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An Overview of Public Key Infrastructures (PKI)

979 bytes added, 20:23, 29 February 2008
Certificate Repositories
== Certificate Repositories ==
 
Once certificates and corresponding public keys have been generated they are generally stored in a public accessible location known as a ''certificate repository''. Certificate repositories are typically compatible with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) making access to and searching of repositories compatible with open standards. A dedicated security repository usually available for each particular PKI environment.
 
== Digital Certificate Structure ==
 
Digital certificates are structured in conformance with the X.509 standard. This standard outlines the required fields that comprise a certificate together with acceptable values for those fields.
 
The fields specified by X.509 are as follows:
 
* '''Version Number''' - Specifies the version of X.509 to which the certificate conforms (at time of writing the current version is 3). The version number is important because it defines which other fields are necessary in the certificate.
 
* '''Subject''' -