WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHA-2-FULL-CHAIN AND SHA-2 IN SSL GENERATION?
During the generation process for your SSL/TLS certificate an option to select from the hashing algorithms SHA-2 and the FULL SHA-2 may pop up. The SHA-2 at times is also referred to as the SHA-256.
The SHA-2 and the FULL SHA-2 have some differences and making a choice between the two requires knowledge on the both of them. Hereby I have sighted the differences.
What are Hashing algorithms?
The initials SHS are abbreviations for Secure Hashing Algorithm. The SSL Hashing algorithms are also referred to as the Hash functions and they are in general mathematical functions that condense data to a fixed magnitude. Basically it is the language used in the building the encryption of your SSL certificate. There are many of those languages and over the years some have been improved and have also been phased out over the years.SHA-1 has been phased out and now the SHA-2 is in use in the industries.SHA 2 is now greatly considered in the most of environments and devices but the old systems are able to use the SHA 1.
What is the SHA 2?
The SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2) is a cryptographic Hash algorithm that was designed by the United States national security agency. A cryptographic hash is somewhat of a signature for a data file.SHA-2 generates an almost unique 32 byte signature or a unique 256 signature for a certain text. Choosing the SHA-2 will bring about an issuing of a certificate using SHA-256 that will come chained to a SHA-25 intermediate. The intermediate will then chain to a SHA-1 root. By the fact that the SHA-1 is in recent times outmoded for the public facing certificates, having the SHA-1 root I assure has no negativity in consideration to security. This is a response to the fact that root certificates are only used for identity purpose and never for encryption.
The above algorithm is the best option for maximum compatibility with client devices. I recommend it.
What is SHA-2 FULL CHAIN?
When you choose the SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm) full chain will cause an issuing of a certificate which chains both an intermediate and a root which also uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm. Over the years to come all the certificates will migrate to the SHA-2 root certificate. Before that comes to be anyone who is expecting a certificate will see that it is a full SHA-256 chain. The SHA-2 root certificate is in all the recent browsers. Users of old browsers have a challenge in that they may not be able to access any website that is using the SHA-2 FULL CHAIN algorithm protocol.
