Why Using Certificates with Web Browsers?

Cryptography Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Using Certificates in IE (Internet Explorer)

∟Why Using Certificates with Web Browsers?

This section describes why Web browsers needs to use certificates - A SSL enabled Web server requires your Web browser to use certificates to encrypt messages between the browser and the server.

In previous parts of the book, we have learned how to generate certificates. Now let's see how we can use certificates with Web browsers.

The first question we need to ask is why do we need use certificates with a Web browser? The answer is that many Web sites supports SSL (Secure Socket Layer), which encrypts every message sent from and received by the Web browser. Encryption added by SSL makes your communication with the Web server secure, because no systems other than your browser and the final server can understand those encrypted messages.

When a Web browser reaches a SSL enabled Web site (URL starts with https://), the server will send a certificate, called server certificate, the Web browser. The subject of the server certificate represents the server. The browser is expected to trust the server certificate, or validate it with a trusted certification path.

A SSL enabled Web site may also ask the Web browser to send back a certificate, called client certificate, to identify the client, so that the server can validate the client.

So a Web browser needs to have certificates for two purposes:

To form a certification path to validate the server certificate.
To identify client, if the server wants to do client certification.

In next sections, we will look at how two popular Web browsers, IE (Internet Explorer) and Firefox uses certificates.

Last update: 2013.

Table of Contents

About This Book

Cryptography Terminology

Cryptography Basic Concepts

Introduction to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

Introduction to DES Algorithm

DES Algorithm - Illustrated with Java Programs

DES Algorithm Java Implementation

DES Algorithm - Java Implementation in JDK JCE

DES Encryption Operation Modes

DES in Stream Cipher Modes

PHP Implementation of DES - mcrypt

Blowfish - 8-Byte Block Cipher

Secret Key Generation and Management

Cipher - Secret Key Encryption and Decryption

Introduction of RSA Algorithm

RSA Implementation using java.math.BigInteger Class

Introduction of DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm)

Java Default Implementation of DSA

Private key and Public Key Pair Generation

PKCS#8/X.509 Private/Public Encoding Standards

Cipher - Public Key Encryption and Decryption

MD5 Mesasge Digest Algorithm

SHA1 Mesasge Digest Algorithm

OpenSSL Introduction and Installation

OpenSSL Generating and Managing RSA Keys

OpenSSL Managing Certificates

OpenSSL Generating and Signing CSR

OpenSSL Validating Certificate Path

"keytool" and "keystore" from JDK

"OpenSSL" Signing CSR Generated by "keytool"

Migrating Keys from "keystore" to "OpenSSL" Key Files

Certificate X.509 Standard and DER/PEM Formats

Migrating Keys from "OpenSSL" Key Files to "keystore"

►Using Certificates in IE (Internet Explorer)

►Why Using Certificates with Web Browsers?

Visiting a "https" Web Site with IE

Viewing Certificate Details

Viewing Certificate Path

Installing Certificate Permanently in IE

Managing Certificates in Certificate Stores

Exporting Certificates Out of IE

OpenSSL Viewing Certificates Exported from IE

Importing CA Certificate into IE

Importing Certificate Path into IE

Using Certificates in Firefox

Using Certificates in Google Chrome

Outdated Tutorials

PDF Printing Version