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Certificate

As explained in Authorization in Action

A digital certificate is a signed data record that binds an identity or domain name to a public key.

When a browser connects to a website, a certificate helps verify that the server is the legitimate owner of the requested domain rather than an impersonator. section 3.2

A certificate cryptographically links a server’s domain name to its public key. Trusted Certificate Authorities issue certificates, and browsers verify them before establishing a confidential TLS connection. section 3.2

Treat the browser lock as evidence with limits:

  • Check the domain name as well as the lock; a deceptive name such as twitter.com.info can still have a valid certificate. section 3.2
  • Account for misconfiguration, expired Certificate Authorities, and man-in-the-middle attacks when assessing TLS trust. section 3.2

How Authorization in Action covers it

How deep it goes
Explains domain binding, public-key use, trusted issuers, browser verification, and common failure modes.
Examples
Uses the browser lock, a legitimate website connection, and the deceptive domain twitter.com.info as examples.
What you can do after
Evaluate website authenticity by inspecting certificate trust and the requested domain together.
How it connects
Connects certificates to TLS, public-key cryptography, Certificate Authorities, phishing, and man-in-the-middle attacks.

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This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Authorization in Action. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.