sendmail, 4th Edition

Digital Certificate Acronyms

The sendmail program uses a number of acronyms and abbreviations to refer to the various components of digital certificates. They are listed in Table 5-4.

Table 5-4. Acronyms, abbreviations, and terms for digital certificates

Term	Description
CA	Certificate authority (authority that issues a digital certificate)
Cert	A digital certificate, but often means just the public part of the whole certificate
Cipher	The type of encryption used for a connection
Client Certificate	Identifies connecting client to the mail server
CN	Common Name (the username or site name)
Key	The private key, but often means just the private part of the whole certificate
Private Key	The private-key part of a certificate
Public Key	The public-key part of a certificate
Server Certificate	Identifies mail server to connecting client
Revocation List	A file which lists certificates that have been revoked and should no longer be considered valid

For example, you might see a reference to “install a CA cert” in this book or in the sendmail documentation. This phrase means to install a digital certificate issued by a certificate authority. When you install the certs of the issuing CA, you are generally installing only the public parts.

You are encouraged to refer to Table 5-4 while reading the next few sections, where these acronyms, abbreviations, and terms are frequently used.