With Internet Explorer

If your browser is Internet Explorer:

  1. Click Tools > Internet Options > Content.
  2. Click Certificates and then the Trusted Root Certification Authorities tab on the right.

    This lists the root CAs known and trusted by your Web browser - that is, the CAs whose certificates have been installed in the SSL software in your Web browser. A default set of these, consisting of many of the world's best known ones, is installed when Internet Explorer is installed.

    The terminology used in Internet Explorer is slightly different from that used in this book, as follows:

    Internet Explorer This book
    Personal certificate Your client certificate
    Other people's Client or server certificate of some other entity
    Intermediate CA Subordinate CA
    Trusted root CA Root CA
  3. Double-click any of the certificates, this opens the Certificate dialog box. In many cases the Issued to and Issued by names are the same, indicating a self-signed certificate - one issued by a root CA to itself.
  4. Click Certification Path tab. This lists the chain of CAs from the certificate back to the root CA. Because this certificate is for a root CA, there is just one entry.
  5. Click OK to close the Certificate dialog box.
  6. Click the Intermediate Certification Authorities tab. This displays a list of subordinate CAs whose certificates have been installed in Internet Explorer.
  7. Double-click one of the certificates.
  8. Click Certification Path tab. You now see the chain of CAs, from the subordinate CA that issued this certificate, back up through the hierarchy to the root CA.
  9. Click OK to close the dialog box.