Securing web traffic with HTTPS

HTTP is a non-secure protocol commonly used to communicate over the Web. The traffic is transferred in plain text form and can be captured and interpreted by a third-party attacker. Transport Layer Security and Secure Socket Layer protocols (TLS/SSL) can be used to secure the traffic between client and server. These protocols encapsulate normal traffic in an encrypted and secure wrapper. It also validates the identity of the client and server with SSL keys, certificates, and certification authorities.

When HTTP is combined with TLS or SSL, it is abbreviated as HTTPS or HTTP secure. Port 443 is used as a standard port for secured HTTP communication. Nearly all leading web servers provide inbuilt support for enabling ...

Get Linux: Powerful Server Administration now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.