Well one of the problems is that SSL does two things: Server Authentication and Encryption. Since there is nothing backing the identity of a self-signed certifi

Well one of the problems is that SSL does two things: Server Authentication and Encryption. Since there is nothing backing the identity of a self-signed certificate, it can easily masquerade as whatever it wants. Yes, a CA-issued cert and a self-signed are equilvent when it comes to encryption. But with Server Authentication, its too easy for self-signed certificates to mislead people, and that is deserving of the red-X in my opinion. You may be interested in the Opportunistic Encryption that Firefox has just enabled: http://bitsup.blogspot.it/2015/03/opportunistic-encryption-for-firefox.html http://bitsup.blogspot.it/2015/03/opportunistic-encryption-f... It allows for SSL encryption with a self-signed, and ignores authentication. So not red-x, but no green padlock either. EDIT: Opportunistic Encryption seems to have caused some problems: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2015-44/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2015-4...