服务器送过来的证书是否是由自己信赖的 CA 中心所签发的。如果是，就继续执行协议；如果不是，客户浏览器就给客户一个警告消息：警告客户这个证书不是可以信赖的，询问客户是否需要继续。

　　④ 接着客户浏览器比较证书里的消息，例如域名和公钥，与服务器刚刚发送的相关消息是否一致，如果是一致的，客户浏览器认可这个服务器的合法身份。

　　⑤ 服务器要求客户发送客户自己的证书。收到后，服务器验证客户的证书，如果没有通过验证，拒绝连接；如果通过验证，服务器获得用户的公钥。

　　⑥ 客户浏览器告诉服务器自己所能够支持的通讯对称密码方案。

　　⑦ 服务器从客户发送过来的密码方案中，选择一种加密程度最高的密码方案，用客户的公钥加过密后通知浏览器。

　　⑧ 浏览器针对这个密码方案，选择一个通话密钥，接着用服务器的公钥加过密后发送给服务器。

　　⑨ 服务器接收到浏览器送过来的消息，用自己的私钥解密，获得通话密钥。

　　⑩ 服务器、浏览器接下来的通讯都是用对称密码方案，对称密钥是加过密的。

　　上面所述的是双向认证 SSL 协议的具体通讯过程，这种情况要求服务器和用户双方都有证书。单向认证 SSL 协议不需要客户拥有 CA 证书，具体的过程相对于上面的步骤，只需将服务器端验证客户证书的过程去掉，以及在协商对称密码方案，对称通话密钥时，服务器发送给客户的是没有加过密的 （这并不影响 SSL 过程的安全性）密码方案。这样，双方具体的通讯内容，就是加过密的数据，如果有第三方攻击，获得的只是加密的数据，第三方要获得有用的信息，就需要对加密 的数据进行解密，这时候的安全就依赖于密码方案的安全。而幸运的是，目前所用的密码方案，只要通讯密钥长度足够的长，就足够的安全。这也是我们强调要求使 用 128 位加密通讯的原因。

 

 

How SSL Works

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol that provides secure communication between client and server. Here the client is your browser and server is the web site you're communicating with. Secure communication has three main goals: privacy, message integrity, and authentication.

A Typical Scenario

Alice wants to buy a book from Bob's online bookstore. In order to complete the process she'll need to transmit sensitive personal information, such as her credit card number. Alice wants to make sure that the information she sends to Bob is kept confidential (privacy), and cannot be altered along the way (message integrity). She also wants to make sure that she's really sending the information to Bob and not an imposter (authentication).

Privacy

The sensitive information Alice sends to Bob is kept private by cryptography. A plaintext message is encrypted into ciphertext. To anyone who might eavesdrop and intercept the message, the ciphertext is meaningless. It's estimated that trying to crack the ciphertext by brute force alone (trying every possible combination) would take millions of years even if all the computers in the world were linked together to solve the puzzle.

Note: The Alice and Bob scenario is an adopted convention used in cryptographic circles. Other characters include Eve the eavesdropper and Victor the verifier.

Public Key Cryptography

The information used to turn a plaintext message into an encrypted ciphertext message is a key. Public key cryptography makes use of a pair of keys, one is public, and the other is private. Alice wants to send Bob private information, so Bob says, "Here Alice, use this public key to encrypt your message before sending it to me. When I receive your encrypted message I will use my private key to decrypt your message." It's okay for anyone to have a copy of the public key, but only Bob should have a copy of his private key. A plaintext message encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key.

Message Integrity

When Alice sends a message to Bob, someone could intercept that message, alter it, and send it on its way. She could end up buying the wrong book or more copies than she really wanted. Message integrity is achieved by sending a message digest along with the encrypted message. A message digest is a fixed-length representation of a message. Think of it as a fingerprint of the original message. Alice says to Bob, "I'm going to send you an encrypted message. So that you know my message to you hasn't been intercepted and altered along the way, I'm also sending a fingerprint of my original message. Please check the fingerprint to see if it matches when you receive my message."

Authentication

Alice's message to Bob is encrypted for privacy, and fingerprinted for message integrity, but how does Alice know that she is really sending the message to Bob? Alice needs to authenticate Bob, to make sure he's really Bob and not someone else. Authentication is achieved by digital certificates.

Digital SSL Certificates

When Alice and Bob first negotiate their SSL session, Bob sends Alice a copy of his digital certificate. A digital certificate is an electronic document. Inside that certificate is a copy of Bob's public key and information about its owner (domain name, organization name, location).

