nerdexam
Palo_Alto_Networks

PCNSE · Question #697

Which two key exchange algorithms consume the most resources when decrypting SSL traffic? (Choose two.)

The correct answer is B. ECDHE D. DHE. DHE (Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral) and ECDHE (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral) are Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) cipher suites. Because they generate a unique, ephemeral key pair for every TLS session, they require significant CPU computation per session - making them the mos

Submitted by devops_kid· Apr 18, 2026Plan

Question

Which two key exchange algorithms consume the most resources when decrypting SSL traffic? (Choose two.)

Options

  • AECDSA
  • BECDHE
  • CRSA
  • DDHE

How the community answered

(53 responses)
  • A
    6% (3)
  • B
    83% (44)
  • C
    11% (6)

Explanation

DHE (Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral) and ECDHE (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral) are Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) cipher suites. Because they generate a unique, ephemeral key pair for every TLS session, they require significant CPU computation per session - making them the most resource-intensive for SSL/TLS decryption on a firewall. RSA key exchange reuses the server's long-lived private key, which is computationally cheaper to handle. ECDSA is a digital signature algorithm used for certificate authentication, not for key exchange, so it does not add the same per-session computational burden.

Topics

#SSL Decryption#Key Exchange Algorithms#Resource Consumption#Perfect Forward Secrecy

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Full PCNSE Practice