- java.lang.Object
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- java.security.cert.Certificate
 
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- All Implemented Interfaces:
- Serializable
 - Direct Known Subclasses:
- X509Certificate
 
 public abstract class Certificate extends Object implements Serializable 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. - Since:
- 1.2
- See Also:
- X509Certificate,- CertificateFactory, Serialized Form
 
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Nested Class SummaryNested Classes Modifier and Type Class Description protected static classCertificate.CertificateRepAlternate Certificate class for serialization.
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Constructor SummaryConstructors Modifier Constructor Description protectedCertificate(String type)Creates a certificate of the specified type.
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Method SummaryAll Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods Concrete Methods Modifier and Type Method Description booleanequals(Object other)Compares this certificate for equality with the specified object.abstract byte[]getEncoded()Returns the encoded form of this certificate.abstract PublicKeygetPublicKey()Gets the public key from this certificate.StringgetType()Returns the type of this certificate.inthashCode()Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form.abstract StringtoString()Returns a string representation of this certificate.abstract voidverify(PublicKey key)Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.abstract voidverify(PublicKey key, String sigProvider)Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.voidverify(PublicKey key, Provider sigProvider)Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.protected ObjectwriteReplace()Replace the Certificate to be serialized.
 
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Constructor Detail- 
Certificateprotected Certificate(String type) Creates a certificate of the specified type.- Parameters:
- type- the standard name of the certificate type. See the CertificateFactory section in the Java Security Standard Algorithm Names Specification for information about standard certificate types.
 
 
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Method Detail- 
getTypepublic final String getType() Returns the type of this certificate.- Returns:
- the type of this certificate.
 
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equalspublic boolean equals(Object other) Compares this certificate for equality with the specified object. If theotherobject is aninstanceofCertificate, then its encoded form is retrieved and compared with the encoded form of this certificate.- Overrides:
- equalsin class- Object
- Parameters:
- other- the object to test for equality with this certificate.
- Returns:
- true iff the encoded forms of the two certificates match, false otherwise.
- See Also:
- Object.hashCode(),- HashMap
 
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hashCodepublic int hashCode() Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form.- Overrides:
- hashCodein class- Object
- Returns:
- the hashcode value.
- See Also:
- Object.equals(java.lang.Object),- System.identityHashCode(java.lang.Object)
 
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getEncodedpublic abstract byte[] getEncoded() throws CertificateEncodingExceptionReturns 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:
- the encoded form of this certificate
- Throws:
- CertificateEncodingException- if an encoding error occurs.
 
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verifypublic abstract void verify(PublicKey key) throws CertificateException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeyException, NoSuchProviderException, SignatureException Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.- Parameters:
- key- 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.
 
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verifypublic abstract void verify(PublicKey key, String sigProvider) throws CertificateException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeyException, NoSuchProviderException, SignatureException 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- the PublicKey used to carry out the verification.
- sigProvider- 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.
 
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verifypublic void verify(PublicKey key, Provider sigProvider) throws CertificateException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeyException, SignatureException 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. Note that the specified Provider object does not have to be registered in the provider list.This method was added to version 1.8 of the Java Platform Standard Edition. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with existing service providers, this method cannot be abstractand by default throws anUnsupportedOperationException.- Parameters:
- key- the PublicKey used to carry out the verification.
- sigProvider- the signature provider.
- Throws:
- NoSuchAlgorithmException- on unsupported signature algorithms.
- InvalidKeyException- on incorrect key.
- SignatureException- on signature errors.
- CertificateException- on encoding errors.
- UnsupportedOperationException- if the method is not supported
- Since:
- 1.8
 
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toStringpublic abstract String toString() Returns a string representation of this certificate.
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getPublicKeypublic abstract PublicKey getPublicKey() Gets the public key from this certificate.- Returns:
- the public key.
 
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writeReplaceprotected Object writeReplace() throws ObjectStreamException Replace the Certificate to be serialized.- Returns:
- the alternate Certificate object to be serialized
- Throws:
- ObjectStreamException- if a new object representing this Certificate could not be created
- Since:
- 1.3
 
 
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