How does the HTTPS protocol work?

by | Mar 5, 2017 | CCNA, CCNP, CompTIA, Encryption, Malware Prevention, Security Fundamentals

HTTPS

Nowadays, many servers rely on HTTPS. It is used in secure banking transactions as well as for browsing. What is HTTPS and how is HTTPS more secure than HTTP? Let’s understand that in more detail.

What is HTTPS?

When we type a URL in the browser, our browser sends an HTTP request to the server, and the server responds with an appropriate HTML page. Now, HTTP is a stateless protocol. This means that every time the browser wants some data from the server, a new connection is established to the server, and the client waits. The server sends a response and closes the connection.

If we think about security, HTTP is an unsecured protocol. When data travels between the client and the server, it is unencrypted. As a result, the data is not safe from the Man-In-The-Middle attack. To address that problem, HTTPS was developed.

HTTPS basically uses SSL/TLS for security. That means that all the data transferred between a server and a client gets encrypted first and then transferred. A TLS connection is established between the server and the client, and a key is negotiated between them. And then, all data is encrypted with the key and sent over.

How does the HTTPS protocol work?

When we type a URL in the browser, our browser sends a request to connect to the server. When a server supports HTTPS, it generates a public-private key pair and keeps the keys with itself. Later, whenever it gets a connection request from a client, it sends the public key of the key pair to the client.

The client receives the public key of the server and verifies the authenticity of the server’s public key with a Certificate Authority. This step is done so that someone malicious cannot forge the public key of the server and send its public key instead.

After the public key is verified, it is time for the server and the client to negotiate a symmetric key using which they can encrypt the data and send it over. Using symmetric key encryption along with public key encryption ensures more performance and security (What is the difference between symmetric key encryption and public-key encryption?).

Here, the server and the client use the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange Algorithm (How does the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange Algorithm work ?) to make sure a symmetric key is negotiated between the server and the client, yet the key itself is never communicated directly between them. They use some mathematical formula instead to derive the key.

Once the symmetric key is derived, the next job is simple. Whenever any data is communicated between the …

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Amrita Mitra

Author

Ms. Amrita Mitra is an author, who has authored the books “Cryptography And Public Key Infrastructure“, “Web Application Vulnerabilities And Prevention“, “A Guide To Cyber Security” and “Phishing: Detection, Analysis And Prevention“. She is also the founder of Asigosec Technologies, the company that owns The Security Buddy.

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