Question 1

What TLS version should my server use?

Accepted Answer

You should support TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3. TLS 1.3 is the latest and most secure version, offering improved performance through 0-RTT handshakes and stronger cipher suites. TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 are deprecated and should be disabled immediately — they are vulnerable to BEAST, POODLE, and other attacks.

Question 2

How do I upgrade my server to TLS 1.3?

Accepted Answer

For Nginx: set ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; For Apache: SSLProtocol all -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1. Ensure your OpenSSL version is 1.1.1 or later. On cloud services like Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, or Azure CDN, you can configure the minimum TLS version in the control panel.

Question 3

What are cipher suites?

Accepted Answer

Cipher suites are sets of cryptographic algorithms used during the TLS handshake to establish a secure connection. A cipher suite specifies the key exchange algorithm, the bulk encryption algorithm, and the message authentication code (MAC). TLS 1.3 simplified this by removing weak options — it only supports five cipher suites, all of which are considered secure.

Question 4

What is a TLS handshake?

Accepted Answer

The TLS handshake is the process by which a client and server establish a secure connection. It includes version negotiation, certificate exchange, key exchange, and cipher suite selection. TLS 1.3 reduced the handshake to 1-RTT (round trip) versus TLS 1.2's 2-RTT, making it significantly faster.

Question 5

What is the difference between TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3?

Accepted Answer

TLS 1.3 is faster (1-RTT handshake vs 2-RTT), supports only 5 secure cipher suites (removing outdated ones), uses forward secrecy by default, and encrypts more of the handshake. It removes RSA key exchange, making all connections use Diffie-Hellman. TLS 1.2 is still widely used and secure when configured properly, but TLS 1.3 is the recommended standard.

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