7.6. X.509

An X.509 digital certificate is the most common form of certificate used in modern infrastructures. It contains information regarding the owner of the certificate, the public key of that certificate, and certain other fields:

  • Version number

  • Serial number

  • Algorithm identifier

  • Issuer name

  • Validity

  • Subject name

  • Subject public key information

  • Issuer unique identifier

  • Subject unique identifier

  • Key identifier

X.509 certificates can be used in almost every area of security, including just about any form of communication or application. The main function of a certificate, as you know from your study at the MCTS level, is to link a user with certain identifiers that label them as an individual (or entity) that your infrastructure can recognize and ...

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