Keygen tag in HTML5

Question

So I came across this new tag in HTML5, . I can\'t quite figure out what it is for, how it is applied, and how it might affect browser behavior.

Answer 1

SSL is about "server identification" or "server AND client authentication (mutual authentication)".

In most cases only the server presents its server-certificate during the SSL handshake so that you could make sure that this really is the server you expect to connect to. In some cases the server also wants to verify that you really are the person you pretend to be. For this you need a client-certificate.

The tag generates a public/private key pair and then creates a certificate request. This certificate request will be sent to a Certificate Authority (CA). The CA creates a certificate and sends it back to the browser. Now you are able to use this certificate for user authentication.