PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - v2.34, by Herong Yang
Viewing Server Certificate in Mozilla Firefox
This section provides a tutorial example on how to view the server certificate when visiting an 'https' Website in Mozilla Firefox.
When you visit a "https" Web server, it will send its certificate to your browser. Server's certificate is needed by the browser for these 2 tasks:
- Your browser must validate the certificate to determine that the Website can be trusted or not before doing any further communications.
- Your browser must use the public key in the certificate to help secure the communication messages sent and received.
Normally, your browser will do these 2 tasks automatically without your interaction. You don't need to know where is the server certificate and what's in the certificate.
But since I am interested to learn more about "https" communication, I want to see the server certificate. Here is what did on Mozilla Firefox to see details of the server certificate.
1. Run Mozilla Firefox and go to https://www.yahoo.com. Wait for the home page to be fully loaded.
2. Click the site information icon at the left side of the URL address area. I see the site information popup box.
3. Click the "Connection secure" link. The site security popup box shows up with the "You are securely connected to this site" message.
4. Click the "More information" link. The "Page Info" viewer shows up with the "Security" tab open. It has a "View Certificate" button, as shown below:
Note that the steps to access the "Page Info" viewer are different for different versions of Firefox. See examples in pictures below:
5. Click the "View Certificate" button on the "Page Info" viewer. The certificate viewer shows up.
See next tutorials on how to use the certificate viewer.
Table of Contents
Introduction of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
Introduction of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
Using HTTPS with Google Chrome
►Using HTTPS with Mozilla Firefox
Visiting "https" Website with Mozilla Firefox
►Viewing Server Certificate in Mozilla Firefox
Server Certificate General Information
Viewing Server Certificate Chain in Mozilla Firefox
Exporting Server Certificate to File in Mozilla Firefox
Viewing Pre-Installed Certificates in Mozilla Firefox
Listing of Trusted Root CA in Mozilla Firefox
Exporting Root Certificate to File from Mozilla Firefox
Deleting Root CA Certificates from Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox Displaying Certificate Error Page
Adding Security Exception in Mozilla Firefox
Failing to Import Root CA Certificates to Mozilla Firefox
Certificate Trust Settings in Mozilla Firefox
Using HTTPS with Microsoft Edge
Using HTTPS with IE (Internet Explorer)
Android and Server Certificate
Windows Certificate Stores and Console
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and Server Certificate
macOS Certificate Stores and Keychain Access
Linux Certificate Stores and Tools
Perl Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers
PHP Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers
Python Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers
Java Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers
.NET Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers
CAcert.org - Root CA Offering Free Certificates
PKI CA Administration - Issuing Certificates
Comodo Free Personal Certificate
Digital Signature - Microsoft Word
Digital Signature - OpenOffice.org 3