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ramunas
Explorer
September 14, 2015
Question

How SSL inspection works?

  • September 14, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 7445 views

Hello,

till now I was sure that there are 2 possible modes: 1) certificate inspection (inspects the SSL handshake only) and 2) deep inspection (FG terminate SSL session from WAN side and encrypts packets with FG certificate towards LAN side). Today I'm reading "..Normally Fortigate is used for SSL inspection. It decrypts a copy of a packet in order to scan it, but doesn't actually terminate the SSL session. Instead, it passes along the encrypted packet (if it doesn't violate the security policies)..." - training material "FortiWEB Integrating Front-End SNAT & Load Balancers" page 15.

Hmm... Something new? I'm missed something? A mistake in the material? A new feature which will be in 5.4?  ???

What do you think?

 

BR, Ramunas

    2 replies

    ede_pfau
    SuperUser
    SuperUser
    September 14, 2015

    Hmmm...specific to FortiWeb? This description does not have to apply to a Fortigate.

    ramunas
    ramunasAuthor
    Explorer
    September 15, 2015

    It was talked about FortiGate. The topic is "Should you use FortiWEB or FortiGate for SSL offloading?". May be it is mistake. If I understand correctly, the "man in the middle" can't decrypt SSL traffic (at least without supercomputer)

    BR, Ramunas