Description

This article is from the Secure Sockets Layer Discussion List FAQ, by Shannon Appel SAppel@consensus.com with numerous contributions by others.

7.2.5) How does the data flow within the application, WinSock, SSL, TCP/IP stack layers?

The short answer is that you insert SSL Plus between your I/O and
your application code.

Basically, you call SSL Plus instead of your read and write. SSL
Plus does its stuff and calls your callback code to do the I/O. Data
comes through your I/O routines, through SSL Plus, and then finally
to your application. SSL Plus only manages the data flowing through
the connection; it does not handle setting up and tearing down the
underlying network connection; your application should open the
network connection, then hand it off to SSL Plus for SSL handshaking
and data transfer. (This step is not shown in the diagram).

Normal:

         -------------
        | Application |
         -------------
             ^
             | I/O Calls
             v
         -------------
        | WinSock     |
         -------------
             ^
             | TCP Calls
             v
         -------------
        | Internet    |
         -------------

SSL Plus:

         -------------
        | Application |
         -------------
             ^
             | SSL I/O Calls
             v
         -------------     I/O Callbacks   --------------------
        | SSL Plus    | <---------------->| Your Callback Code |
         -------------                     --------------------
                                                    ^
                                                    | I/O Calls
                                                    v
                                               -------------
                                              | WinSock     |
                                               -------------
                                                    ^
                                                    | TCP Calls
                                                    v
                                               -------------
                                              | Internet    |
                                               -------------

 

Continue to:

• prev: 7.2.4) Is there any relationship between SSL Plus and Winsock 1.1 or Winsock 2.0?...
• Index
• next: 7.2.6) With the WinSock 2.0 architecture, the application need only chose an appropriate SSL-enabled service provider. Does SSL Plus support this?

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security, SSL, Secure Sockets Layer, protocol