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I know this is not a specific question, but I'm reading about this subject for about an hour and can't find any BASIC information about it?

How does SSL work? What's a private and public key? Why do you have to buy a certificate at a company and what's the difference between signing one yourself? What is such certificate anyway?

I've read several websites, the wikipedia info, other threads on Stack Overflow, but it's very confusing. It seems nobody can explain the BASICS with a simple example. I have to write a small text about the basics of SSL, but everything is very confusing.

First I read a lot of info about public and private keys in SSL, then the next site tells me SSL doesn't use this, but uses a symmetric key (how does this work?)

If anyone got a link to a website which explains the basic concepts of SSL, I would be very happy.

Thank you!

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See stackoverflow.com/questions/188266/… –  Zaki Mar 30 '11 at 13:27

2 Answers 2

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I wanted to know the same thing recently. I was pointed towards this podcast. I listened to it twice and it's sunk in.

Check out Security Now Espisode 195 (The SSL/TLS Protocol) at http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

It's not a quick answer but this podcast will give you a really good grounding.

Good luck.

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Try reading our introductory article (and some other articles in the same knowledgebase section). But in general it is important to know the basics of cryptography and some PKI before going for SSL. You can't start from scratch and understand SSL in an hour.

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