Attacks on SSL
One of the many functions of SSL is providing for encrypted communications. Many attacks on SSL are designed to break the encryption by discovering the secret key used. Remember that SSL uses symmetric key cryptography to provide encryption. This basically means that the client and server each share the same secret key that is used to both encrypt and decrypt the communications. If an attacker can discover this secret, he can decrypt the communications.
The way that this symmetric key is generated is important. In a basic sense, combining a random number with some mathematical computation might generate the secret key. The computation will remain the same and should produce a secret key that cannot be easily deduced. Because an ...
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