enable-tls-between-clients-and-servers: what variable to check

[dveeden]

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[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @dveeden, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request enhances the documentation for enabling TLS between clients and servers. It provides a clear instruction on how to confirm that a connection is secure by checking the Ssl_cipher status variable, ensuring users can easily validate their TLS setup.

Highlights

• Documentation Update: Added a clarification to the enable-tls-between-clients-and-servers.md document, specifying how users can verify a secure connection by checking the Ssl_cipher variable.

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request adds a helpful clarification on how to verify a secure connection by checking the Ssl_cipher variable. My review includes a minor suggestion to rephrase the added sentence to better align with the documentation style guide, specifically regarding the use of the second person.

[dveeden]

@Oreoxmt @qiancai I think things like "Check whether the current connection uses encryption" might need to be changed to "Check whether the current connection is secure" or "Check whether the current connection uses TLS".

This is because TLS does more than just encryption:

• Authentication of the server
• Authentication of the client (optional, aka mTLS)
• Encryption of the connection
• Integrity protection
• Negotiation of algorithms

However, a UNIX socket connection is also considered secure, so either we should include that or make this specific to TLS or say something like "secure network connection" (UNIX sockets are not network connections).

What do you think?

[qiancai]

@Oreoxmt @qiancai I think things like "Check whether the current connection uses encryption" might need to be changed to "Check whether the current connection is secure" or "Check whether the current connection uses TLS".

This is because TLS does more than just encryption:

• Authentication of the server
• Authentication of the client (optional, aka mTLS)
• Encryption of the connection
• Integrity protection
• Negotiation of algorithms

However, a UNIX socket connection is also considered secure, so either we should include that or make this specific to TLS or say something like "secure network connection" (UNIX sockets are not network connections).

What do you think?

Hi @dveeden, thanks a lot for the suggestion. Yes, “Check whether the current connection uses TLS” is more accurate in the context of SHOW STATUS LIKE "%Ssl%";.