User's Manual

SSL and TLS in an Oracle Environment
Configuring Secure Sockets Layer Authentication 7-3
About Using SSL
Oracle Advanced Security supports authentication by using digital certificates over
SSL in addition to the native encryption and data integrity capabilities of these
protocols.
By using Oracle Advanced Security SSL functionality to secure communications
between clients and servers, you can
■ Use SSL to encrypt the connection between clients and servers
■ Authenticate any client or server, such as Oracle Application Server 10g, to any
Oracle database server that is configured to communicate over SSL
You can use SSL features by themselves or in combination with other authentication
methods supported by Oracle Advanced Security. For example, you can use the
encryption provided by SSL in combination with the authentication provided by
Kerberos. SSL supports any of the following authentication modes:
■ Only the server authenticates itself to the client
■ Both client and server authenticate themselves to each other
■ Neither the client nor the server authenticates itself to the other, thus using the
SSL encryption feature by itself
See Also:
■ The SSL Protocol, Version 3.0, published by the Internet
Engineering Task Force, for a more detailed discussion of SSL
■ Chapter 1, "Introduction to Oracle Advanced Security", for
more information about authentication methods