The SSL handshake process is a series of steps that establish a secure connection between a server and a client. Here are the steps involved:
1. The client initiates a connection to the server and requests a secure connection.
1. The server responds by sending its SSL/TLS certificate to the client. The certificate includes the server’s public key, which the client can use to encrypt further communication.
1. The client then verifies the server’s certificate using a trusted Certificate Authority to ensure that it’s not a fake certificate.
1. The client generates a random session key, which is used to establish an encrypted connection for the session.
1. The client encrypts the session key with the server’s public key and sends it to the server.
1. The server decrypts the session key with its private key, and both the server and the client now have the secret key that they will use to encrypt and decrypt data for the session.
1. Once the handshake is complete, the server and client can begin exchanging data over the encrypted channel.
This process ensures that the communication between the client and server is secure, private, and authenticated.
