0
votes

In HTTPS (SSL) browser send the encrypted data which can be Decrypted by server only.

To confirm it, i did set up the burp proxy on my Firefox browser so that it intercepts the request sent to HTTPS server by browser . When i receive it at burp, i see the data as entered by user though i was expecting browser must have encrypted that but did not.

So at what point of time browser encrypt data over HTTPS ?

1

1 Answers

3
votes

Most pieces of software that do this (e.g. Anti-virus scanners) replace the https certificate with their own so the https traffic can be man-in-the-middled by the software.

While I'm not familiar with Burp, it looks like it does the same: https://portswigger.net/burp/help/proxy_using.html

So instead of

browser --(via https)--> server

Which only the server could read as only the server has the private key to decrypt the http so, it becomes:

browser --(via https)--> burp -- (via https)--> server

If you look at the https cert in your browser you'll probably notice it's been issued by Burp rather than being the real cert that the site shows when not using Burp.

This is the only real way of doing this, without majorly changing the browser to intercept it before the encryption happens, but can create its own problems: Should software really intercept traffic between you and your bank? What if that first connection can be compromised (see the Lenovo superfish incident for example). Many people (myself included) dislike MITM https services for this reason.