Digital Certificate Fields Explained
- Digital certificates are created using the X.509 standard. Each digital certificate will list what version of the X.509 standard it conforms with in the Version field.
- Each digital certificate is uniquely identified with a serial number, issued by the Certification Authority.
- This field identifies the public key used by the Certification Authority to sign the digital certificate.
- The validity period states the length of time the certificate is valid and is denoted by a start and end date.
- The Subject name field identifies the holder of the certificate. The Subject unique identifier field contains information to identify the subject.
- This field contains the digital signature for the certificate. It is created with the Certification Authority's private key and is generated by the algorithm identified in the Certificate algorithm identifier field.
Version Number
Serial Number
Certificate Algorithm Identifier
Validity Period
Subject Name and Unique Identifier
Certification Authority's Digital Signature
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