Check a Certificate Thumbprint

Even though, with time, Tech companies give more importance to user privacy and security. However, today, most internet users still believe that current laws are not enough to protect their rights.

The SSL certificate is the one that enables the website to redirect from HTTP to HTTPS.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer; it's a security technology that layers a secure connection between a web browser and a web server and ensures that data transfer remains private. The SSL Certificate is also called TLS (Transport Layer Security).

You will need to install an SSL certificate on your web server to ensure that the data connection between your web server and web browser remains secure.

An SSL is a file hosted on a website origin server that contains key pair: a public key and private key. These keys work together to create an encrypted connection. The SSL certificate also includes the "subject," which is the identity of the certificate/website owner.

Today, if you want to make your website look legitimate and trustworthy, you want to boost your conversions, sales, leads, revenue, customer loyalty, and satisfaction. It would help if you had an SSL certificate installed on your website's server.

Especially, suppose you have an e-commerce store selling something online that requires user/customers personal information. In that case, you must have an SSL certificate to protect and encrypt the users data.

An SSL certificate thumbprint, also known as an SSL certificate fingerprint, is a hash of a certificate calculated on all certificates data and its signature.

The thumbprints are usually implemented with cryptographic hash functions. They are generally used as unique identifiers for certificates, configuration files, applications when making trust decisions and displayed in interfaces.

The SSL certificate thumbprint/fingerprint is a digest (hash function) of a certificate in x509 binary format. Different algorithms, such as SHA1 (for Microsoft Internet Explorer), can calculate it.

Its easy to find the thumbprints/fingerprints of an SSL certificate by using the web browser. The following instructions will help you in finding fingerprints of SSL certificate with several popular web browsers.

Chrome

• Click on the "lock symbol" located on the left side of the browser's address bar.
• A pop-up dialog box will appear; click on "Certificate."
• In the "Certificate" dialog box, click the "Details" tab.
• On the "Details" page, scroll down until the word "Thumbprint" is visible in the list and then click "Thumbprint."
• You will get a thumbprint in the textbox below the list box.

Firefox

• Click on the "lock symbol" located on the left side of the browser's address bar.
• A pop-up dialog box will appear. Click the arrow to the right of "Connection" to land on the Site Security page.
• At the end of the Site Security page, click on "More Information."
• In the "More Information" page, the Security tab should be selected by default. If not, click on the Security tab.
• Click on the "View Certificate" button to view the Certificate Viewer dialog box.
• You will get a thumbprint at the bottom of the General tab.

Edge

• Click on the "lock symbol" located on the left side of the browser's address bar.
• A pop-up dialog box will appear. Click the "View certificate" link.
• The certificate details will be available in the "Certificate Information" panel on the right side of the browser.
• In the textbox on the "Certificate Information" panel, scroll down until the fingerprint information is visible.

To find the SSL Certificate Thumbprint, usually known as the SSL Certificate Fingerprint, perform the following steps.

• Open an Online SSL Certificate Fingerprint Checker Tool.
• Enter the domain name or hostname for the space provided for that purpose.
• Click on the "Check Now" button.
• The tool fetches the SSL Certificate and provides you the "Certificate Name", "MD5 Hash", "SHA1 Hash" and "SSL Certificate Fingerprint" for the provided domain or host.