Certificate
  public
  
  
  abstract
  class
  Certificate
  
    extends Object
  
  
  
  
  
  
| java.lang.Object | |
| ↳ | javax.security.cert.Certificate | 
Abstract class for managing a variety of identity certificates. An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that a public key is that of 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.
Note: The classes in the package javax.security.cert
 exist for compatibility with earlier versions of the
 Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE). New applications should instead
 use the standard Java SE certificate classes located in
 java.security.cert.
See also:
Summary
| Public constructors | |
|---|---|
| 
      Certificate()
       | |
| 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. | 
| 
        
        
        
        
        
        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. | 
| Inherited methods | |
|---|---|
Public constructors
Public methods
equals
public 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 if the encoded forms of the two certificates match, false otherwise. | 
getEncoded
public abstract 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[] | encoded form of this certificate | 
| Throws | |
|---|---|
| CertificateEncodingException | on internal certificate encoding failure | 
getPublicKey
public abstract PublicKey getPublicKey ()
Gets the public key from this certificate.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
| PublicKey | the public key. | 
hashCode
public int hashCode ()
Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
| int | the hashcode value. | 
toString
public abstract String toString ()
Returns a string representation of this certificate.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
| String | a string representation of this certificate. | 
verify
public abstract 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. | 
verify
public abstract 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. | 
