Which of the following best describes the concept of a self-signed certificate?

A self-signed certificate is one that is created and signed by the individual or organization that it represents, rather than being issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA). This means that the issuer has not undergone any validation process through a third party that could confirm their identity or the legitimacy of the certificate.

While self-signed certificates can fulfill some specific use cases, such as in development and testing environments where trust can be established through other means, they do not require third-party verification, which is crucial for ensuring the trustworthiness of a certificate. In contrast, certificates issued by trusted CAs are essential for production environments because they provide a means of verifying the identity of the certificate holder, thereby establishing trust among users. Their primary limitation is that they may not be recognized as trustworthy by clients and systems unless explicit trust relationships are configured.

Because a self-signed certificate is signed by its creator, it may leave systems vulnerable if used inappropriately in public-facing services, as there is no external validation of its legitimacy.