Asymmetric algorithms are used for which of the following when using Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) for implementing network security?

Asymmetric algorithms such as RSA or ECDSA are used during the SSL/TLS handshake to authenticate peers via digital certificates, where the server (and optionally the client) proves its identity using a public/private key pair. The asymmetric operation is computationally expensive and therefore limited to the handshake phase for authentication and session key negotiation, not for ongoing data transfer. Once authentication is complete, a symmetric session key is derived and used for the remainder of the communication.

Payload data encryption in SSL/TLS is performed by symmetric algorithms (e.g., AES), not asymmetric ones, because symmetric ciphers are far more efficient for encrypting large volumes of data.

Session encryption uses symmetric algorithms such as AES negotiated during the handshake; asymmetric algorithms are too slow and resource-intensive to encrypt an entire session's traffic.

Hashing digests in SSL/TLS are produced by cryptographic hash functions such as SHA-256, which are neither asymmetric nor symmetric algorithms but belong to a separate category of one-way hash functions.