Category — Page 3

SSL Basics — Page 3

50 guides covering the foundations: what SSL/TLS is, how the handshake works, the cryptography underneath, and every certificate type and field you'll run into.

Why Do Certificates Expire?

It's not a business model. Short lifespans are a deliberate security control.

What Happens When a Certificate Expires?

The site doesn't go down. It goes to a full-page warning that most visitors will not click through.

What Is a SAN (Subject Alternative Name)?

The field that quietly replaced the old "Common Name" as the thing browsers actually check.

What Is SNI (Server Name Indication) and Why It Matters

The trick that lets one IP address serve HTTPS for hundreds of unrelated domains.

What Is Perfect Forward Secrecy?

A property that protects past conversations even if your private key leaks tomorrow.

What Is Certificate Pinning?

A stricter trust model used mostly in mobile apps — and a common cause of mysterious connection failures.

What Is Certificate Transparency?

Every publicly trusted certificate issued today is logged, permanently, in public — including for domains you own.

How Browsers Decide Which Certificates to Trust

A checklist your browser runs through in milliseconds, every single time you load a page.

What Is a Certificate Bundle / Intermediate Bundle?

The file most "not trusted on my phone but not my laptop" issues trace back to.

What Is Mixed Content and Why Browsers Block It?

One insecure image can be enough to downgrade an entire page's security status.