Cloud security solutions gain visibility into encrypted traffic by performing a trusted Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) interception, often called TLS/SSL Inspection or Decryption. The security solution acts as a proxy, terminating the TLS connection from the end-user's client. It then establishes a new, separate TLS connection to the destination web server. The solution decrypts, inspects the traffic for threats or policy violations, and then re-encrypts it using its own certificate before sending it to the client. For this process to be seamless and avoid browser errors, the client device must be configured to trust the security solution's root Certificate Authority (CA).

A. Forcing a weak encryption algorithm is a downgrade attack, not a legitimate or reliable inspection method used by enterprise security solutions.

B. Forcing insecure HTTP access is an attack known as SSL stripping, which is actively prevented by modern web standards like HSTS.

D. Government-issued universal decryption keys for standard, properly implemented ciphers do not exist; this contradicts the fundamental principles of public-key cryptography.

1. Durumeric

Z.

et al. (2017). The Security Impact of HTTPS Interception. Proceedings of the 2017 Internet Measurement Conference

pp. 4-5

Section 2.1. The paper states: "To intercept connections

middleboxes perform a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack on TLS connections

presenting a certificate signed by a local root CA to the client... the middlebox decrypts

inspects

and re-encrypts traffic before forwarding it to the destination."

(DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3131365.3131382)

2. Palo Alto Networks. (2023). PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide

Version 11.0: Decryption Concepts. Section: "SSL Forward Proxy Decryption." This official vendor documentation details the process: "The firewall intercepts the HTTPS request... and generates a certificate on the fly

signed by a certificate that the firewall holds... The client must trust the signing certificate on the firewall."

3. MIT OpenCourseWare. (2014). 6.858 Computer Systems Security

Fall 2014. Lecture 15: Network Security

Slide 28 ("Web proxies"). The lecture notes describe how a web proxy can intercept HTTPS traffic by terminating the SSL connection from the client and initiating a new one to the server

effectively performing a man-in-the-middle operation to inspect content.