java.security.Certificate Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/*
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This work corresponds to the API signatures of JSR 219: Foundation
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*/
package java.security;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.Date;
/**
*
This is an interface of abstract methods for managing a
* variety of identity certificates.
* An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that
* a public key is that of another principal. (A principal represents
* an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.)
*
*
In particular, this interface is intended to be a common
* abstraction for constructs that have different formats but
* important common uses. For example, different types of
* certificates, such as X.509 certificates and PGP certificates,
* share general certificate functionality (the need to encode and
* decode certificates) and some types of information, such as a
* public key, the principal whose key it is, and the guarantor
* guaranteeing that the public key is that of the specified
* principal. So an implementation of X.509 certificates and an
* implementation of PGP certificates can both utilize the Certificate
* interface, even though their formats and additional types and
* amounts of information stored are different.
*
*
Important: This interface is useful for cataloging and
* grouping objects sharing certain common uses. It does not have any
* semantics of its own. In particular, a Certificate object does not
* make any statement as to the validity of the binding. It is
* the duty of the application implementing this interface to verify
* the certificate and satisfy itself of its validity.
*
* @version 1.31, 02/02/00
* @author Benjamin Renaud
* @deprecated A new certificate handling package is created in the Java 2 platform.
* This Certificate interface is entirely deprecated and
* is here to allow for a smooth transition to the new
* package.
* @see java.security.cert.Certificate
*/
public interface Certificate
{
/**
* Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal
* guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate
* is that of the principal associated with this certificate. For X.509
* certificates, the guarantor will typically be a Certificate Authority
* (such as the United States Postal Service or Verisign, Inc.).
*
* @return the guarantor which guaranteed the principal-key
* binding.
*/
public Principal getGuarantor();
/**
* Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by
* the guarantor.
*
* @return the principal to which this certificate is bound.
*/
public Principal getPrincipal();
/**
* Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by
* the guarantor.
*
* @return the public key that this certificate certifies belongs
* to a particular principal.
*/
public PublicKey getPublicKey();
/**
* Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can
* be decoded by the decode method.
*
* @param stream the output stream to which to encode the
* certificate.
*
* @exception KeyException if the certificate is not
* properly initialized, or data is missing, etc.
*
* @exception IOException if a stream exception occurs while
* trying to output the encoded certificate to the output stream.
*
* @see #decode
* @see #getFormat
*/
public void encode(OutputStream stream) throws KeyException, IOException;
/**
* Decodes a certificate from an input stream. The format should be
* that returned by getFormat and produced by
* encode.
*
* @param stream the input stream from which to fetch the data
* being decoded.
*
* @exception KeyException if the certificate is not properly initialized,
* or data is missing, etc.
*
* @exception IOException if an exception occurs while trying to input
* the encoded certificate from the input stream.
*
* @see #encode
* @see #getFormat
*/
public void decode(InputStream stream) throws KeyException, IOException;
/**
* Returns the name of the coding format. This is used as a hint to find
* an appropriate parser. It could be "X.509", "PGP", etc. This is
* the format produced and understood by the encode
* and decode methods.
*
* @return the name of the coding format.
*/
public String getFormat();
/**
* Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.
*
* @param detailed whether or not to give detailed information
* about the certificate
*
* @return a string representing the contents of the certificate
*/
public String toString(boolean detailed);
}