encryptionsslhttpswebserverserver-administration

Should all sites use SSL by default?


We are in the process of moving our web architecture to a new environment. Included are dozens of different sites ranging from almost completely static to dynamic sites requiring authentication and containing sensitive content. Our web server admins have (without any input from the development team) decided to make it a standard in the new environment to force SSL for everything. I do not agree with this decision and would like to have as much knowledge as possible when I sit down to discuss it. Here's what I have so far:

I do not have an issue with forcing SSL when users are authenticating or they are requesting sensitive data. However, I think forcing SSL by default on all sites is a bit much.


Solution

  • SSL can inhibit network-level caching. There are workarounds to this but it can mean that multiple computers in the same network have to re-download page resources. This can increase network load at both ends. Browser-level caching is not an issue in modern browsers.

    SSL complicates usage of so-called "virtual domains". Traditionally in order to form a SSL connection the browser and server need to be working to the same domain name. This made it impossible to host more than one SSL certificate on a single IP because the server would respond with the wrong certificate. The implementations of Server Name Indication (an extension to the TLS protocol that SSL uses) has fixed many of the problems with this.

    On pure performance, the symmetric encryption and integrity check on tunneled data is not very expensive; if your server cannot encrypt and decrypt at network speed, then either you have God's own optic fiber, or you should think about replacing those i486. However, the initiation of a SSL connection, known as "handshake", is a bit more expensive, and may imply a performance bottleneck on heavy loads (when there are hundreds of connections per second, or more). Fortunately, a given browser instance will reuse tunnels and SSL sessions, hence this is not a problem if you have only a few dozen users.

    Overall, putting SSL everywhere looks like a way to get a "warm fuzzy feeling" on security. This is not good. This usually means that by concentrating on the irrelevant, administrators will be more likely to disregard actual security issues. They will also make the system more complex to maintain, making it more difficult to diagnose and correct problems. Note that from the administrators point of view, this makes their job more secure, since it increases the cost of firing them and replacing them.