# What changed between TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3?

TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446, 2018) is faster and removes the weak options behind most past TLS attacks. It completes the handshake in one round trip instead of two. It keeps only key exchanges with forward secrecy, so recording traffic and later stealing the server's private key no longer decrypts past sessions. It drops old ciphers and modes such as RC4, 3DES, CBC-mode suites and static RSA key exchange, leaving a short list of modern authenticated ciphers. And it encrypts more of the handshake, including the server certificate. For monitoring, two consequences follow. A passive device can no longer decrypt sessions with a copy of the server's private key, so inspection now requires an active interception proxy. And less is visible in clear: the certificate is hidden, while the hello messages, the chosen group and the server name, unless Encrypted Client Hello is used, remain visible. Prefer TLS 1.3 everywhere, and keep TLS 1.2 only with strong cipher suites for older clients.

FAQ: [Encryption and encrypted traffic](https://netsenx.com/en/faq/encryption) · https://netsenx.com/en/faq/what-changed-between-tls-1-2-and-tls-1-3

## Read next

- https://netsenx.com/en/encrypted-traffic-analysis
- https://netsenx.com/en/what-is-ndr

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