SSL Inspection and SSL Bumping are techniques used by network security devices (like firewalls, proxies, and intrusion detection/prevention systems) to monitor and filter HTTPS traffic. Both are designed to break the encryption of SSL/TLS to inspect the content of encrypted communication, but they differ in how they accomplish this and the impact they have on the communication. The key difference between SSL inspection and SSL bumping lies in how they handle server certificates.
SSL Inspection: Does not Mimic
- Focuses on decrypting and analyzing the content of the HTTPS traffic.
- Doesn't replace the server's certificate with its own.
- Relies on pre-installed trusted certificates on client devices for the initial secure connection.
- Browsers don't raise any warnings because they see a valid certificate chain from a trusted CA.
- Primarily used to gain access to the encrypted data for inspection within a proxy environment.
- Replaces the server's certificate with a self-signed certificate issued by the proxy server itself.
- This disrupts the standard trust chain as the client device doesn't have the proxy's certificate pre-installed as trusted.
- Browsers typically display security warnings due to the untrusted certificate, alerting users to a potential security risk.
Choosing the Right Method:
SSL Inspection: Preferred for security analysis when a deeper look at encrypted traffic is needed (e.g., malware scanning, data filtering). It offers a more secure approach with trusted certificates.
SSL Bumping: Generally discouraged due to security risks and potential website breakage due to certificate pinning. It might be used in specific, controlled environments with user awareness and on a closed network.
