Using a certificate – web server example
When asked, most people would say that the most common use for certificates is to secure websites, using the HTTPS protocol. While this may not be the most common use for certificates in today's internet, it certainly remains the most visible. Let's discuss how a web server's certificate is used to provide trust in the server and help establish an encrypted HTTPS session.
If you remember our applicant in our CSR example, in this example that applicant is the website www.example.com, which might reside on the web server, for instance. We'll start our example where the previous session left off—the certificate is issued and is installed on the web server, ready for client connections.
Step 1: The client makes an initial HTTPS request to the web server, called a CLIENT HELLO (Figure 8.2).
In this initial Hello exchange, the client sends the following to the server:
- The TLS versions that it supports...