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A root certificate is the top-most certificate of the tree, the private key which is used to "sign" other certificates. All certificates signed by the root certificate, with the "CA" field set to true, inherit the trustworthiness of the root certificate—a signature by a root certificate is somewhat analogous to "notarizing" identity in the ...
The roles of root certificate, intermediate certificate and end-entity certificate as in the chain of trust. In computer security, a chain of trust is established by validating each component of hardware and software from the end entity up to the root certificate. It is intended to ensure that only trusted software and hardware can be used ...
In the X.509 system, there are two types of certificates. The first is a CA certificate. The second is an end-entity certificate. A CA certificate can issue other certificates. The top level, self-signed CA certificate is sometimes called the Root CA certificate. Other CA certificates are called intermediate CA or subordinate CA certificates.
The root certificate was used to sign two intermediate certificates, [44] which are also cross-signed by the certificate authority IdenTrust. [ 7 ] [ 45 ] One of the intermediate certificates is used to sign issued certificates, while the other is kept offline as a backup in case of problems with the first intermediate certificate. [ 44 ]
In public-key cryptography and computer security, a root-key ceremony is a procedure for generating a unique pair of public and private root keys. Depending on the certificate policy of a system, the generation of the root keys may require notarization, legal representation, witnesses, or “key-holders” to be present.
Currently the majority of web browsers are shipped with pre-installed intermediate certificates issued and signed by a certificate authority, by public keys certified by so-called root certificates. This means browsers need to carry a large number of different certificate providers, increasing the risk of a key compromise.
The intermediate certificates, stored in an online HSM, can do the day-to-day work of signing end-entity certificates and keeping revocation information up to date. CAs sometimes use a key ceremony when generating signing keys, in order to ensure that the keys are not tampered with or copied.
However, because the root CA has only issued three certificates (to each of the intermediate CAs), the maximum size of its CRL is: Root CA: 3 CRL entries Therefore, the overall burden of maintaining and hosting a CRL specific to the root CA is minimized by the use of intermediate CAs, as well as the burden of maintaining an associated ...