Common attributes of X.509 certificates

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All X.509 certificates have common attributes. The default values populate the attributes in self-signed and regenerated certificates, and in CSRs created from the Email Security — Server Web UI. You can change the default values as desired. For example, you could update the contact email address or change the validity period to two years instead of one.

The following table describes the certificate attributes and provides the system default value for each attribute.

Attribute

Web UI field

CLI keyword

Description

Certificate Name

Certificate

cert-name

A unique name that identifies the certificate. The name can contain letters, numbers, and the period (.), comma (,) and underscore (_) characters.

Common Name (CN)

Common Name

common-name

A fully qualified domain name for the appliance. An exception is the system-self-signed certificate, in which the CN is the appliance hostname.

Organization

Organization

organization

The legal name of your organization.

Organizational Unit

Organizational Unit

org-unit

The department or unit in your organization using the certificate.

City or Locality

City (Locality)

locality

The city or locality where your organization is located.

State or Province

State (Province)

state-or-prov

The state or province where your organization is located.

Country

Country

country-code

The country code of the country where your organization is located.

Issued By

Issued By

This attribute represents the Distinguished Name (DN) of the certificate. The DN includes all of the identification attributes described above. For brevity, the Web UI shows only the Common Name and Organization in the Issued By field. The CLI has no specific "Issued By" line of output.

Time Remaining

Days before expiration

days-valid

The number of days until the certificate will expire.

Expire Date

Expire Date

The date and time the certificate will expire.

Status

Status

Whether the certificate is valid. After a certificate expires, it is no longer valid.

Key Bits

key-size-bits

The number of bits in the private key.

Serial Number

Serial Number

serial-num

A unique number that the issuer assigned to the certificate.

Email Address

email-addr

The email address used to contact the certificate holder (also known as the certificate subject).

Comment

comment

Descriptive information about the certificate.

Certificate Type

Certificate Type

The class of algorithm used to generate the certificate. Valid values are ECDSA and RSA.

Private Key

Private Key

Whether a matching private key for the certificate is present.

SHA-1 Fingerprint

SHA-1 Fingerprint

A short sequence of bytes used to authenticate or look up the public key.

Subject Hash

Subject Hash

A unique hash value based on the subject of the certificate.

Version

Version

Version

The X.509 standard version.

Subject Public Key Algorithm

Public Key Algorithm

Subject Public Key Algorithm

The general type of public key algorithms that are allowed. Valid values are id-ecPublicKey (unrestricted elliptical curve algorithms, defined in RFC 5480) and rsaEncrytion (RSA encryption algorithms, defined in RFC 2437).

Subject Public Key Length

Public-Key

Subject Public Key Length

The length of the public key PEM string.

Signature Algorithm

Signature Algorithm

Signature algorithm

The public key signature algorithm.

Prerequisites
  • Operator or Admin access