Netscape NETSCAPE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 4.5, Installation And Setup Manual

Page: 830 / 866

Data Formats
830 Netscape Certificate Management System Installation and Setup Guide • October 2001
• PKCS #7 certificate chain
This is a PKCS #7
SignedData
object. The only significant field in the
SignedData
object is the certificates. In particular, the signature and the
contents are ignored. In future versions of the software, the CRLs will also be
used. The PKCS #7 format allows multiple certificates to be downloaded at
once. See Importing Certificate Chains (page 831) for more information about
handling multiple certificates.
• Netscape Certificate Sequence
This is a simpler format for downloading certificate chains. It consists of a
PKCS #7
ContentInfo
structure, wrapping a sequence of certificates. The
value of the
contentType
field should be
netscape-cert-sequence
(see
Object Identifiers on page 832), while the content field has the following
structure:
CertificateSequence ::= SEQUENCE OF Certificate
This format allows multiple certificates to be downloaded at once. See
Importing Certificate Chains (page 831) for more information about handling
multiple certificates.
Text Formats
Any of the above binary formats can also be imported in text form. The text form
begins with the following line:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
Following this line is the certificate data, which can be in any of the binary formats
just described. This data should be base 64 encoded as described by RFC 1113. The
data is followed by this line:
-----END CERTIFICATE-----