Why Should Alice Trust the Information

Because the SSL certificate is verified or "signed" by a trusted third party Certificate Authority, such as GeoTrust. The trusted Certificate Authority's job is to verify Bob's application for a digital SSL certificate. The authentication process can range from verifying that Bob has authoritative control of his domain (for GeoTrust QuickSSL), to requiring Bob to submit legal documents that verify Bob's business or organization (for GeoTrust True BusinessID). Once Bob's identity has been verified he will be issued a digital SSL certificate.

All of these concepts- privacy by encryption, integrity by message digests (fingerprinting), and authentication by digital SSL certificates- are integrated into the SSL protocol to allow Alice and Bob to communicate securely.

Browse GeoTrust SSL Certificates

 

What is SSL and what are Certificates?

The Secure Socket Layer protocol was created by Netscape to ensure secure transactions between web servers and browsers. The protocol uses a third party, a Certificate Authority (CA), to identify one end or both end of the transactions. This is in short how it works.

   1. A browser requests a secure page (usually https://).
   2. The web server sends its public key with its certificate.
   3. The browser checks that the certificate was issued by a trusted party (usually a trusted root CA), that the certificate is still valid and that the certificate is related to the site contacted.
   4. The browser then uses the public key, to encrypt a random symmetric encryption key and sends it to the server with the encrypted URL required as well as other encrypted http data.
   5. The web server decrypts the symmetric encryption key using its private key and uses the symmetric key to decrypt the URL and http data.
   6. The web server sends back the requested html document and http data encrypted with the symmetric key.
   7. The browser decrypts the http data and html document using the symmetric key and displays the information.

Several concepts have to be understood here.

Private Key/Public Key:

The encryption using a private key/public key pair ensures that the data can be encrypted by one key but can only be decrypted by the other key pair. This is sometime hard to understand, but believe me it works. The keys are similar in nature and can be used alternatively: what one key emcrypts, the other key pair can decrypt. The key pair is based on prime numbers and their length in terms of bits ensures the difficulty of being able to decrypt the message without the key pairs. The trick in a key pair is to keep one key secret (the private key) and to distribute the other key (the public key) to everybody. Anybody can send you an encrypted message, that only you will be able to decrypt. You are the only one to have the other key pair, right? In the opposite , you can certify that a message is only coming from you, because you have encrypted it with you private key, and only the associated public key will decrypt it correctly. Beware, in this case the message is not secured you have only signed it. Everybody has the public key, remember!

One of the problem left is to know the public key of your correspondent. Usually you will ask him to send you a non confidential signed message that will contains his publick key as well as a certificate.

Message-->[Public Key]-->Encrypted Message-->[Private Key]-->Message

The Certificate:

How do you know that you are dealing with the right person or rather the right web site. Well, someone has taken great length (if they are serious) to ensure that the web site owners are who they claim to be. This someone, you have to implicitly trust: you have his/her certificate loaded in your browser (a root Certificate). A certificate, contains information about the owner of the certificate, like e-mail address, owner's name, certificate usage, duration of validity, resource location or Distinguished Name (DN) which includes the Common Name (CN) (web site address or e-mail address depending of the usage) and the certificate ID of the person who certifies (signs) this information. It contains also the public key and finally a hash to ensure that the certificate has not been tampered with. As you made the choice to trust the person who signs this certificate, therefore you also trust this certificate. This is a certificate trust tree or certificate path. Usually your browser or application has already loaded the root certificate of well known Certification Authorities (CA) or root CA Certificates. The CA maintains a list of all signed certificates as well as a list of revoked certificates. A certificate is insecure until it is signed, as only a signed certificate cannot be modified. You can sign a certificate using itself, it is called a self signed certificate. All root CA certificates are self signed.

