SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection. "SSL" stands for "Secure Sockets Layer," a security protocol that establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a browser.
Businesses and organizations use SSL certificates to secure online transactions and safeguard customer information privacy and security.
In summary, SSL ensures Internet connection security, preventing cybercriminals from reading or altering information exchanged between two systems. A padlock icon next to a URL indicates the site is protected by SSL.
Introduced nearly 25 years ago, SSL has evolved through various versions, each encountering security issues. It was succeeded by the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol, still in use today. However, the term SSL remains widely used to refer to this updated protocol.
HTTPS is a secure extension of HTTP. Websites that set up an SSL/TLS certificate can use the HTTPS protocol to establish secure communication with the server.
The purpose of SSL/TLS is to secure the transmission of sensitive information such as personal, payment, or login data. It offers an alternative to transferring data in plain text, where the server connection is not encrypted, making it harder for hackers to intercept the connection and steal data.
Most people are already familiar with SSL/TLS, which are used by webmasters to secure their sites and offer a safe option for conducting transfers. A site with an SSL/TLS certificate can be identified by a padlock indicating a secure connection near the URL in the browser.
SSL Verification
There are several ways to verify SSL and TLS certificates. However, testing through an online tool provides a lot of useful information. SSL and TLS protocols can contain vulnerabilities regardless of the operating system, whether it be LINUX, WINDOWS, or MAC, and regardless of the type of WEBSERVER (Apache, WEBSPHERE, IIS, among others), they are vulnerable to attacks if not properly configured. Incorrect SSL/TLS configuration can expose your site to vulnerabilities. To assist in your verification, we will list some online tools for checking:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest//index.html - Qualys SSL Labs is one of the most popular testing tools for checking all the latest vulnerabilities and incorrect configurations.
https://www.sslchecker.com/sslchecker - SSL Checker allows you to quickly identify whether a chain certificate has been correctly implemented. Great for proactively testing after certificate implementation to ensure the chain certificate isn’t broken.
https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html - SSL Shopper helps you check the certificate issuer, expiration details, and chain implementation. This can be useful for visualizing the implementation of the chain certificate.
https://www.digicert.com/help/ - DigiCert's Installation Diagnostic Tool is another fantastic tool for providing DNS with the IP address, certificate details, including issuer, serial number, key length, signature algorithm, SSL cipher supported by the server, and validity details.
https://www.wormly.com/test_ssl - Wormly's Web Server Tester checks over 65 metrics and provides a status for each, including overall scores. The report contains an overview of the certificate (CN, expiration details, trust chain), Encryption Cipher details, public key size, secure renegotiation, protocols like SSLv3/v2, TLSv1/1.2.
https://observatory.mozilla.org/ - Mozilla’s Observatory checks various metrics such as TLS cipher details, certificate details, secure headers recommended by OWASP, and much more.