Re: [TLS] Asking the browser for a different certificate

[Marsh Ray <[e-mail]>]

On 3/29/2010 2:36 PM, Kyle Hamilton wrote:
> Of course, requiring the client to identify itself before proceeding
> with a handshake... that's something I wish that TLS provided for.

That should be supported by the TLS protocol, although you will need the
TLS library to call back into your code to give you a chance to abort
the handshake.

Nothing prevents you from defining an application protocol which assigns
the roles of TLS client and TLS server opposite from the underlying
transport layer. E.g., client makes a TCP connection to server, then the
TCP server sends a Client Hello to the TCP client. Once that connection
was established you could renegotiate to get mutual authentication.

You might have the client send a little initial hint if you want session
resumption to work in the usual direction. That's not part of TLS, but
it's not much different than using starttls in the middle of some other
protocol.

- Marsh