Example Inline SSL Decryption

Refer to Figure 1 for an example of inline SSL decryption.

Figure 90

Inline SSL Decryption Example, Outbound

Use case for inline SSL decryption:

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Clients in internal network

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Servers on the Internet

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Organization does not have the private key of the server

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Diffie-Hellman and Perfect Forward Secrecy is being used

Figure 1 shows the inline SSL decryption solution with the client and GigaVUE node within an enterprise. The server, in the top left of the figure, resides on the Internet. This is an example of an outbound deployment.

The client is on the lower left of the figure. The client is a user who is, for example, using a browser to go to a website on the Internet, such as a bank or a search engine. The traffic from the user could be encrypted or it might not be encrypted. For example, the user might be going to a bank website using the HTTPS protocol or going to a search engine website using the HTTP protocol. The solid line from the user to the GigaVUE node represents encrypted traffic, but there might also be traffic from the user that is not encrypted. Traffic that is not encrypted can either be bypassed or it can go to tools for inspection.

In Figure 1, instead of the user interacting directly with the server at the top left, the GigaVUE node is placed in the middle. Thus, the GigaVUE node intercepts the client/server session.

In the GigaVUE node, encrypted packets are identified, then filtered. Selected packets are decrypted and sent to tools for inspection. The dotted lines represent decrypted packets. Packets are decrypted once, then the same decrypted packets can be sent to inline tools and/or out-of-band tools connected to the GigaVUE node.

The traffic from the inline tools is returned to the GigaVUE node to be re-encrypted and then sent to the destination on the Internet, for example, the website that the user is visiting. The solid line to the server represents traffic that has been re-encrypted in the GigaVUE node.