What a protected connection does—and does not—prove
Your objectiveKeep transport protection separate from the trustworthiness of content.
Understand the idea.
TLS helps a client authenticate the intended server and protects information in transit. It does not independently verify a news article, validate a business claim or guarantee that a product works. A technically protected channel can carry inaccurate information.
A worked example.
A site can present a valid certificate and still publish an unsupported claim. The certificate and the evidence behind the claim answer different questions. Disabling certificate validation because a page will not load removes a protection rather than solving the underlying identity problem.
Try the reasoning.
Inspect the connection information for a familiar HTTPS site. Identify the hostname and certificate information. Then list two things about that site’s content that the certificate does not establish.
DNS supplies records associated with the name. A successful answer does not establish application health.
Conceptual illustration. Selecting a step does not send a network request.Carry it into practice.
Keep certificate errors as evidence. Investigate the expected hostname, trust chain and clock rather than instructing users to bypass a warning.
Read the reference: MDN: Transport Layer Security ↗