Certificate:
    Data:
        Version: 3 (0x2)
        Serial Number: 1 (0x1)
        Signature Algorithm: md5WithRSAEncryption
        Issuer: C=FJ, ST=Fiji, L=Suva, O=SOPAC, OU=ICT, CN=SOPAC Root CA/Email=[e-mail]
        Validity
            Not Before: Nov 20 05:47:44 2001 GMT
            Not After : Nov 20 05:47:44 2002 GMT
        Subject: C=FJ, ST=Fiji, L=Suva, O=SOPAC, OU=ICT, CN=www.sopac.org/Email=[e-mail]
        Subject Public Key Info:
            Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption 
            RSA Public Key: (1024 bit)
                Modulus (1024 bit):
                    00:ba:54:2c:ab:88:74:aa:6b:35:a5:a9:c1:d0:5a:
                    9b:fb:6b:b5:71:bc:ef:d3:ab:15:cc:5b:75:73:36:
                    b8:01:d1:59:3f:c1:88:c0:33:91:04:f1:bf:1a:b4:
                    7a:c8:39:c2:89:1f:87:0f:91:19:81:09:46:0c:86:
                    08:d8:75:c4:6f:5a:98:4a:f9:f8:f7:38:24:fc:bd:
                    94:24:37:ab:f1:1c:d8:91:ee:fb:1b:9f:88:ba:25:
                    da:f6:21:7f:04:32:35:17:3d:36:1c:fb:b7:32:9e:
                    42:af:77:b6:25:1c:59:69:af:be:00:a1:f8:b0:1a:
                    6c:14:e2:ae:62:e7:6b:30:e9
                Exponent: 65537 (0x10001)
         X509v3 extensions:
             X509v3 Basic Constraints:
                 CA:FALSE
             Netscape Comment:
                 OpenSSL Generated Certificate
             X509v3 Subject Key Identifier:
                 FE:04:46:ED:A0:15:BE:C1:4B:59:03:F8:2D:0D:ED:2A:E0:ED:F9:2F
             X509v3 Authority Key Identifier:
                 keyid:E6:12:7C:3D:A1:02:E5:BA:1F:DA:9E:37:BE:E3:45:3E:9B:AE:E5:A6
                 DirName:/C=FJ/ST=Fiji/L=Suva/O=SOPAC/OU=ICT/CN=SOPAC Root CA/Email=[e-mail]
                 serial:00
    Signature Algorithm: md5WithRSAEncryption
        34:8d:fb:65:0b:85:5b:e2:44:09:f0:55:31:3b:29:2b:f4:fd:
        aa:5f:db:b8:11:1a:c6:ab:33:67:59:c1:04:de:34:df:08:57:
        2e:c6:60:dc:f7:d4:e2:f1:73:97:57:23:50:02:63:fc:78:96:
        34:b3:ca:c4:1b:c5:4c:c8:16:69:bb:9c:4a:7e:00:19:48:62:
        e2:51:ab:3a:fa:fd:88:cd:e0:9d:ef:67:50:da:fe:4b:13:c5:
        0c:8c:fc:ad:6e:b5:ee:40:e3:fd:34:10:9f:ad:34:bd:db:06:
        ed:09:3d:f2:a6:81:22:63:16:dc:ae:33:0c:70:fd:0a:6c:af:
        bc:5a
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDoTCCAwqgAwIBAgIBATANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQQFADCBiTELMAkGA1UEBhMCRkox
DTALBgNVBAgTBEZpamkxDTALBgNVBAcTBFN1dmExDjAMBgNVBAoTBVNPUEFDMQww
CgYDVQQLEwNJQ1QxFjAUBgNVBAMTDVNPUEFDIFJvb3QgQ0ExJjAkBgkqhkiG9w0B
CQEWF2FkbWluaXN0cmF0b3JAc29wYWMub3JnMB4XDTAxMTEyMDA1NDc0NFoXDTAy
MTEyMDA1NDc0NFowgYkxCzAJBgNVBAYTAkZKMQ0wCwYDVQQIEwRGaWppMQ0wCwYD
VQQHEwRTdXZhMQ4wDAYDVQQKEwVTT1BBQzEMMAoGA1UECxMDSUNUMRYwFAYDVQQD
Ew13d3cuc29wYWMub3JnMSYwJAYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFhdhZG1pbmlzdHJhdG9yQHNv
cGFjLm9yZzCBnzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOBjQAwgYkCgYEAulQsq4h0qms1panB
0Fqb+2u1cbzv06sVzFt1cza4AdFZP8GIwDORBPG/GrR6yDnCiR+HD5EZgQlGDIYI
2HXEb1qYSvn49zgk/L2UJDer8RzYke77G5+IuiXa9iF/BDI1Fz02HPu3Mp5Cr3e2
JRxZaa++AKH4sBpsFOKuYudrMOkCAwEAAaOCARUwggERMAkGA1UdEwQCMAAwLAYJ
YIZIAYb4QgENBB8WHU9wZW5TU0wgR2VuZXJhdGVkIENlcnRpZmljYXRlMB0GA1Ud
DgQWBBT+BEbtoBW+wUtZA/gtDe0q4O35LzCBtgYDVR0jBIGuMIGrgBTmEnw9oQLl
uh/anje+40U+m67lpqGBj6SBjDCBiTELMAkGA1UEBhMCRkoxDTALBgNVBAgTBEZp
amkxDTALBgNVBAcTBFN1dmExDjAMBgNVBAoTBVNPUEFDMQwwCgYDVQQLEwNJQ1Qx
FjAUBgNVBAMTDVNPUEFDIFJvb3QgQ0ExJjAkBgkqhkiG9w0BCQEWF2FkbWluaXN0
cmF0b3JAc29wYWMub3JnggEAMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBAUAA4GBADSN+2ULhVviRAnw
VTE7KSv0/apf27gRGsarM2dZwQTeNN8IVy7GYNz31OLxc5dXI1ACY/x4ljSzysQb
xUzIFmm7nEp+ABlIYuJRqzr6/YjN4J3vZ1Da/ksTxQyM/K1ute5A4/00EJ+tNL3b
Bu0JPfKmgSJjFtyuMwxw/Qpsr7xa
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

