{"id":495,"date":"2019-09-06T16:04:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T16:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/?p=495"},"modified":"2019-09-09T06:02:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T06:02:31","slug":"whats-a-rapidssl-intermediate-certificate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/whats-a-rapidssl-intermediate-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s a RapidSSL Intermediate Certificate? Here\u2019s Where You Can Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most oft-misunderstood parts of SSL\/TLS certificates<\/a>\nis the intermediate certificate. Many website owners receive a RapidSSL\nintermediate certificate bundled with their RapidSSL SSL\/TLS certificate and\nhave no idea what to do with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get questions all the time about what they are, what they\ndo and whether they need to be installed. On some rare occasions, the site\nowner accidentally installs the RapidSSL intermediate instead<\/em> of the\nleaf SSL\/TLS certificate and causes a massive nuclear reaction that blows apart\nthe server the site is hosted on and craters several city blocks. You may have\nseen this in the news, the official story they give is it was a fireworks\nfactory explosion. But trust us, they installed the RapidSSL intermediate\ninstead of the leaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to install both certificates. That\u2019s why\nwe\u2019ve written this article to explain what an intermediate is and why you\nshould be installing both. Then we\u2019ll give you a place to download the RapidSSL\nintermediate certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a RapidSSL Intermediate Certificate?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most straightforward answer is that a RapidSSL intermediate certificate<\/a> is an intermediate certificate that\u2019s bundled with RapidSSL SL\/TLS certificates. However, to provide clarification, we first need to start a level above (or below? Roots are usually below) at the root certificate authority (CA) certificates<\/a>. These are the certificates administered directly by the CA organizations that validate and issue digital certificates. The root CA certificate is a special kind of digital certificate with a longer lifespan and a private key that can make trusted signatures, or put another way, anything the root CA signs is trusted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graphic:<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, this is quite a powerful certificate. So, to\ninsulate themselves, the CAs typically spin up an intermediate root and use\nthose to sign with in lieu of using the roots directly. Intermediate roots are\nsimilar to true roots in that they can sign certificates and those certificates\nbecome trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for this is the certificate chain. When a client\nis presented with a leaf SSL\/TLS certificate, it checks who signed it. Then it\ngoes up a level to that certificate, the one that signed it, and sees who\nsigned that one. It will continue following signatures until it can follow the\nchain back to one of its trusted root certificates. If it can\u2019t it issues an\nerror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the root certificates are parts of a root or trust\nstore. These are administered by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n