RFC 2246 (rfc2246) - Page 3 of 80

The TLS Protocol Version 1

Alternative Format: Original Text Document


RFC 2246              The TLS Protocol Version 1.0          January 1999


   D.       Implementation Notes                                     64
   D.1.     Temporary RSA keys                                       64
   D.2.     Random Number Generation and Seeding                     64
   D.3.     Certificates and authentication                          65
   D.4.     CipherSuites                                             65
   E.       Backward Compatibility With SSL                          66
   E.1.     Version 2 client hello                                   67
   E.2.     Avoiding man-in-the-middle version rollback              68
   F.       Security analysis                                        69
   F.1.     Handshake protocol                                       69
   F.1.1.   Authentication and key exchange                          69
   F.1.1.1. Anonymous key exchange                                   69
   F.1.1.2. RSA key exchange and authentication                      70
   F.1.1.3. Diffie-Hellman key exchange with authentication          71
   F.1.2.   Version rollback attacks                                 71
   F.1.3.   Detecting attacks against the handshake protocol         72
   F.1.4.   Resuming sessions                                        72
   F.1.5.   MD5 and SHA                                              72
   F.2.     Protecting application data                              72
   F.3.     Final notes                                              73
   G.       Patent Statement                                         74
            Security Considerations                                  75
            References                                               75
            Credits                                                  77
            Comments                                                 78
            Full Copyright Statement                                 80

1. Introduction

   The primary goal of the TLS Protocol is to provide privacy and data
   integrity between two communicating applications. The protocol is
   composed of two layers: the TLS Record Protocol and the TLS Handshake
   Protocol. At the lowest level, layered on top of some reliable
   transport protocol (e.g., TCP[TCP]), is the TLS Record Protocol. The
   TLS Record Protocol provides connection security that has two basic
   properties:

     - The connection is private. Symmetric cryptography is used for
       data encryption (e.g., DES [DES], RC4 [RC4], etc.) The keys for
       this symmetric encryption are generated uniquely for each
       connection and are based on a secret negotiated by another
       protocol (such as the TLS Handshake Protocol). The Record
       Protocol can also be used without encryption.

     - The connection is reliable. Message transport includes a message
       integrity check using a keyed MAC. Secure hash functions (e.g.,
       SHA, MD5, etc.) are used for MAC computations. The Record
       Protocol can operate without a MAC, but is generally only used in



Dierks & Allen              Standards Track

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