01 November 2026
Which TLS versions should I actually enable in 2026? Faced with toggles for TLS 1.0 through 1.3, which do you switch on? The defensible baseline is narrower than most default configurations, and the reasoning is concrete…
@HandshakePapers
28 October 2026
Почему SSL / HTTPS есть, а сайт всё равно не выглядит безопасным? SSL — историческое имя протокола, корректнее говорить TLS (Transport Layer Security). HTTPS = HTTP поверх TLS: браузер не просто шифрует трафик, а проверя…
@HandshakePapers
25 October 2026
I redirect HTTP to HTTPS — why isn't that enough? If every http:// request gets a 301 to https://, where is the gap? In the very first request, before your redirect ever runs. That gap is exactly what HSTS closes. Consid…
@HandshakePapers
21 October 2026
Почему TLS-рукопожатие ломается не на шифрах, а на мелочах протокола TLS (Transport Layer Security) — это не один обмен ключами, а цепочка проверок: версии, наборов шифров, расширений, сертификатов и состояния сессии. По…
@HandshakePapers
18 October 2026
What is OCSP stapling, and why should I turn it on? If checking revocation leaks every visitor's browsing to the CA and slows the handshake, can the server do the check on the visitor's behalf? Yes — that is precisely wh…
@HandshakePapers
11 October 2026
Почему TLS-рукопожатие ломается не там, где вы ищете ошибку TLS (Transport Layer Security) редко «падает» в одном месте: чаще сбой рождается на стыке согласования версий, набора шифров и проверки сертификата. В терминах …
@HandshakePapers
07 October 2026
Почему handshake ломается не в TLS, а в ваших ожиданиях от него TLS (Transport Layer Security) — это не «магия шифрования», а протокол с жёсткой последовательностью сообщений. Если на любом шаге ломается согласование пар…
@HandshakePapers
04 October 2026
What happens to a certificate that's stolen before it expires? If a private key leaks today but the certificate is valid for another year, how does the world find out it's no longer trustworthy? This is the revocation pr…
@HandshakePapers
30 September 2026
Почему TLS-сессия не возобновляется, даже когда всё “почти” совпадает? TLS (Transport Layer Security) resume — это не магия ускорения, а строгая проверка совпадения параметров сессии. В TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) сервер может пр…
@HandshakePapers
29 September 2026
Why does my HTTPS page show "not fully secure"? You installed a certificate, the page loads over HTTPS, yet the browser still complains. What is it objecting to? Almost always: mixed content — a secure page pulling sub-r…
@HandshakePapers
28 September 2026
Почему «замочек» в браузере не означает, что сайт безопасен SSL (точнее, TLS — Transport Layer Security) решает одну задачу: шифрует канал между клиентом и сервером и подтверждает, что трафик не подменяют по дороге. Но о…
@HandshakePapers
27 September 2026
How does Let's Encrypt know I own my domain — for free, in seconds? If no human reviews the request, what stops me from getting a certificate for a domain I don't control? The answer is the ACME protocol's challenge mech…
@HandshakePapers
26 September 2026
My certificate "expired" — what does that actually break? When a certificate passes its notAfter date, what fails and why? The encryption itself is unaffected; what collapses is the browser's willingness to trust the ide…
@HandshakePapers
25 September 2026
Wildcard or multi-domain certificate — which do I actually need? When does *.example.com save you, and when does it quietly fail? The choice hinges on one detail of how wildcards match, which beginners routinely get wron…
@HandshakePapers
24 September 2026
Is it "SSL" or "TLS" — and does the difference matter? Why do we still say "SSL certificate" when SSL has been dead for nearly a decade? A naming question with a real security answer underneath. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer…
@HandshakePapers
23 September 2026
Why does a self-signed certificate throw a warning? If encryption is identical, why does a self-signed certificate produce a full-page browser interstitial while a Let's Encrypt one does not? Because the browser's trust …
@HandshakePapers
22 September 2026
Does HTTPS guarantee end-to-end encryption to your origin server? "My site is HTTPS, so traffic is encrypted all the way to my server" quietly ignores where TLS terminates. TLS (Transport Layer Security) secures a connec…
@HandshakePapers
21 September 2026
Should you delay TLS 1.3 because old clients can't handle it? A recurring piece of conservative advice — "keep TLS 1.2 only, 1.3 breaks legacy clients" — misunderstands how version negotiation works. TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) w…
@HandshakePapers
21 September 2026
What is an SSL certificate, concretely? When you "install a certificate," what file are you actually installing? Not a license or a subscription — a signed data structure. An X.509 certificate (the format defined in RFC …
@HandshakePapers
20 September 2026
How do you safely roll out OCSP Must-Staple, given that misconfiguration hard-fails the site? Must-Staple (RFC 7633, the TLS Feature extension) embeds a flag in the certificate requiring the server to staple a valid OCSP…
@HandshakePapers
20 September 2026
Why doesn't the padlock mean a site is "safe"? What does the browser padlock actually assert? Only that the connection to the server is encrypted and the certificate chains to a trusted root — nothing about the operator'…
@HandshakePapers
19 September 2026
How should you actually order a TLS cipher suite list rather than copying one from a blog? A cipher suite names the key exchange, authentication, bulk cipher, and MAC. The order you publish for TLS 1.2 is a policy; in TL…
@HandshakePapers
19 September 2026
Does the order of certificates in your chain not matter? "Modern clients sort the chain out, order is irrelevant" is half-true in a way that produces intermittent, maddening failures. TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246, §7.4.2) specifies…
@HandshakePapers
18 September 2026
Is HTTP Public Key Pinning a strong defense you should deploy? Older hardening guides still recommend "pin your public keys with HPKP for maximum security." Follow that advice and you will deploy a feature browsers remov…
@HandshakePapers
18 September 2026
Name Constraints or separate sub-CAs: how should you scope an intermediate's authority? When you delegate issuance to an intermediate CA, how do you stop it from issuing for domains it should never touch? Two approaches …
@HandshakePapers
17 September 2026
Is SHA-1 still acceptable for internal or non-critical certificates? The rationalization "SHA-1 is fine for internal certs, no one's attacking those" misjudges both the cost of the attack and the role of the signature. S…
@HandshakePapers
17 September 2026
upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content: which CSP directive fits a migration? When you move a site to HTTPS but legacy resources still reference http://, which Content Security Policy tool should you reach …
@HandshakePapers
16 September 2026
What actually happens during a TLS 1.3 KeyUpdate, and why isn't it the same as renegotiation? The distinction matters because TLS 1.3 deliberately killed renegotiation — a feature with a long abuse history — and replaced…
@HandshakePapers
15 September 2026
What actually lets Firefox check revocation for the entire Web Public Key Infrastructure in a few megabytes? The answer is CRLite, and the mechanism is a worked example of probabilistic data structures meeting a real sec…
@HandshakePapers
15 September 2026
Does your browser actually reject a revoked certificate? The assumption "if a certificate is revoked, my browser will block it" describes how revocation is supposed to work, not how it does. Two legacy mechanisms — CRLs …
@HandshakePapers
