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
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