TOPIC SECURITY
Certificates & PKI why browsers trust anyone
IN 10 SECONDS
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) manages certificates. A Certificate Authority (CA) signs your public key, confirming your ownership of a domain so browsers trust your site's HTTPS connection.
GOTCHA Self-signed certificates encrypt connections but display security warnings because they aren't signed by a CA that browsers trust.
HOW CERTIFICATE VALIDATION FLOWS
01 CSR Generation web server generates a certificate request (CSR) containing its public key.
02 CA Sign trusted Certificate Authority signs the certificate, verifying domain ownership.
03 Browser check user opens site; browser validates certificate signature against its built-in pool of root CAs.
POKE IT YOURSELF
openssl x509 -in cert.pem -text -noout — inspect certificate fields, domain, and expiration dates
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