Certificate
Noun · Security & Infosec
Definitions
A digital document issued by a Certificate Authority that binds a public key to an identity, enabling encrypted communication and authentication. X.509 certificates are the backbone of HTTPS and TLS.
In plain English: A digital ID card for websites that proves they are who they claim to be, enabling the padlock icon in your browser.
Example: "The site went down because someone forgot to renew the SSL certificate. Again."
Related Terms
- HTTPS
- SSL
- mTLS
- Certificate Transparency
- Bitlocker
- Certificate Pinning
- DANE
- Disk Encryption
- DNS over HTTPS
- DNS over TLS
- DTLS
- Encryption at Rest
- Encryption in Transit
- End-to-End Encryption
- Forward Secrecy
- GnuPG
- HTTPS Inspection
- Let's Encrypt
- Mutual TLS
- OCSP
- OCSP Stapling
- OpenSSL
- PGP
- SSL Pinning
- Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
- Transport Layer Security
- Wi-Fi Protected Access
- Certificate Chain
- Certificate Lifecycle
- Chain of Trust
- Client Certificate
- Cloud Key Management
- Derived Credential
- DNSSEC
- DoH
- DoT
- Heart Bleed
- HPKP
- Multi-Domain Certificate
- Offline Root CA
- OpenSSL Security
- PFS
- Plaintext Attack
- Point-to-Point Encryption
- Public Certificate