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2017-11-17 |
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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a technology that encrypts traffic between the client application and the server application involved in the conversation. This encryption is accomplished through a public key/private key system using an SSL certificate. {:shortdesc}
The SSL certificate contains the server’s public key, dates for which the certificate is valid, a host name for which the certificate is valid and a signature from the Certification Authority which issued it. With this information and some protocol information exchanged during the beginning of a session, the client can be reasonably certain that the server is the one to which it is intending to talk.
For more information about SSL certificates, see Getting started with SSL certificates.