TLS and Certificates: How Two Strangers Agree on a Secret, and Why Your Browser Trusts Anyone
Series: Networking Foundations | Post 8 of 14 In the last post, we said HTTPS wraps your connection in an encrypted tunnel called TLS. But that raises two questions that sound almost impossible when you first hear them. How do two machines that have never met, talking over a wire that anyone can listen to, agree on a secret key that the eavesdropper cannot learn? And how does your browser know the server on the other end is really who it claims to be, and not an impostor? This post answers both. It is the deep machinery of trust on the internet.
Aug 14, 202618 min read
