Contents of a Certificate (Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.3 Reference)

Sun Java System Directory Server Enterprise Edition 6.3 Reference

Contents of a Certificate

The contents of certificates supported by Directory Server and many other software companies are organized according to the X.509 v3 certificate specification, which has been recommended by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an international standards body, since 1988. Examples in this section show samples of the data and signature sections of a certificate.

Every X.509 certificate consists of the following sections.

A data section, including the following information.
- The version number of the X.509 standard supported by the certificate.
- The certificate’s serial number. Every certificate issued by a CA has a serial number that is unique among the certificates issued by that CA.
- Information about the user’s public key, including the algorithm used and a representation of the key itself.
- The DN of the CA that issued the certificate.
- The period during which the certificate is valid (for example, between 1:00 p.m. on November 15, 2003 and 1:00 p.m. November 15, 2004).
- The DN of the certificate subject (for example, in a client SSL certificate this would be the user’s DN), also called the subject name.
- Optional certificate extensions, which may provide additional data used by the client or server. For example, the certificate type extension indicates the type of certificate—that is, whether it is a client SSL certificate, a server SSL certificate, a certificate for signing email, and so on. Certificate extensions can also be used for a variety of other purposes.
A signature section, includes the following information.
- The cryptographic algorithm, or cipher, used by the issuing CA to create its own digital signature.
- The CA’s digital signature, obtained by hashing all of the data in the certificate together and encrypting it with the CA's private key.

Example 2–12 Data and Signature Sections of a Certificate in Human-Readable Format

Certificate:
Data:
   Version: v3 (0x2)
   Serial Number: 3 (0x3)
   Signature Algorithm: PKCS #1 MD5 With RSA Encryption
   Issuer: OU=Certificate Authority, O=Example Industry, C=US
   Validity:
    Not Before: Fri Oct 17 18:36:25 2003
    Not  After: Sun Oct 17 18:36:25 2004
   Subject: CN=Jane Doe, OU=Finance, O=Example Industry, C=US
   Subject Public Key Info:
    Algorithm: PKCS #1 RSA Encryption
    Public Key:
       Modulus:
          00:ca:fa:79:98:8f:19:f8:d7:de:e4:49:80:48:e6:2a:2a:86:
          ed:27:40:4d:86:b3:05:c0:01:bb:50:15:c9:de:dc:85:19:22:
          43:7d:45:6d:71:4e:17:3d:f0:36:4b:5b:7f:a8:51:a3:a1:00:
          98:ce:7f:47:50:2c:93:36:7c:01:6e:cb:89:06:41:72:b5:e9:
          73:49:38:76:ef:b6:8f:ac:49:bb:63:0f:9b:ff:16:2a:e3:0e:
          9d:3b:af:ce:9a:3e:48:65:de:96:61:d5:0a:11:2a:a2:80:b0:
          7d:d8:99:cb:0c:99:34:c9:ab:25:06:a8:31:ad:8c:4b:aa:54:
          91:f4:15
       Public Exponent: 65537 (0x10001)
   Extensions:
    Identifier: Certificate Type
      Critical: no
      Certified Usage:
      SSL Client
    Identifier: Authority Key Identifier
      Critical: no
      Key Identifier:
        f2:f2:06:59:90:18:47:51:f5:89:33:5a:31:7a:e6:5c:fb:36:
        26:c9
   Signature:
    Algorithm: PKCS #1 MD5 With RSA Encryption
   Signature:
 6d:23:af:f3:d3:b6:7a:df:90:df:cd:7e:18:6c:01:69:8e:54:65:fc:06:
 30:43:34:d1:63:1f:06:7d:c3:40:a8:2a:82:c1:a4:83:2a:fb:2e:8f:fb:
 f0:6d:ff:75:a3:78:f7:52:47:46:62:97:1d:d9:c6:11:0a:02:a2:e0:cc:
 2a:75:6c:8b:b6:9b:87:00:7d:7c:84:76:79:ba:f8:b4:d2:62:58:c3:c5:
 b6:c1:43:ac:63:44:42:fd:af:c8:0f:2f:38:85:6d:d6:59:e8:41:42:a5:
 4a:e5:26:38:ff:32:78:a1:38:f1:ed:dc:0d:31:d1:b0:6d:67:e9:46:a8:
 d:c4

Example 2–13 Certificate In the 64-Byte Encoded Form Interpreted by Software