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This article will explain in detail what is the difference between cer and pfx about digital certificate files. The content of the article is of high quality, so the editor will share it with you for reference. I hope you will have a certain understanding of the relevant knowledge after reading this article.

Certificates that exist as files are generally available in these formats:

1. Certificate with private key

Defined by the Public Key Cryptography Standards # 12 PKCS standard, it contains the certificate form of public and private keys in binary format, with pfx as the suffix of the certificate file.

two。 Binary coded certificate

There is no private key in the certificate, and DER encodes the certificate file in binary format, with cer as the suffix of the certificate file.

3.Base64-encoded certificate

There is no private key in the certificate, and the certificate file in BASE64 format also uses cer as the suffix of the certificate file.

From the definition, we can see that only the digital certificate in pfx format contains the private key, and the digital certificate in cer format has only the public key but no private key.

One item during the import of the pfx certificate is "Mark that this key is exportable. This will backup or transfer the key later." It is usually unselected, and if selected, others will have a chance to back up your key. If it is not selected, the key is also imported, but cannot be exported again. This ensures the security of the key.

If this item is not selected during the import process, the item "Export Private key" is grayed out and cannot be selected when making a certificate backup. Only public keys in cer format can be exported. If this item is selected on import, the Export Private key item on export is optional.

If you want to export the private key (pfx), you need to enter the password, this password is to re-encrypt the private key, so as to ensure the security of the private key, even if others get your certificate backup (pfx), do not know the password of the encrypted private key, it is impossible to import the certificate. On the contrary, if you only import and export certificates in cer format, you will not be prompted for a password. Because the public key is generally open to the public, there is no need for encryption

On the digital certificate file cer and pfx what is the difference to share here, I hope the above content can be of some help to you, can learn more knowledge. If you think the article is good, you can share it for more people to see.

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