Self-Signed Certificate
A self-signed certificate is a digital certificate that is signed by its own creator rather than a trusted third-party Certificate Authority (CA). It provides encryption and authentication for secure communications, such as HTTPS, but lacks external validation, making it unsuitable for public-facing production environments. Developers often use self-signed certificates for local development, testing, or internal networks where trust can be established manually.
Developers should learn about self-signed certificates for scenarios like local development and testing, where they need to simulate HTTPS without the cost or complexity of obtaining a CA-signed certificate. They are essential for setting up secure internal services, such as in Docker containers or on-premises servers, and for debugging SSL/TLS issues in controlled environments. However, they should be avoided in production for public websites due to browser warnings and security risks.