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Can someone explain what "any of my trusted keys" in the graphic is referring to? (on the browser)
by nishs 9y ago
Can someone explain what "any of my trusted keys" in the graphic is referring to? (on the browser)
- btmiller 9y agoCertificate authorities. Think VeriSign, InCommon, Let's Encrypt, etc. The folks that we generally implicitly trust to authenticate popular websites. Your laptop comes distributed with many certificate authorities that are configured to be trusted by default.
- sdevlin 9y agoIt's impossible to bootstrap a secure connection without some preexisting trusted relationship. Otherwise, you'd always be vulnerable to middle-person attacks. Browsers solve this problem by bundling a number of trusted root certificates. (This is what they mean by "my trusted keys".) When you connect to some web site, the server sends you their certificate along with a chain of signing certificates up to some root of trust. Assuming the root certificate is among those your browser trusts, you can verify the signature chain and establish a trusted connection.
- prdonahue 9y agoThe word "unlock" here is a misnomer. Would have been better to say something like "let me see if I can match the signature to any known signatures I have on file".