Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Re: SSL
From: Eric Rescorla <ekr () rtfm com>
Date: 18 Oct 2001 09:33:51 -0700
Frederick M Avolio <fred () avolio com> writes:
At 08:18 AM 10/16/01 -0400, Crumrine, Gary L wrote:... If I allow SSL outbound, and a user browses a web site that is corrupt with something harmful like NIMDA, is it possible that they will infect my network...Yes. The firewall cannot examine it because the data is encrypted. SSL "proxies" are just circuit gateways. I know of no firewall that has a true SSL proxy wherein the data is encrypted between the firewall and the client, and the firewall and the server, but is in cleartext on the firewall. It is possible to do, but few customers (Paul Roberson) ask for it.
It's only possible to do this if the client cooperates. Otherwise, it gets blocked by the same mechanisms that stop a man-in-the-middle attack on SSL. -Ekr _______________________________________________ firewall-wizards mailing list firewall-wizards () nfr com http://list.nfr.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
