PKI and X.509v3 Certificates

This page is based on RFC 5280

Basic PKI

• Certificate Authority (CA)

• Registration Authority (RA)

Certificate Data

• Issuer

• Subject

• Validity

• X509v3 Extensions

X.509v3 Extensions

• Key Usage

• Authority Information Access

• Certificate Policies

• Basic Constraints

• CRL Distribution Points

• Subject Alternative Name (SAN)

Distinguished Name (DN)

An unordered set of AVAs

Attribute Value Assertion (AVA)

• Common Name (CN)

• Organization (O)

• Organizational Unit (OU)

• Country/Region (C)

Revocation

• Certificate Revocation List (CRL)

• Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)

Sample Certificate

Taken from the Red Hat Docs

Data:
  Version:  v3
  Serial Number: 0x1
  Signature Algorithm: SHA1withRSA - 1.2.840.113549.1.1.5
  Issuer: CN=Certificate Manager,OU=netscape,O=ExampleCorp,L=MV,ST=CA,C=US
  Validity:
    Not Before: Friday, February 21, 2005 12:00:00 AM PST America/Los_Angeles
    Not  After: Monday, February 21, 2007 12:00:00 AM PST America/Los_Angeles
  Subject: CN=Certificate Manager,OU=netscape,O=ExampleCorp,L=MV,ST=CA,C=US
  Subject Public Key Info:
    Algorithm: RSA - 1.2.840.113549.1.1.1
    Public Key:
      Exponent: 65537
      Public Key Modulus: (2048 bits) :
        E4:71:2A:CE:E4:24:DC:C4:AB:DF:A3:2E:80:42:0B:D9:
        CF:90:BE:88:4A:5C:C5:B3:73:BF:49:4D:77:31:8A:88:
        15:A7:56:5F:E4:93:68:83:00:BB:4F:C0:47:03:67:F1:
        30:79:43:08:1C:28:A8:97:70:40:CA:64:FA:9E:42:DF:
        35:3D:0E:75:C6:B9:F2:47:0B:D5:CE:24:DD:0A:F7:84:
        4E:FA:16:29:3B:91:D3:EE:24:E9:AF:F6:A1:49:E1:96:
        70:DE:6F:B2:BE:3A:07:1A:0B:FD:FE:2F:75:FD:F9:FC:
        63:69:36:B6:5B:09:C6:84:92:17:9C:3E:64:C3:C4:C9
  Extensions:
    Identifier: Netscape Certificate Type - 2.16.840.1.113730.1.1
      Critical: no
      Certificate Usage:
        SSL CA
        Secure Email CA
        ObjectSigning CA
    Identifier: Basic Constraints - 2.5.29.19
      Critical: yes
      Is CA: yes
      Path Length Constraint: UNLIMITED
    Identifier: Subject Key Identifier - 2.5.29.14
      Critical: no
      Key Identifier:
        3B:46:83:85:27:BC:F5:9D:8E:63:E3:BE:79:EF:AF:79:
        9C:37:85:84
    Identifier: Authority Key Identifier - 2.5.29.35
      Critical: no
      Key Identifier:
        3B:46:83:85:27:BC:F5:9D:8E:63:E3:BE:79:EF:AF:79:
        9C:37:85:84
    Identifier: Key Usage: - 2.5.29.15
      Critical: yes
      Key Usage:
        Digital Signature
        Key CertSign
        Crl Sign
  Signature:
    Algorithm: SHA1withRSA - 1.2.840.113549.1.1.5
    Signature:
      AA:96:65:3D:10:FA:C7:0B:74:38:2D:93:54:32:C0:5B:
      2F:18:93:E9:7C:32:E6:A4:4F:4E:38:93:61:83:3A:6A:
      A2:11:91:C2:D2:A3:48:07:6C:07:54:A8:B8:42:0E:B4:
      E4:AE:42:B4:B5:36:24:46:4F:83:61:64:13:69:03:DF:
      41:88:0B:CB:39:57:8C:6B:9F:52:7E:26:F9:24:5E:E7:
      BC:FB:FD:93:13:AF:24:3A:8F:DB:E3:DC:C9:F9:1F:67:
      A8:BD:0B:95:84:9D:EB:FC:02:95:A0:49:2C:05:D4:B0:
      35:EA:A6:80:30:20:FF:B1:85:C8:4B:74:D9:DC:BB:50