SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization's details. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.

Step-by-step, here’s how SSL works:

• A user connects to an SSL-enabled service such as a website.
• The user’s application requests the server’s public key in exchange for its own public key. This public key exchange provides ways for both parties to encrypt messages that only the other party can read.
• When the user sends a message to the server, the application uses the server’s public key to encrypt the message.
• The server receives the user’s message and decrypts it using its private key. Messages sent back to the browser are encrypted in a similar way using a public key generated by the user’s application.



Public key cryptography is similar to using a padlock. The padlock itself is the public key and the combination is the private key. The server distributes its padlock, which anyone can use to lock a door or a box. However, the padlock can’t be opened without the combination, which only the server knows.