What does "-----BEGIN TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----" in a certificate mean?

Question

I got a CA certificate which looks like that below.

As I know, the certificate should begin with "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----", so what does the "-----BEGIN TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----" part mean?

I have checked the OpenSSL documentation; it says the "TRUSTED" part is trusted setting. But I want to know why do we need the "TRUSTED" part?

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

-----BEGIN TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----END TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----

Answer 1

The TRUSTED CERTIFICATE variant is an OpenSSL-specific format which includes "trust rules" appended to the certificate. This is used by the OpenSSL trust engine to determine if the presented end-entity certificate is valid for its current usage.

$ openssl x509 -in /etc/ssl/certs/thawte_Primary_Root_CA.pem -addtrust serverAuth -out trusted.pem
$ cat /etc/ssl/certs/thawte_Primary_Root_CA.pem trusted.pem
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----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-----END TRUSTED CERTIFICATE-----

Notice how the base64 content is the same until the last line.