How to check SSL Certificate details in different Web Browsers?

Let us understand how to check SSL certificate details in different web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

It is known that an SSL certificate is an integral part of your website for providing strong encryption to information and confidential data that is transmitted between browsers and web servers. SSL certificates use digital keys (public and private) to encrypt the information in order to protect all the transmission occurring via your websites. T

o let you, people, a little brief about SSL is – that SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which is a protocol used to encrypt data and confidential information that’s transmitted over the internet.

Thus, once you get it installed it becomes easy to check it in your browser’s address bar.

SSL is an industry-standard that sets rules for trust and reliability and that is also used by many other websites for safeguarding their online information. On top of that, SSL certificate is very important to make an online identity offering trust and authenticity to the business. Beyond green padlock and HTTPS in browsers, there is a bit more process where we can actually know how to check details of an SSL certificate on all the major web browsers.

There are lots of information in SSL certificate that you can know including the following basic information:

Validity period
Issuing Certificate Authority (CA)
It has a Subject as well – that means the domain for which it is issued, type of certificate issued depending on the type of website or business, it also has the identifying information about the host company or the business.

SSL Certificate also has certain technical content related to the website and about the business, which covers a lot of technical aspects. Let’s see what are these:

It has the data for the Key Usage
It contains CRL Information
The algorithms for signing and hashing that is underlying the encryption, is also present

How to Check SSL Certificate Details in Different Web Browsers Such as Chrome, Firefox And Internet Explorer

1. How to Check SSL Certificate Details in Chrome (v.87)

Chrome 87 was released on November 17, 2020. The Chrome web browser will either automatically install the update or ask if you’d like to install it. In case you need to check it right now, you can click Menu >> Help >> About Google Chrome

Here we have described a step by step guide to check SSL certificate details in chrome 87.

Step 1:

Click on Lock/Padlock Icon. After you click on the padlock, a drop-down will show up. The valid link is located underneath Certificate. simply getting the cursor on the Valid link will tell you the name of the issuing CA.

Step 2:

Click on Certificate (Valid) Option:

Step 3:

Check the SSL Certificate Details:

here you can find details like valid from and expiry date of SSL certificate, Issuer Statements, Issued by, SSL type like domain validation(DV) SSL, extended validation(EV) SSL or organization Validation(OV) SSL, and other SSL certificate details.

2. How to Check SSL Certificate Details in Chrome (v.58)

Chrome 58 was released in Dec 2016, before its release date there was a quick link where you can check your certificate details directly from the main browser interface. Then when you click the green padlock in the address bar it gets triggered with a drop-down with a link that brings you to the right kind of certificate details pop-up. There was also a rumor regarding this but see below how its functionality affects.

First, click on the three vertical dots ⋮ that you will find at the right of the address bar. Then Go to the “More tools” and select the tab for “Developer tools”.

Please Note: You can also go thereby pressing F12.

Once you are done, it will take you to the developer tools windows. Then select the security tab where you will see a Security Overview, that includes the validity status of the certificate, few details of the protocol, key exchange, cipher, and underlying connection details.

Lastly, to check the certificate details, now click on the tab “View Certificate”. What do you see? Whoa, skip a heartbeat; this is the entire details of your SSL certificate. Certificate contents for the example validity period, subject, algorithms, and others.

If you have installed the latest version of Chrome (v. 60), you can enable the new feature by navigating to chrome://flags/#show-cert-link, which will allow you to check valid SSL certificate details easily as shown bellow image and it will be default in a later version of the Chrome browser.

3. How To Check SSL Certificate Details In Firefox (v.53)

In Firefox, It is not difficult to check the details of the SSL certificate. The latest version of Firefox offers some direct information about the SSL certificate that directly shows up in the main browser interface. And if you need to know a bit more details then, you are just a few clicks away.

When you click on the padlock in the address bar that gives you a basic drop-down which indicates a secure connection of SSL certificate when configured properly in the place.

Next, when you click the arrow you will get a drop-down that will give you some information about the certificate. If you are using the Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates, then with the drop-down you will get identifying information about the domain and the organization on which it is operating.

And if you are using a non-EV Certificates (Domain Validation (DV) SSL Certificate and Organization Validation (OV) SSL), then you might see the issuing certificate authority – CA and its details – like “Verified by” and this section you get it at the bottom of the pop-up.

When you click next on the “More Information” at the bottom of the pop-up you will get the security details of the page and other information about the domain – all this regarding the website’s identity.

Now, if you are not done with these details then you may go to the “Details” tab to know more details about the SSL certificate, there you will find the entire hierarchy of the SSL certificate.

4. How to Check SSL Certificate Details in Internet Explorer (v.11)

Internet explorer also offers a good amount of information about the SSL certificate. And this information about the certificate can be offered directly from the browser interface. Here too clicking on the padlock will give you the details of the CA. You will also get a note about the connection of the server as well that is encrypted.

Further, you will also get information about the EV, non-EV (DV or OV) SSL Certificates. Here, with IE you get the information about the company and the location of the EV Certificates whereas, with DV and OV it will only show the following domain details.

Again, if you want to know more about the SSL certificates then click on the “View Certificates” link, you will get a pop up that will take you to further details of the certificate.

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