CA issued SSL Certificate Usefulness
<p>I have been trying to setup SSL between Client and Server. As I was looking into this, I wasn't able to understand the usefulness of CA issued SSL Certificate, other than it having the Public Key of the Server.</p>

<p>Since the Certificate Exchange with the CLient is unencrypted, if someone can get between the Client and Server, they can masquerade as the Server, and then respond with the Server Certificate to a ClientHello message ( Irrespective of whether the Cert is signed by CA or not.) . </p>

<p>Since the Cert has the Public Key of the Server, during the exchange of the Master Key Secret, the Client can use this to encrypt the Secret, and the "man in the middle" will be unable to decrypt, as he doesn't have the "private key" of the Server. I see this as the greatest benefit.. Is my understanding Correct?</p>

<p>If we enable Client verification, where the CLient needs to send its Certificate, again, I don't see much of a benefit here. Does the Server use the Client's Public Key outside of Client-Certificate Verification? </p>