Contents
What does a wildcard SSL certificate do?
A wildcard SSL certificate encrypts a website and an unlimited number of subdomains at a specific level using a single certificate.
What is the difference between an SSL certificate and a wildcard SSL certificate?
Wildcard Certificate Vs. All SSL certificates have a field called the website’s common name (also referred to as the host or the domain name) which dictates the domain to be covered by the certificate. SSL certificates that cover a range of subdomains at a specific level are known as Wildcard certificates.
Why are wildcard certificates used in SSL certificates?
Wildcard certificates don’t imply extra vulnerabilities for the SSL server; indeed, the SSL server has no interest in looking at its own certificate. That certificate is for the benefits of clients, to convince them that the public key contained in the certificate is indeed the public key of the genuine SSL server.
Why are EV certificates more secure than wildcard certificates?
For example, if you ever need to replace your domain wildcard with a more secure EV certificate, you could face a mess of subdomains to find and fix. But the most pressing reason to avoid wildcards is that they are simply less secure and can open the door to phishing attacks.
What are the risks of using a wildcard CERT?
This seems to be one of the risks of using a wildcard cert. Moreover, it’s not just about sharing the private key – even if you only install the cert on the low-trust server (e.g. public website), it will not help to have a specific, non-wildcard cert for the more-sensitive site.
Why do we need a certificate for SSL?
That certificate is for the benefits of clients, to convince them that the public key contained in the certificate is indeed the public key of the genuine SSL server. The SSL server knows its own public/private key pair and does not need to be convinced about it.