Skip to main content
CheckTown

Certificate Decoder

Decode and inspect X.509 SSL/TLS certificates. View subject, issuer, validity period, SANs, and fingerprint.

About This Tool

X.509 Decoding

Parse PEM-encoded X.509 certificates and extract subject, issuer, key information, and extensions.

Validity Check

Instantly see if a certificate is currently valid, expired, or self-signed with days remaining.

SAN Inspection

View all Subject Alternative Names including DNS names and IP addresses covered by the certificate.

SHA-256 Fingerprint

Compute and display the SHA-256 thumbprint for certificate verification and pinning.

Learn More

Certificate Decoder: How to Inspect SSL/TLS Certificates

Learn how SSL/TLS certificates work, what PEM encoding contains, and how to decode certificates to inspect subject, issuer, SANs, and validity.

What Is a Certificate Decoder

SSL/TLS certificates are the backbone of encrypted web communication. Every HTTPS connection relies on a certificate to prove a server's identity and establish a secure channel. But certificates are encoded in PEM or DER format, making their contents opaque without a decoder. A certificate decoder parses the binary structure and displays the human-readable fields like subject, issuer, validity dates, and public key details.

5 min readRead full guide