Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] Seeing the data sent through ssl comunication

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From: "Lars Ruoff" <Lars.Ruoff@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 16:30:03 +0200
> How do you exactly decode ssl in order to see the application data sent?
>
> I am capturing the traffic between my browser and my web server but I
cannot
> see the data sent using ssl.
>
> I have tried to use "tools/Decode as.." but it doesn't seem to work at
all.
> I still see application data as an unredable junk.
>

I'm not an expert about encryption in general and SSL in particular, but...
isn't the whole thing about encrypted data transfer just *that* those evil
sniffing people always see the application data as an unredable junk? ;)

SSL is based on a public/private key encryption scheme. You (with the help
of Ethereal) shouldn't be able to decypher the contents unless you know the
*private* keys (which of course are *not* exchanged in the transaction, so
you dont have this info in the capture file).

If there were means of seeing the application data in clear by just using
Ethereal, i would seriously consider stopping all e-commerce activities! :)

regards,
Lars Ruoff