Determining the Type of SSL Certificate a Website Is Using

Two common hash functions are MD5 and SHA-1. With the MD5 function, individuals with the appropriate knowledge and computing power can recreate another digital signature to match the original. If this happens, an unsuspecting user could unknowingly be redirected to another Website.

You can determine the type of SSL certificate a Website is using by clicking the padlock icon in your browser.

To Determine the Certificate Type in Firefox

1. Double-click the padlock icon in your browser.
2. Click View Certificate.
3. Go to the Details tab.
4. In Certificate Fields, click Certificate Signature Algorithm.
5. Read the value of the Certificate Signature Algorithm field. If it is PKCS #1 SHA-1 With RSA Encryption the Website is using a SHA-1 certificate.

To Determine the Certificate Type in Internet Explorer

1. Click the padlock icon in your browser.
2. Click View certificates.
3. Click Details.
4. In the Show field, select <All>.
5. Read the value of the Signature algorithm field. If it is a SHA-1 certificate, the value is sha1RSA.