What is difference between SSL and TLS?

What does TLS mean in?

In the world of cryptography, a protocol is a set of rules that tells the computers how to interact.

The computer or software that implements a protocol is called a protocol stack. If you have a web browser, you probably use a protocol stack to communicate with web servers, file servers and all kinds of websites. A protocol stack is usually an application layer protocol, meaning that the communication happens above the transport level.

On the internet, most of the traffic uses TCP/IP, but there are many other protocols used for different purposes. TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a common protocol used for secure communications. The standard protocol is layered, meaning that it has multiple layers that work together. In the following diagram, we can see how TLS works:

TLS means Transport Layer Security, and TLS is a protocol to protect the data sent over the network. TLS is used to protect traffic such as web browsing, online banking, and email. It allows the sender and receiver to agree on a method of encryption and a key that will be used to encrypt the information. Once the connection is established, the first step is to authenticate the two parties and ensure that they are who they say they are.

In the following section, we will discuss TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2.

TLS 1.0 is the first version of the TLS protocol. It was developed in the early 90's, and was designed to replace SSL 3. In terms of security, TLS 1.0 is much worse than TLS 1.1 or 1. For example, TLS 1.0 does not use any authentication, and it can be easily broken by eavesdroppers.

As mentioned above, TLS 1.0 is much weaker than TLS 1.1 and 1. It can be broken by an eavesdropper. The following video shows how weak TLS 1.0 is:
TLS 1.1 was developed to fix some of the problems in TLS 1. For example, it added authentication methods that are much stronger than the no-authentication method in TLS 1. It also fixes some problems with packet loss.

As the name implies, TLS 1.1 adds new features to TLS 1.

What is difference between SSL and TLS?

If I remember correctly, an SSL connection is a handshake between the server and the client in which two-way encryption occurs. Then the data goes through the encrypted handshake.

A TLS connection is a handshake between the server and the client in which one-way encryption occurs. Then the data goes through the decrypted handshake. This means that you need to have either a certificate or a certificate revocation list (CRL) for every device, unless you trust every device in the network.

The simple answer is, TLS is a superset of SSL. In a very simplified summary it defines how TLS works. If SSL and TLS were the same thing, nobody would write protocols other than TLS, and everyone would use TLS.

More complicated is the differences in implementations. For example there are some differences in key-exchange mechanisms.

What is TLS and how it works?

Last updated by jnk on October 22nd, 2024.

This section will explain what TLS is and what it does. This section also explains how TLS works at an API level: How TLS works at an API level. A basic understanding of HTTP is necessary for understanding TLS. Without that understanding, I feel we would not get the full understanding of TLS.

To see a good introduction to HTTP, you can watch my screencast on HTTP: Let's begin with the question What does TLS do? Here's a diagram. A basic explanation of how a secure tunnel works. You don't have to understand it in a technical way, but you should have some basic understanding. The bottom line: TLS uses a secure connection to send over an encrypted tunnel between two parties. In this diagram, HTTPS stands for HTTP over TLS:

At a protocol level, TLS is a cryptographic protocol which can be used in communication between a client and a server, but not all of them need to use TLS at the protocol level. A good explanation of encryption protocols is available here: For a good video on SSL/TLS, you can see this screencast: I hope the answer to the question What does TLS do? is quite self-explanatory now. Let's move on to the question How does TLS work at an API level? An API stands for application program interface. To see how API works, check out this article.

Here's a diagram of what happens in TLS. At a lower level: The browser sends an https request to the server The server sends back an https response, containing the content you requested. The important part: TLS is built into the top of the communication. What this means is that the client encrypts the data with a secret key (usually a certificate) and sends it over the network to the server which, in turn, decrypts the data using the same secret key. This process happens without having a single piece of data in an unencrypted state. For some additional details, you can have a look at this stackoverflow post.