What is difference between key and certificate?

What is difference between key and certificate?

Public-key cryptography is based on the concept of a key pair, which consists of a public key and a private key. The owner of the key pair makes the public key available to anyone, but keeps the private key secret. A certificate verifies that an entity is the owner of a particular public key.

Does a certificate contain the private key?

A private key is created by you — the certificate owner — when you request your certificate with a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The certificate authority (CA) providing your certificate (such as DigiCert) does not create or have your private key.

Are PEM and PFX the same?

Unfortunately, PFX isn’t the only certificate format in circulation. The Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) format is now much more liberally used as a key format, and can contain private keys (RSA and DSA), public keys (RSA and DSA), and x509 certificates.

Does a public key stay the same when a certificate?

The CA copies the public key from the CSR to the Certificate. When you create the CSR it is up to you what key you put in it. You can choose to use the same key as last time, you can chooose to use a freshly generated key, you can choose to use a key you just pulled out of your cold storage vault, it’s all up to you.

Can You renew a certificate with a new key?

Renewing a certificate with a new key allows you to continue using an existing certificate and its associated data, while enhancing the strength of the key associated with the certificate. This can be desirable if using a new certificate would cause disruption and the existing certificate has not been compromised.

What does a certificate do for a key pair?

The owner of the key pair makes the public key available to anyone, but keeps the private key secret. A certificate verifies that an entity is the owner of a particular public key. Certificates that follow the X.509 standard contain a data section and a signature section.

Can a certificate be issued by the same root key?

You have no idea whether future certificates will be issued by the same root and intermediate keys. Make sure you have spare keys that will be recognised by your client, having your application recognise only a single key leaves you up shit creek without a paddle if that key is compromised.