diff --git a/Sources/NIOSSL/SSLCertificate.swift b/Sources/NIOSSL/SSLCertificate.swift
index 7c66a39b..fa4ed23a 100644
--- a/Sources/NIOSSL/SSLCertificate.swift
+++ b/Sources/NIOSSL/SSLCertificate.swift
@@ -46,6 +46,11 @@ public class NIOSSLCertificate {
         case ipv4(in_addr)
         case ipv6(in6_addr)
     }
+    
+    public var serialNumber: [UInt8] {
+        let serialNumber = CNIOBoringSSL_X509_get_serialNumber(self.ref)!
+        return Array(UnsafeBufferPointer(start: serialNumber.pointee.data, count: Int(serialNumber.pointee.length)))
+    }
 
     private init(withOwnedReference ref: UnsafeMutablePointer<X509>) {
         self._ref = UnsafeMutableRawPointer(ref) // erasing the type for @_implementationOnly import CNIOBoringSSL
@@ -438,7 +443,8 @@ internal class SubjectAltNameSequence: Sequence, IteratorProtocol {
 extension NIOSSLCertificate: CustomStringConvertible {
     
     public var description: String {
-        var desc = "<NIOSSLCertificate"
+        let serialNumber = self.serialNumber.map { String($0, radix: 16) }.reduce("", +)
+        var desc = "<NIOSSLCertificate;serial_number=\(serialNumber)"
         if let commonNameBytes = self.commonName() {
             let commonName = String(decoding: commonNameBytes, as: UTF8.self)
             desc += ";common_name=" + commonName
diff --git a/Tests/NIOSSLTests/SSLCertificateTest.swift b/Tests/NIOSSLTests/SSLCertificateTest.swift
index 88102e75..6b60b737 100644
--- a/Tests/NIOSSLTests/SSLCertificateTest.swift
+++ b/Tests/NIOSSLTests/SSLCertificateTest.swift
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ class SSLCertificateTest: XCTestCase {
     }
     
     func testPrintingDebugDetailsNoAlternativeNames() throws {
-        let expectedDebugDescription = "<NIOSSLCertificate;common_name=robots.sanfransokyo.edu>"
+        let expectedDebugDescription = "<NIOSSLCertificate;serial_number=9fd7d05a34ca7984;common_name=robots.sanfransokyo.edu>"
         let cert = try assertNoThrowWithValue(NIOSSLCertificate(bytes: .init(samplePemCert.utf8), format: .pem))
         let debugString = String(describing: cert)
 
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ class SSLCertificateTest: XCTestCase {
     }
     
     func testPrintingDebugDetailsWithAlternativeNames() throws {
-        let expectedDebugDescription = "<NIOSSLCertificate;common_name=localhost;alternative_names=localhost,example.com,192.168.0.1,2001:db8::1>"
+        let expectedDebugDescription = "<NIOSSLCertificate;serial_number=46231a526848d57af4999e29f89988d178d94da2;common_name=localhost;alternative_names=localhost,example.com,192.168.0.1,2001:db8::1>"
         let cert = try assertNoThrowWithValue(NIOSSLCertificate(bytes: .init(multiSanCert.utf8), format: .pem))
         let debugString = String(describing: cert)