Difference between https protocol and SSL Certificate

ssl https ssl-certificate protocols
user32262 picture user32262 · May 13, 2009 · Viewed 62.9k times · Source

What is difference between https protocol and SSL Certificate that we use in web browser?

Aren't both of these used to encrypt communication between client (browser) and server?

Answer

a paid nerd picture a paid nerd · May 13, 2009

HTTPS is HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) plus SSL (Secure Socket Layer). You need a certificate to use any protocol that uses SSL.

SSL allows arbitrary protocols to be communicated securely. It enables clients to (a) verify that they are indeed communicating with the server they expect and not a man-in-the-middle and (b) encrypt the network traffic so that parties other than the client and server cannot see the communication.

An SSL certificate contains a public key and certificate issuer. Not only can clients use the certificate to communicate with a server, clients can verify that the certificate was cryptographically signed by an official Certificate Authority. For example, if your browser trusts the VeriSign Certificate Authority, and VeriSign signs my SSL certificate, your browser will inherently trust my SSL certificate.

There's some good reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security

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