Certificate
A digital certificate is a signed electronic document that binds a public key to an identity, such as a website's domain, and is vouched for by a trusted certificate authority. It is what lets clients trust they are talking to the real party in HTTPS.
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Certificate Authority
The foundation Certificate builds on, worth understanding first.
Certificate Pinning
A defense where an application is configured to trust only a specific certificate or key for a server, rejecting any other even if signed by a valid authority. It blocks attackers who obtain a fraudulent but technically valid certificate.
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Certificate Validation
The checks a client performs before trusting a certificate: confirming a trusted authority signed it, that it matches the expected identity, that it has not expired, and that it has not been revoked. Skipping or weakening these checks is a serious flaw.
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