Abstract class for X.509 certificates. This provides a standard way to access all the attributes of an X.509 certificate.

In June of 1996, the basic X.509 v3 format was completed by ISO/IEC and ANSI X9, which is described below in ASN.1:

Certificate  ::=  SEQUENCE  {
     tbsCertificate       TBSCertificate,
     signatureAlgorithm   AlgorithmIdentifier,
     signature            BIT STRING  }

These certificates are widely used to support authentication and other functionality in Internet security systems. Common applications include Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM), Transport Layer Security (SSL), code signing for trusted software distribution, and Secure Electronic Transactions (SET).

These certificates are managed and vouched for by Certificate Authorities (CAs). CAs are services which create certificates by placing data in the X.509 standard format and then digitally signing that data. CAs act as trusted third parties, making introductions between principals who have no direct knowledge of each other. CA certificates are either signed by themselves, or by some other CA such as a "root" CA.

More information can be found in RFC 3280: Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile.

The ASN.1 definition of tbsCertificate is:

TBSCertificate  ::=  SEQUENCE  {
     version         [0]  EXPLICIT Version DEFAULT v1,
     serialNumber         CertificateSerialNumber,
     signature            AlgorithmIdentifier,
     issuer               Name,
     validity             Validity,
     subject              Name,
     subjectPublicKeyInfo SubjectPublicKeyInfo,
     issuerUniqueID  [1]  IMPLICIT UniqueIdentifier OPTIONAL,
                          -- If present, version must be v2 or v3
     subjectUniqueID [2]  IMPLICIT UniqueIdentifier OPTIONAL,
                          -- If present, version must be v2 or v3
     extensions      [3]  EXPLICIT Extensions OPTIONAL
                          -- If present, version must be v3
     }

Certificates are instantiated using a certificate factory. The following is an example of how to instantiate an X.509 certificate:

try (InputStream inStream = new FileInputStream("fileName-of-cert")) {
     CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X.509");
     X509Certificate cert = (X509Certificate)cf.generateCertificate(inStream);
 }

Checks that the certificate is currently valid. It is if the current date and time are within the validity period given in the certificate.

The validity period consists of two date/time values: the first and last dates (and times) on which the certificate is valid. It is defined in ASN.1 as:

validity             Validity

 Validity ::= SEQUENCE {
     notBefore      CertificateValidityDate,
     notAfter       CertificateValidityDate }

 CertificateValidityDate ::= CHOICE {
     utcTime        UTCTime,
     generalTime    GeneralizedTime }

Denigrated, replaced by getIssuerX500Principal(). This method returns the issuer as an implementation specific Principal object, which should not be relied upon by portable code.

Gets the issuer (issuer distinguished name) value from the certificate. The issuer name identifies the entity that signed (and issued) the certificate.

The issuer name field contains an X.500 distinguished name (DN). The ASN.1 definition for this is:

issuer    Name

 Name ::= CHOICE { RDNSequence }
 RDNSequence ::= SEQUENCE OF RelativeDistinguishedName
 RelativeDistinguishedName ::=
     SET OF AttributeValueAssertion

 AttributeValueAssertion ::= SEQUENCE {
                               AttributeType,
                               AttributeValue }
 AttributeType ::= OBJECT IDENTIFIER
 AttributeValue ::= ANY

Returns the issuer (issuer distinguished name) value from the certificate as an X500Principal.

It is recommended that subclasses override this method.

Denigrated, replaced by getSubjectX500Principal(). This method returns the subject as an implementation specific Principal object, which should not be relied upon by portable code.

Gets the subject (subject distinguished name) value from the certificate. If the subject value is empty, then the getName() method of the returned Principal object returns an empty string ("").

The ASN.1 definition for this is:

subject    Name

See getIssuerDN for Name and other relevant definitions.

Returns the subject (subject distinguished name) value from the certificate as an X500Principal. If the subject value is empty, then the getName() method of the returned X500Principal object returns an empty string ("").

It is recommended that subclasses override this method.

Gets the signature algorithm name for the certificate signature algorithm. An example is the string "SHA256withRSA". The ASN.1 definition for this is:

signatureAlgorithm   AlgorithmIdentifier

 AlgorithmIdentifier  ::=  SEQUENCE  {
     algorithm               OBJECT IDENTIFIER,
     parameters              ANY DEFINED BY algorithm OPTIONAL  }
                             -- contains a value of the type
                             -- registered for use with the
                             -- algorithm object identifier value

The algorithm name is determined from the algorithm OID string.

Gets the signature algorithm OID string from the certificate. An OID is represented by a set of nonnegative whole numbers separated by periods. For example, the string "1.2.840.10040.4.3" identifies the SHA-1 with DSA signature algorithm defined in RFC 3279: Algorithms and Identifiers for the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile.

See getSigAlgName for relevant ASN.1 definitions.

Gets the DER-encoded signature algorithm parameters from this certificate's signature algorithm. In most cases, the signature algorithm parameters are null; the parameters are usually supplied with the certificate's public key. If access to individual parameter values is needed then use AlgorithmParameters and instantiate with the name returned by getSigAlgName.

