iaik.x509.qualified
Class QualifiedCertificateFactory

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--java.security.cert.CertificateFactorySpi
        |
        +--iaik.x509.CertificateFactory
              |
              +--iaik.x509.qualified.QualifiedCertificateFactory

public class QualifiedCertificateFactory

extends CertificateFactory

This class implements a CertificateFactory for Qualified Certificates.

The PKIX Qualified Certificate Profile, based on RFC 2459, defines a certificate format for identifying a person with high level of assurance in public non-repudiation servises. The term Qualifed Certifiacte is used to describe a certificate with a certain qualified status within applicable governing law. A CA issuing a qualified certificate has to include information in the certificate indicating that the certificate is a qualified one. The Qualified Certificate Profile describes two complementary ways for including this inforamtion:

• As information defined by a certificate policy included in the certificate policies extension.
• As a statement included in the Qualified Certificates Statements extension.

The most proper way for recognizing a CertificatePolicies extension containing a qualified PolicyInformation term may be by looking at the policy identifier associated with the PolicyInformation object. In similar way each QCStatement included in a QCStatements extension is identified by its own statement ID which may indicate a qualified statement.

When using methods generateCertificate or generateCertificate of this factory for reading in encoded certificates, each certificate is checked of being a qualified certificate (having a qualified PolicyInformation term in its CertificatePolicies extension or a qualified QCStatement term in ist QCStatements extension). If a qualified certificate is found it is returned as QualifiedCertificate object. A "normal" (not qualified) certificate is returned as X509Certificate object.

When instantiating a QualifiedCertificateFactory object use "Qualified" as standard name:

 CertificateFactory cf = CertificateFactory.getInstance("Qualified", "IAIK");
 Certificate cert = cf.generateCertificate(is);
 if (cert instanceof QualifiedCertificate) {
   System.out.println("Qualified certificate!");
 }
 

Version:

File Revision 12

See Also:

QualifiedCertificate, X509Certificate, X509CRL

Constructor Summary

QualifiedCertificateFactory()

Method Summary

Certificate	engineGenerateCertificate(InputStream is) Parses a X.509 certificate from the supplied input stream.
Collection	engineGenerateCertificates(InputStream is) Parses a collection of X.509 certificates from the supplied input stream.

Methods inherited from class iaik.x509.CertificateFactory

engineGenerateCRL, engineGenerateCRLs

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

QualifiedCertificateFactory

public QualifiedCertificateFactory()

Method Detail

engineGenerateCertificate

public Certificate engineGenerateCertificate(InputStream is)
                                      throws CertificateException

Parses a X.509 certificate from the supplied input stream. If the certificate represents a qualified certificate a QualifiedCertificate object is returned, if not a X509Certificate object.

Overrides:

engineGenerateCertificate in class CertificateFactory

Parameters:

is - the input stream supplying the encoded certificate

Returns:

the certificate parsed from the stream, either as QualifiedCertificate object or as X509Certificate object

Throws:

CertificateException - if an decoding/parsing error occurs

engineGenerateCertificates

public Collection engineGenerateCertificates(InputStream is)
                                      throws CertificateException

Parses a collection of X.509 certificates from the supplied input stream. The collection may be supplied in one of the following formats (encoding = DER):

1. PKCS7CertList
2. Chain of DER encoded X.509 certificates
3. NetscapeCertList

Any certificate of the supplied collection that represents a qualified certificate is returned as QualifiedCertificate object, any other as X509Certificate object

Overrides:

engineGenerateCertificates in class CertificateFactory

Parameters:

is - the input stream supplying the encoded certificates

Returns:

the collection of X509Certificates/QualifiedCertificates parsed from the stream

Throws:

CertificateException - if an decoding/parsing error occurs