What Is the Structure of Certificates

Q

What is the structure of certificates? What types of values are recorded in a certificate?

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A

The structure of an X.509 Version 3 certificate is defined in RFC 5280 - "Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile". It contains the following values:

Certificate
    Version
    Serial Number
    Algorithm ID
    Issuer
    Validity
        Not Before
        Not After
    Subject
    Subject Public Key Info
        Public Key Algorithm
        Subject Public Key
    Issuer Unique Identifier (optional)
    Subject Unique Identifier (optional)
    Extensions (optional)
        ...
Certificate Signature Algorithm
Certificate Signature

 

Example of X.509 Certificate Data Structure

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2012-07-24, 5113👍, 0💬