digital certificate

In cryptography, a public-key certificate, also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate, is an electronic document used to prove the valid attribution of a public key to the identity of its holder. The certificate includes the public key and information about it, information about the identity of its owner (called the subject), and the digital signature of an entity that has verified the certificate's contents (called the issuer).

If the party examining the certificate trusts the issuer and finds the signature to be a valid signature of that issuer, then it can use the included public key to interact securely with the certificate's subject. In email encryption, code signing, and e-signature systems, a certificate's subject is typically a person or organization. However, in Transport Layer Security (TLS) a certificate's subject is typically a computer or other device, though TLS certificates may identify organizations or individuals in addition to their core role in identifying devices. TLS, sometimes called by its older name Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), is notable for being a part of HTTPS, a protocol for securely browsing the web.