Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a terminal for message verification, which can enhance timeliness of event message verification. The method includes: receiving an event message sent by a cell broadcast entity; obtaining a public key of a CA according to pre-configured information for determining the public key of the CA and information for determining the public key of the CA and obtained from a network side, or according to information of the CA obtained from the network side; then, obtaining a public key of the cell broadcast entity according to the obtained public key of the CA and an implicit certificate of the cell broadcast entity; verifying a signature of the cell broadcast entity over the event message according to the public key of the cell broadcast entity; and finally, determining legitimacy of the event message according to the verification result.