
If there are some SSL failures during connection establishment, analyzing the above messages is a good starting point.Īlthough we’ll not discuss these messages in detail, it’s important to realize that these messages are part of the TCP data packets. Finished – Sent by both the client and the server to indicate successful authentication and key exchange.This indicates successful authentication of the client’s certificate. Certificate Verify – Originated by the server.It then sends the master secret to exchange the encryption algorithm with the server. It generates a pre-master secret and encrypts it with the server’s public certificate. Client Key Exchange – Originated by the client.Client sends its certificate chain to the server. Client Certificate – Returned by the client in response to Client Request.Server Hello Done – Originated by the server.

This message is only sent if the server also needs to authenticate the client, as is the case in two-way SSL.

It contains the protocol version, cipher suites supported by the client, and a secured random number. Client Hello – Originated by the client.Let’s quickly go through the messages that the client and server exchange during the SSL handshake:
