client certificate

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In cryptography, a client certificate is a type of digital certificate that is used by client systems to set up a secure connection to a remote server.{{Cite IETF|rfc = 5246|section = 7.4.4 |last1 = Dierks|first1 = T.|last2 = Rescorla|first2 = E.|date=August 2008 |accessdate = 29 October 2014}} Certificates contain information about the client and are signed by a certificate authority. Client certificates can provide mutual authentication without the use of passwords.

The Transport Layer Security protocol can optionally exchange and verify client certificates when setting up a connection. This can consequently be used to authenticate to websites and wireless networks.