Disclosed are methods and media for inspecting security certificates. Methods include the steps of: scanning, by a network security device, messages of a security protocol between a server and a client system; detecting the messages having a security certificate; detecting suspicious security certificates from the messages; and aborting particular sessions of the security protocol associated with the suspicious certificates. Preferably, the step of scanning is performed only on messages of server certificate records. Preferably, the method further includes the step of sending an invalid-certificate notice to the server and the client system. Preferably, the step of detecting the suspicious certificates includes detecting a use of an incorrectly-generated private key for the certificates. Preferably, the step of detecting the suspicious certificates includes detecting an unavailability of revocation information for the certificates. Preferably, the step of detecting the suspicious certificates includes detecting a use of an invalid cryptographic algorithm for the certificates.