Hey guys,
The difference between proxy/flow-based and the SSL inspection profile is confusing me a lot even after a discussion with Claude and Open AI.
SSL Inspection Profile = tells FortiGate how to handle TLS/SSL encryption.
- Certificate inspection = FortiGate only reads the certificate and packet header. Checks: is the certificate legitimate? Is it revoked? Who issued it? Does the domain match? No decryption of actual traffic content.
- Full SSL inspection = FortiGate acts as a man-in-the-middle. Decrypts traffic, inspects content, re-encrypts, forwards. Creates 2 TLS sessions (client↔FortiGate and FortiGate↔server) so it can see inside the encrypted tunnel.
Proxy/Flow = tell