Schannel supports versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. This protocol is an industry standard designed to protect the privacy of information communicated over the Internet. TLS assumes that a connection-oriented transport, typically TCP, is in use. The TLS protocol allows client/server applications to detect the following security risks:

• Message tampering
• Message interception
• Message forgery

The full specification of the TLS Protocol is available from the IETF Web site: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2246.txt.

Organization of TLS

The following steps are involved in using TLS for client/server communication:

To use TLS for client/server communication

1. Handshake and cipher suite negotiation
2. Authentication of parties
3. Key-related information exchange
4. Application data exchange

The steps that make up TLS are divided into two protocols that, together, provide connection security:

• TLS Handshake Protocol— (steps 1 – 3)
• TLS Record Protocol— (step 4)

See Also

TLS Cipher Suites

TLS vs. SSL

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Build date: 10/15/2009