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Global Accelerated Learning • Est. 1999
Glossary Term SSL Stripping

Training Camp • Cybersecurity Glossary

What is SSL Stripping?

SSL stripping is a man-in-the-middle attack that downgrades HTTPS to unencrypted HTTP so an attacker can read or alter traffic; HSTS defends against it.

Glossary > Network Security > SSL Stripping

Understanding SSL Stripping

SSL stripping is a man-in-the-middle attack that downgrades a victim's secure HTTPS connection to unencrypted HTTP, allowing the attacker to read and modify traffic in cleartext. The attacker intercepts the initial connection and serves an HTTP version of a site to the victim while maintaining an HTTPS connection to the real server, so the user is often unaware the encryption was removed. HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) and HTTPS-only browsing are the primary defenses against this attack.

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