A certificate notification method, including reporting a certificate of a first terminal to a server, obtaining public key maintenance information including a public key corresponding to a certificate of each of one or more terminals within a preset area range and certificate identification information corresponding to the certificate of the corresponding terminal, receiving a communication message including certificate identification information corresponding to a certificate of the second terminal and a signature generated by the second terminal, determining, according to certificate identification information and the public key maintenance information, a public key corresponding to the certificate of the second terminal, and verifying, according to the public key corresponding to the certificate of the second terminal, the signature generated by the second terminal.