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What for are the commonly used PKCS-Standards: PKCS#7, PKCS#10 and PKCS#12?


What for are the commonly used PKCS-Standards: PKCS#7, PKCS#10 and PKCS#12?


Solution

  • PKCS#7 lets you sign and encrypt generic data using X.509 certificates. Also PKCS#7 format can be used to store one or more certificates without private keys (private keys can be put as a data payload and encrypted this way).

    PKCS#10 defines format for certificate requests.

    PKCS#12 provides a container for one or several certificates with private keys.