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Acrobat 9 Family of Products
Validating Signatures
Security Feature User Guide
Troubleshooting an Identity Problem 118
Figure 83 Certificate Viewer
7.5.1.3 Verifying the Identity of Self-Signed Certificates
Certificates are usually issued by a trusted, third-party certificate authority such as VeriSign. However,
anyone can set up a certificate authority or create a self-signed certificate purporting to be anyone else.
For self-signed certificates or those issued by unknown or untrusted certificate authorities, it is prudent to
verify the certificate owner’s identity before being added to them trusted identity list.
To verify the origin of the certificate:
1. Display the certificate in the Certificate Viewer:
If the certificate is embedded in a signature, right click on the signature, choose
Show Signature
Properties
, display the Summary tab, and choose
Show Certificate
.
If the certificate is in an FDF file, double-click the attached file, and choose
Certificate Details
in the
Import Contact Settings dialog.
Tip:
Double clicking a file other than an FDF will likely install the certificate in the Windows
Certificate Store. If the file is .
cer
, .
p7b
, or some other format and you want to import into
the Acrobat certificate store, save the file locally and import it into the Trusted Identity
Manager as described in
“Importing Someone’s Certificate” on page 166
2. Display the Details tab.