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What is the fingerprint of a certificate?
A certificate thumbprint, also called a fingerprint, is a hash of a certificate, computed over all certificate data and its signature. Thumbprints are used as unique identifiers for cer- tificates, in applications when making trust decisions, in configuration files, and displayed in interfaces.
Do certificate thumbprints change?
Certificate thumbprint is calculated over entire certificate, not just public key. When you renew the certificate, it is changed. At least, validity period will be different as the result, thumbprint on renewed certificate will be different as well.
What is the thumbprint of a self signed SSL certificate?
A certificate’s fingerprint is the unique identifier of the certificate. Microsoft Internet Explorer calls it Thumbprint. The Certificate Fingerprint is a digest (hash function) of a certificate in x509 binary format. It can be calculated by different algorithms, such as SHA1 for Microsoft Internet Explorer.
What is a certificate fingerprint used for?
Can a certificate match a fingerprint hash?
Collisions are a fact of life with hash algorithms, even good ones, and you should guard against the possibility that a motivated attacker could craft a rogue certificate with a matching fingerprint hash.
Is there a way to check SSH public key fingerprints?
You can put the server keys fingerprint in DNS (Domain Name System) and get ssh to tell you if what it the two fingerprints match. This is not a guarantee but it makes Mallory’s job harder since he needs to spoof DNS as well as ssh, which can be done as few domains yet implement DNSSEC. Configuring DNS
Which is simpler SSL or certificate fingerprint authentication?
The receiver only has to check that the hash of the public keys matche the hashes embedded in the URLs. Of course the receiver also has to make sure that these URLs come from a trusted source. This scheme and what you propose are simpler than using a CA. But there is a disadvantage. You have to make sure that your database with hashes is authentic.
Which is easier to verify fingerprints or public keys?
Just verifying fingerprints is much easier than to verify a long public key. Another example is the so called self certifying file system. Here again only hashes of public keys get exchanged over a secure channel. (I.e. these hashes are embedded in URLs.)