public
abstract
class
Certificate
extends Object
implements
Serializable
| java.lang.Object | |
| ↳ | java.security.cert.Certificate |
 Known Direct Subclasses
|
Abstract class for managing a variety of identity certificates. An identity certificate is a binding of a principal to a public key which is vouched for by another principal. (A principal represents an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.)
This class is an abstraction for certificates that have different formats but important common uses. For example, different types of certificates, such as X.509 and PGP, share general certificate functionality (like encoding and verifying) and some types of information (like a public key).
X.509, PGP, and SDSI certificates can all be implemented by subclassing the Certificate class, even though they contain different sets of information, and they store and retrieve the information in different ways.
See also:
Nested classes | |
|---|---|
class |
Certificate.CertificateRep
Alternate Certificate class for serialization. |
Protected constructors | |
|---|---|
Certificate(String type)
Creates a certificate of the specified type. |
|
Public methods | |
|---|---|
boolean
|
equals(Object other)
Compares this certificate for equality with the specified object. |
abstract
byte[]
|
getEncoded()
Returns the encoded form of this certificate. |
abstract
PublicKey
|
getPublicKey()
Gets the public key from this certificate. |
final
String
|
getType()
Returns the type of this certificate. |
int
|
hashCode()
Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form. |
abstract
String
|
toString()
Returns a string representation of this certificate. |
abstract
void
|
verify(PublicKey key, String sigProvider)
Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key. |
abstract
void
|
verify(PublicKey key)
Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key. |
Protected methods | |
|---|---|
Object
|
writeReplace()
Replace the Certificate to be serialized. |
Inherited methods | |
|---|---|
From
class
java.lang.Object
| |
Certificate (String type)
Creates a certificate of the specified type.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
type |
String:
the standard name of the certificate type.
See the CertificateFactory section in the
Java Cryptography Architecture Standard Algorithm Name Documentation
for information about standard certificate types.
|
boolean equals (Object other)
Compares this certificate for equality with the specified
object. If the other object is an
instanceof Certificate, then
its encoded form is retrieved and compared with the
encoded form of this certificate.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
other |
Object:
the object to test for equality with this certificate. |
| Returns | |
|---|---|
boolean |
true iff the encoded forms of the two certificates match, false otherwise. |
byte[] getEncoded ()
Returns the encoded form of this certificate. It is assumed that each certificate type would have only a single form of encoding; for example, X.509 certificates would be encoded as ASN.1 DER.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
byte[] |
the encoded form of this certificate |
| Throws | |
|---|---|
CertificateEncodingException |
if an encoding error occurs. |
PublicKey getPublicKey ()
Gets the public key from this certificate.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
PublicKey |
the public key. |
String getType ()
Returns the type of this certificate.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
String |
the type of this certificate. |
int hashCode ()
Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
int |
the hashcode value. |
String toString ()
Returns a string representation of this certificate.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
String |
a string representation of this certificate. |
void verify (PublicKey key, String sigProvider)
Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key. This method uses the signature verification engine supplied by the specified provider.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
key |
PublicKey:
the PublicKey used to carry out the verification. |
sigProvider |
String:
the name of the signature provider. |
| Throws | |
|---|---|
NoSuchAlgorithmException |
on unsupported signature algorithms. |
InvalidKeyException |
on incorrect key. |
NoSuchProviderException |
on incorrect provider. |
SignatureException |
on signature errors. |
CertificateException |
on encoding errors. |
void verify (PublicKey key)
Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
key |
PublicKey:
the PublicKey used to carry out the verification. |
| Throws | |
|---|---|
NoSuchAlgorithmException |
on unsupported signature algorithms. |
InvalidKeyException |
on incorrect key. |
NoSuchProviderException |
if there's no default provider. |
SignatureException |
on signature errors. |
CertificateException |
on encoding errors. |
Object writeReplace ()
Replace the Certificate to be serialized.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
Object |
the alternate Certificate object to be serialized |
| Throws | |
|---|---|
ObjectStreamException |
if a new object representing this Certificate could not be created |
Developers