Re: Conversion of PEM certificates?

[David Rudder <drig@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, Edward Russell wrote:

> Is it possible to convert PEM formatted certificates from/to PKCS 
> formatted certificates? 

Actually, for the most part, they are the same thing.  PKCS uses the 
Extended Certificates, but they are backwards compatible.

> 
> If you go to http://cms.cost.se/cgi-bin/iceuca you can fetch someone's 
> certificate in PEM 
> format.

Okay, done that.  Then, I clipped out the section under "Originator 
Certificate", base64decoded it, and was left with a valid x509 cert.
I'm clipping a bunch of stuff here because I can answer all your 
questions here.  They are the same certificates.  X509 works well, so 
S/MIME (PKCS-7) saw no reason to change them, above adding a couple 
extensions.  The X509 certs in PKCS-6 is the Extended cert, so according 
the the PKCS spec, the PEM certs are valid.  I'd check out the PEM RFC's 
(1421 through 1424) for how to split up a PEM file, but it's all just 
messing with text.

			-Dave
		   drig@magicweb.com

I got a coffee mug from Cray Research when they moved out.  Now I can 
drink my coffee while doing 63 other, unrelated tasks.