As You may have noticed, the certificate contains the reference to the issuer, the public key of the owner of this certificate, the dates of validity of this certificate and the signature of the certificate to ensure this certificate hasen't been tampered with. The certificate does not contain the private key as it should never be transmitted in any form whatsoever. This certificate has all the elements to send an encrypted message to the owner (using the public key) or to verify a message signed by the author of this certificate.

The Symmetric key:

Well, Private Key/Public Key encryption algorithms are great, but they are not usually practical. It is asymmetric because you need the other key pair to decrypt. You can't use the same key to encrypt and decrypt. An algorithm using the same key to decrypt and encrypt is deemed to have a symmetric key. A symmetric algorithm is much faster in doing its job than an asymmetric algorithm. But a symmetric key is potentially highly insecure. If the enemy gets hold of the key then you have no more secret information. You must therefore transmit the key to the other party without the enemy getting its hands on it. As you know, nothing is secure on the Internet. The solution is to encapsulate the symmetric key inside a message encrypted with an asymmetric algorithm. You have never transmitted your private key to anybody, then the message encrypted with the public key is secure (relatively secure, nothing is certain except death and taxes). The symmetric key is also chosen randomly, so that if the symmetric secret key is discovered then the next transaction will be totally different.

Symetric Key-->[Public Key]-->Encrypted Symetric Key-->[Private Key]-->Symetric Key

Encryption algorithm:

There are several encryption algorithms available, using symmetric or asymmetric methods, with keys of various lengths. Usually, algorithms cannot be patented, if Henri Poincare had patented his algorithms, then he would have been able to sue Albert Einstein... So algorithms cannot be patented except mainly in USA. OpenSSL is developed in a country where algorithms cannot be patented and where encryption technology is not reserved to state agencies like military and secret services. During the negotiation between browser and web server, the applications will indicate to each other a list of algorithms that can be understood ranked by order of preference. The common preferred algorithm is then chosen. OpenSSL can be compiled with or without certain algorithms, so that it can be used in many countries where restrictions apply.

The Hash:

A hash is a number given by a hash function from a message. This is a one way function, it means that it is impossible to get the original message knowing the hash. However the hash will drastically change even for the slightest modification in the message. It is therefore extremely difficult to modify a message while keeping its original hash. It is also called a message digest. Hash functions are used in password mechanisms, in certifying that applications are original (MD5 sum), and in general in ensuring that any message has not been tampered with. It seems that the Internet Enginering Task Force (IETF) prefers SHA1 over MD5 for a number of technical reasons (Cf RFC2459 7.1.2 and 7.1.3).

Signing:

Signing a message, means authentifying that you have yourself assured the authenticity of the message (most of the time it means you are the author, but not neccesarily). The message can be a text message, or someone else's certificate. To sign a message, you create its hash, and then encrypt the hash with your private key, you then add the encrypted hash and your signed certificate with the message. The recipient will recreate the message hash, decrypts the encrypted hash using your well known public key stored in your signed certificate, check that both hash are equals and finally check the certificate.

The other advantage of signing your messages is that you transmit your public key and certificate automatically to all your recipients.

There are usually 2 ways to sign, encapsulating the text message inside the signature (with delimiters), or encoding the message altogether with the signature. This later form is a very simple encryption form as any software can decrypt it if it can read the embedded public key. The advantage of the first form is that the message is human readable allowing any non complaint client to pass the message as is for the user to read, while the second form does not even allow to read part of the message if it has been tampered with.

 

PassPhrase:

“A passprase is like a password except it is longer”. In the early days passwords on Unix system were limited to 8 characters, so the term passphrase for longer passwords. Longer is the password harder it is to guess. Nowadays Unix systems use MD5 hashes which have no limitation in length of the password.

Public Key Infrastructure

The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the software management system and database system that allows to sign certifcate, keep a list of revoked certificates, distribute public key,... You can usually access it via a website and/or ldap server. There will be also some people checking that you are who you are... For securing individual applications, you can use any well known commercial PKI as their root CA certificate is most likely to be inside your browser/application. The problem is for securing e-mail, either you get a generic type certificate for your e-mail or you must pay about USD100 a year per certificate/e-mail address. There is also no way to find someone's public key if you have never received a prior e-mail with his certificate (including his public key).