An introduction to TLS, OpenSSL, and X.509 Certificates

On 1 May 2008, I gave a talk to the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ALE) on TLS, OpenSSL, and X.509 Certificates. The talk is an introduction to the use of X.509 certificates and TLS to to secure services. It covers a mixture of theory and practice that should be helpful in understanding how certificates are used. The talk ends with several examples of how to use the openssl command to create and manage both keys and certificates. The presentation slides and an accompanying handout are available for download in Acrobat (.pdf) format.

[Handout for "TLS, OpenSSL, and X.509 Certificates" talk (508K)]

[Slides for "TLS, OpenSSL, and X.509 Certificates" talk (1.1M)]

Revision history:

15 May 2008: the handout was created as a supplement to the talk; the slides were revised to add some information, simplify some of the diagrams, and improve printing

These document are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.