Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

You can use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to provide a security infrastructure that protects AppServer communications both on the Internet and the intranet. SSL provides data privacy over network connections and authentication between clients and servers on those connections using elements of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). These elements include private and public keys that the clients and servers use to authenticate each other and to set up data encryption and decryption services between the initiator of the communications (SSL client) and the responder (SSL server). The server is identified by the private key that it stores and the client is identified as a valid SSL client for that server by the public key that it stores and provides to the server. SSL clients gain access to public keys using digital (public key) certificates provided by a trusted certificate authority (CA) that also provides the private key confidentially to the SSL server.

SSL is both application and transport independent. For the AppServer, OpenEdge supports SSL in two basic transport contexts:

For more information on SSL and how it uses private and public keys and public key certificates to handle security tasks in these contexts, see OpenEdge Getting Started: Core Business Services - Security and Auditing.