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Use and utility of .p12 certificate/file

What is the utility of .p12 file/certificate? I am not getting any correct definition when searching the internet:

  • In one site I got "it stores server side certificates along with intermediate certificates and private key in one file. Its mostly used in Windows Machine"

  • In another site i got "it binds a organizations public key with its name.

My question is whether its public key or private key which is included in the .p12 certificate.

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Pallab Avatar asked Oct 26 '13 08:10

Pallab


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What does a p12 certificate contain?

The . p12 contains both the private and the public key, and also information about the owner (name, email address, etc. ) all being certified by a third party. With such certificate, a user can identify himself and authenticate himself to any organization trusting the third party.

What type of certificate is p12?

p12 is an alternate extension for what is generally referred to as a "PFX file", it's the combined format that holds the private key and certificate and is the format most modern signing utilities use. If you have a . p12 file that you exported from Firefox or Safari just rename the . p12 extension to .

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1 Answers

The .p12 contains both the private and the public key, and also information about the owner (name, email address, etc. ) all being certified by a third party. With such certificate, a user can identify himself and authenticate himself to any organization trusting the third party.

You should be able to see the content of the p12 file with

openssl pkcs12 -info -in filename.p12 

provided openssl is installed in your system.

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damienfrancois Avatar answered Oct 14 '22 21:10

damienfrancois