See getSigAlgName for relevant ASN.1 definitions.

Gets the issuerUniqueID value from the certificate. The issuer unique identifier is present in the certificate to handle the possibility of reuse of issuer names over time. RFC 3280 recommends that names not be reused and that conforming certificates not make use of unique identifiers. Applications conforming to that profile should be capable of parsing unique identifiers and making comparisons.

The ASN.1 definition for this is:

issuerUniqueID  [1]  IMPLICIT UniqueIdentifier OPTIONAL

 UniqueIdentifier  ::=  BIT STRING

Gets the subjectUniqueID value from the certificate.

The ASN.1 definition for this is:

subjectUniqueID  [2]  IMPLICIT UniqueIdentifier OPTIONAL

 UniqueIdentifier  ::=  BIT STRING

Gets an unmodifiable list of Strings representing the OBJECT IDENTIFIERs of the ExtKeyUsageSyntax field of the extended key usage extension, (OID = 2.5.29.37). It indicates one or more purposes for which the certified public key may be used, in addition to or in place of the basic purposes indicated in the key usage extension field. The ASN.1 definition for this is:

ExtKeyUsageSyntax ::= SEQUENCE SIZE (1..MAX) OF KeyPurposeId

 KeyPurposeId ::= OBJECT IDENTIFIER

This method was added to version 1.4 of the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with existing service providers, this method is not abstract and it provides a default implementation. Subclasses should override this method with a correct implementation.

Gets the certificate constraints path length from the critical BasicConstraints extension, (OID = 2.5.29.19).

The basic constraints extension identifies whether the subject of the certificate is a Certificate Authority (CA) and how deep a certification path may exist through that CA. The pathLenConstraint field (see below) is meaningful only if cA is set to TRUE. In this case, it gives the maximum number of CA certificates that may follow this certificate in a certification path. A value of zero indicates that only an end-entity certificate may follow in the path.

The ASN.1 definition for this is:

BasicConstraints ::= SEQUENCE {
     cA                  BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,
     pathLenConstraint   INTEGER (0..MAX) OPTIONAL }

Gets an immutable collection of subject alternative names from the SubjectAltName extension, (OID = 2.5.29.17).

The ASN.1 definition of the SubjectAltName extension is:

SubjectAltName ::= GeneralNames

 GeneralNames :: = SEQUENCE SIZE (1..MAX) OF GeneralName

 GeneralName ::= CHOICE {
      otherName                       [0]     OtherName,
      rfc822Name                      [1]     IA5String,
      dNSName                         [2]     IA5String,
      x400Address                     [3]     ORAddress,
      directoryName                   [4]     Name,
      ediPartyName                    [5]     EDIPartyName,
      uniformResourceIdentifier       [6]     IA5String,
      iPAddress                       [7]     OCTET STRING,
      registeredID                    [8]     OBJECT IDENTIFIER}

If this certificate does not contain a SubjectAltName extension, null is returned. Otherwise, a Collection is returned with an entry representing each GeneralName included in the extension. Each entry is a List whose first entry is an Integer (the name type, 0-8) and whose second entry is a String or a byte array (the name, in string or ASN.1 DER encoded form, respectively).

RFC 822, DNS, and URI names are returned as Strings, using the well-established string formats for those types (subject to the restrictions included in RFC 3280). IPv4 address names are returned using dotted quad notation. IPv6 address names are returned in the form "a1:a2:...:a8", where a1-a8 are hexadecimal values representing the eight 16-bit pieces of the address. OID names are returned as Strings represented as a series of nonnegative integers separated by periods. And directory names (distinguished names) are returned in RFC 2253 string format. No standard string format is defined for otherNames, X.400 names, EDI party names, or any other type of names. They are returned as byte arrays containing the ASN.1 DER encoded form of the name.

Note that the Collection returned may contain more than one name of the same type. Also, note that the returned Collection is immutable and any entries containing byte arrays are cloned to protect against subsequent modifications.

This method was added to version 1.4 of the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with existing service providers, this method is not abstract and it provides a default implementation. Subclasses should override this method with a correct implementation.

Gets an immutable collection of issuer alternative names from the IssuerAltName extension, (OID = 2.5.29.18).

The ASN.1 definition of the IssuerAltName extension is:

IssuerAltName ::= GeneralNames

If this certificate does not contain an IssuerAltName extension, null is returned. Otherwise, a Collection is returned with an entry representing each GeneralName included in the extension. Each entry is a List whose first entry is an Integer (the name type, 0-8) and whose second entry is a String or a byte array (the name, in string or ASN.1 DER encoded form, respectively). For more details about the formats used for each name type, see the getSubjectAlternativeNames method.

Note that the Collection returned may contain more than one name of the same type. Also, note that the returned Collection is immutable and any entries containing byte arrays are cloned to protect against subsequent modifications.

This method was added to version 1.4 of the Java 2 Platform Standard Edition. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with existing service providers, this method is not abstract and it provides a default implementation. Subclasses should override this method with a correct implementation.