Types of Certificates |
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Certificate Chain
A certificate chain is the hierarchy of certificates and includes all certificates from the root certificate to the certificate itself. Each certificate in the certificate chain is preceded by the certificate of its issuer. The type of certificate depends on its position in the certificate chain.
Types of Certificates
A certificate is issued by a certificate authority (CA) or is self-signed, see
Intermediate Certificate Authorities
Type |
Description |
|---|---|
Self-signed certificate |
A self-signed certificate is not issued by any authority, so there is no external validation possible on the certificate. |
Root CA certificate |
Root CA's are the certification authorities that use self-signed certificates. Many certification authorities do not issue certificates to users. A root certificate issues certificates to other certification authorities. |
Intermediate CA certificate |
Intermediate CA's are certified by a Root certificate. An Intermediate certificate authority can issue certificates to other intermediate certificate authorities and also to users. The certificate may or may not contain CRL details. However, without CRL details, the validation process of a certificate is incomplete as there is no way to know its revocation status. |
End user certificate |
Any certificate used to authenticate an entity is an end user certificate. End user certificates are issued by a CA, or are self-signed. |