JackSparrow414

Understanding HTTPS / TLS / SSL

Core concepts, self-signed certificates, TLS handshakes, and decrypting traffic.

2 posts · In reading order

  1. Understanding HTTPS, TLS, and SSL (Part 1): Core Concepts and Local Self-Signed Certificates

    I frequently encounter HTTPS, TLS, and SSL. After reading a few articles, I thought I understood them, but troubleshooting showed that I barely knew the basics. This post fills in that foundational knowledge without going deeply into interpreting the various standards.

  2. Understanding HTTPS, TLS, and SSL (Part 2): Visualizing the TLS Handshake and Decrypting Traffic

    After generating a self-signed certificate locally and configuring the browser to trust it, HTTPS hides request and response contents from Wireshark. Because I tended to forget the handshake analyses I had read, I decided to capture traffic myself and inspect the entire process.