SSL Settings

This section describes how to set your SSL preferences and ciphers.

In this section:

Privacy & Security Preferences - SSL

Edit Ciphers

 


Privacy & Security Preferences - SSL

This section describes how to use the SSL preferences panel. If you are not already viewing the panel, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Edit menu (Mozilla menu on Mac OS X) and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Privacy & Security category, click SSL. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list.)

In this section:

SSL Protocol Versions

SSL Warnings

 

SSL Protocol Versions

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol defines rules governing mutual authentication between a web site and browser software and the encryption of information that flows between them. The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is an IETF standard based on SSL. TLS 1.0 can be thought of as SSL 3.1.

You should normally leave these three checkboxes selected to ensure that both older and newer web servers can work with the browser:

To turn individual ciphers on or off, click the Edit Ciphers button:

Important note re TLS: Some servers that do not implement SSL correctly cannot negotiate the SSL handshake with client software (such as the browser) that supports TLS. Such servers are known as "TLS intolerant."

When the Enable TLS option in the SSL preferences panel is selected, the browser attempts to use the TLS protocol when making secure connections with a server. If that connection fails because the server is TLS intolerant, the browser will fall back to using SSL 3.0.

 

SSL Warnings

It's easy to tell when the web site you are viewing is using an encrypted connection. If the connection is encrypted, the lock icon in the lower-right corner of the Navigator window is locked. If the connection is not encrypted, the lock icon is unlocked.

If you want additional warnings, you can select one or more of the warning checkboxes in the SSL preferences panel. Some people find these warnings annoying.

To activate any of these Navigator warnings, select the corresponding checkbox:

For short definitions, click authentication, encryption, or certificate.


Edit Ciphers

This section describes how to use the Edit Ciphers dialog box. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Edit menu (Mozilla menu on Mac OS X) and choose Preferences.
  2. Under the Privacy & Security category, click SSL. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list.)
  3. Click the Edit Ciphers button.

The Edit Ciphers dialog box allows you to select or deselect ciphers, or cryptographic algorithms. Consult your system administrator before changing any of these settings.

Each checkbox corresponds to a cipher suite, or set of cryptographic algorithms.

For more information about ciphers and encryption, see the following online documents: