Issuer

The Certificate Authority that issued this certificate

Certificate Authority

The Issuer field in an SSL certificate identifies the Certificate Authority (CA) that issued and digitally signed the certificate. This field contains the Distinguished Name (DN) of the CA, including information such as the organization name, country, and sometimes organizational unit. The issuer is crucial for establishing the chain of trust - browsers maintain a list of trusted root CAs, and they verify that the certificate was signed by a trusted authority.

Popular issuers include DigiCert, Let's Encrypt, GlobalSign, Sectigo (formerly Comodo), and GeoTrust. The issuer's reputation and trustworthiness directly affect how browsers and users perceive the certificate. When a certificate is validated, the browser checks the entire certificate chain from the end-entity certificate up to a trusted root CA, and the issuer field helps establish this chain of trust.

Where You'll See This Term

This term commonly appears in:

  • SSL certificate details pages
  • Certificate Authority validation processes
  • SSL configuration documentation
  • Security audit reports
  • Certificate management interfaces

Related SSL Terms

Certificate Authority

An entity that issues and manages SSL certificates

Certificate Authority

ACME

ACME (Automated Certificate Management Environment) is a protocol that automates the process of issuing, renewing, and managing SSL certificates, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Certificate Management

BEAST Attack

Security vulnerability exploiting CBC mode in SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0...

Security Vulnerabilities

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