As far as I understand it, TLS creates a tunnel or channel or secure connection between the parties right? Where everything is protected? But hypothetically if the network gets breached, would the raw data/message sent from one client to another through a central server be readable? If someone gets inside the tunnel somehow, would they be able to see the raw data on the server?
Does TLS convert individual messages to ciphertext? If the network is breached, is the data exposed?
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As far as I understand it, TLS creates a tunnel or channel or secure connection between the parties right? Where everything is protected?
That is correct; TLS tries to protect the data being transmitted between the TLS client and the TLS server.
if the network gets breached, would the raw data/message sent from one client to another through a central server be readable?
Depends on how TLS is being used. If client A creates a TLS connection to a server, and client B creates a TLS connection to the same server, and client A sends data through the TLS connection to the server, which forwards the data to B via that TLS connection, then the server can obviously see the data in the clear; if the server is successfully attacked, then the attacker could potentially see that data.
After all, all TLS does is try to protect the data as it is being transmitted; if an attacker can see the data before it gets into the TLS tunnel or after it leaves it, well, it's not TLS's problem.
On the other hand, if client A sets up a TLS connection to client B (with one of the two sides acting as a TLS server - TLS negotiation demands that one of the two sides take the server role), then any data sent through the TLS connection between A and B is secure (assuming, of course, that clients A and B are secure).
