Determine cipher being used in https connection

Question

Using php (under Apache) or JavaScript is there any way to determine the Cipher Suite or Cipher Spec being used for the current SSL (https) connection (i.e. rsa_aes_256_sha)?

Answer 1

On the server side, in PHP, you should be able to access mod_ssl's SSL_CIPHER environment variable using PHP's $_SERVER variable. You'll also need to use SSLOptions +StdEnvVars in your Apache configuration.