What advantage would an attacker have in attacking a web server using the SSL protocol?

SSL does not cause the web server to trust the client based on a shared secret key - server trust is established via certificate validation, not mutual key equality.

SSL/TLS generates a unique session key per connection via the handshake, so an attacker cannot reuse a single key across all requests.

While downgrade attacks exist, the general use of SSL does not inherently allow a client to force the server into a weak cipher - that requires specific misconfiguration or a protocol-level attack like POODLE.

SSL/TLS encrypts the entire application-layer payload between client and server. Network-based IDS appliances cannot inspect encrypted traffic for attack signatures such as SQL injection strings or shellcode, effectively rendering signature-based detection blind to the malicious content being transmitted.