1. SSL Handshake: Symmetric Encryption a. Client Hello b. Server Hello c. Server sends its certificate and requests certificate from client. Server also sends its asymmetric public key d. If certificate was requested by client, client sends it to the server. f. Client Key Exchange Message: Client protocol version (prevents rollback attacks), Pre-master secret which is encrypted using server's asymmetric public key. Pre-master secret is 48-byte client-generated number. g. Server receives the Pre-Master Secret. Server and client compute the master secret locally and derive the session keys from it. h. Client sends "Change cipher spec" notification to server to indicate that the client will start using new session keys for hashing and encrypting messages. Client also sends "Client Finished" message. i. Server receives "Change cipher spec" notification from client and switches its record layer security state to symmetric encryption using the session keys. Server sends "Server Finished" message to the client. 2. SSL Certificate: Asymmetric Encryption More detail goes into this answer. But the above answer is a sign that you know something.