EFS AND CERTIFICATES

[Joe]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Hi All,



Have been studying Win XP Pro's EFS functionality. Just got a quick
question. I always thought that a certificate was made up of a users public
and private key but now I'm not so sure.



Could someone clarify for me what makes up a certificate, and what is in a
..cer file and what is in a a .pfx file.



Many thanks.



Chris

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Joe schrieb:

> Could someone clarify for me what makes up a certificate, and what is in a
> .cer file and what is in a a .pfx file.

A .cer file always contains exactly one certificate (and the certificate
contains one public key signed by the authority that created the
certificate).
A .pfy or .p12 file can contain more than one certificate (eg a complete
certificate chain to a trusted root) and additional it can contain the
corresponding private key for a certificate.

Jan