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<concept id="GUID-B8EF4291-18FE-572F-AAA1-CF7C491F4DA1" xml:lang="en"><title>File-Based

Certificate and Key Stores Overview</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>The File-Based Certificate and Key Stores manage cryptography certificates,

keys and certificate applications in a device. </p>

<section id="GUID-76219F94-BD45-4C25-9FDE-137662DA06F9"><title>Required background</title> <p>To understand File-Based Certificate

and Key Stores, you need to have a basic understanding of the following: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-E2202F0C-F4D1-5DB8-8048-D815F65CC599"><p><xref href="GUID-A6FF1073-AA55-588D-8DC1-0A8C16864891.dita">Crypto-Token

Framework</xref>  </p> </li>

</ul> </section>

<section id="GUID-2C994F1A-F3E2-42F1-813A-A25930A827DC"><title>Key concepts and terms</title> <dl>

<dlentry>

<dt>Token</dt>

<dd><p>A token is a physical instantiation of an object, such as a certificate

or a key, stored in a phone. Each token belongs to a group of tokens called

a token type. For example, an X.509 certificate is a token which belongs to

the X.509 token type. </p> </dd>

</dlentry>

<dlentry>

<dt>Key</dt>

<dd><p>A cryptography key is a constant value applied using a cryptographic

algorithm to encrypt text or to decrypt encrypted text. </p> <p>Keys are classified

as symmetric and asymmetric based on the type of algorithm applied. If the

same key is used for both encryption and decryption, it is symmetric. If different

keys are used for encryption and decryption, they are asymmetric. Asymmetric

keys exist in the form of a public and private key pair, where the public

key is used for encryption and the private key is used for decryption. </p> </dd>

</dlentry>

<dlentry>

<dt>Certificate</dt>

<dd><p>A certificate (or Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate) is an

electronic document that binds an identity to a public key. It is used to

authenticate public keys. </p> <p>Certificates are issued by a certification

authority (CA) and usually include information such as a label, serial number,

validity period, certificate format (for example, X.509) and algorithm type

(for example, RSA). </p> </dd>

</dlentry>

<dlentry>

<dt>Certificate Store</dt>

<dd><p>A certificate store is a database or a file that stores and manipulates

certificates. </p> <p>Certificate stores typically provide the following functionality: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-E054023C-F86C-520E-9619-6AE5149CD69E"><p>Generation, storage

and retrieval of certificates </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-18A9F698-4715-58B0-A85D-461796A3708A"><p>Assigning trust status

to certificates </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-1CF81CBF-6B12-5D83-AD33-B3A026B13733"><p>Retrieving list of applications

trusting a certificate </p> </li>

</ul> </dd>

</dlentry>

<dlentry>

<dt>Key Store</dt>

<dd><p>A key store is a repository of keys that can be retrieved and used

to accomplish a variety of tasks. </p> <p>Key stores typically provide the

following functionality: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-B45FB71B-1CEA-511A-936E-9386345285B2"><p>Generation, import and

export of RSA, DSA, and DH key pairs </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-51C117AA-37C9-5467-A699-187BE8C580F0"><p>Listing stored keys </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-B18A26D3-6B19-524D-B70A-05FC07E8E513"><p>Performing private key

operations for authenticated users </p> </li>

</ul> </dd>

</dlentry>

<dlentry>

<dt>Certificate Applications Store</dt>

<dd><p>The certificate applications store holds a list of the human-readable

names and UIDs of applications that make use of (trust) the certificates held

in the certificate stores. </p> </dd>

</dlentry>

</dl> </section>

<section id="GUID-359392CB-4DD8-4494-86B0-4E9DCDB359E6"><title>Architecture</title> <p>See the <b>Architecture</b> section

of the <xref href="GUID-C7150120-74C2-5FF1-99F0-0A267393E342.dita">Crypto-Token

Framework Overview</xref> for details. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-BCA11717-7A0F-4506-8E89-BD68008C1DA2"><title>Description</title> <p>The Symbian platform provides

device creators with a file-based software plug-in implementation of key,

certificate and certificate application stores in the device such that these

can be directly used. These stores are implemented using the <xref href="GUID-A6FF1073-AA55-588D-8DC1-0A8C16864891.dita">Crypto-Token

Framework</xref>. They are deployed ahead of the device creators' stores at

ROM build. </p> <p>The <xref href="GUID-39B459CD-8210-59B5-95F4-85CE36676735.dita">Unified

Store</xref> APIs form the single point of access for applications that require

access to certificates, keys and certificate applications in the device. While

the <xref href="GUID-0010EB39-8C23-5453-BE96-4EFC520B6F81.dita">Unified Certificate

Store</xref> API provides a unified view of all the certificate stores and

the certificate applications stores in the device, the <xref href="GUID-695FCEB8-EA04-5C1C-A197-648275BA0281.dita">Unified

Key Store</xref> API provides a similar view of all the key stores in the

device. Although applications can bypass the Unified Stores and gain access

through additional, configurable plug-in interfaces of the file-based certificate

and key stores, this is not recommended. </p> <p>Device creators can choose

to exclude this component at the time of ROM build. However, at least one

implementation of the stores (Symbian's or the device creator's implementation)

must be available to ensure the normal functioning of the applications that

use the certificates, keys and certificate applications in the device. </p> <p> <b>Note:</b> Device

creators, by default, are provided with tools to manipulate certificate and

key stores. For details of these tools, see <xref href="GUID-93C32496-036F-5000-B6FD-CAECAD21DEB8.dita">Certtool</xref> and <xref href="GUID-BD7B20B9-0C04-5F71-8562-246BB60AE769.dita">Keytool</xref>. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-1109D836-EF43-47AC-B9B5-CD103CE3760F"><title>APIs</title> <p>See the <b>Key Classes</b> section of the <xref href="GUID-C7150120-74C2-5FF1-99F0-0A267393E342.dita">Crypto-Token Framework Overview</xref> for

details. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-16209BE8-5A3D-4AEB-8F39-C0E4A8708E75"><title>Typical uses</title> <p>See the following sections for details

of the typical uses of the certificate and key stores: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-8B1C7AEA-C67A-5D7F-A1EF-1459C72849A6"><p><xref href="GUID-B946BDF0-C5D8-57E2-9D05-7BE134AD032E.dita">Unified

Certificate Store Tutorial</xref>  </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-8BACA3C0-B1F7-5B62-AE59-5CC06CA33EA1"><p><xref href="GUID-6C6AED40-D5B3-5613-8F92-FD2CB711AE54.dita">Unified

Key Store Tutorials</xref>  </p> </li>

</ul> </section>

</conbody><related-links>

<link href="GUID-A6FF1073-AA55-588D-8DC1-0A8C16864891.dita"><linktext>Crypto-Token

Framework</linktext></link>

<link href="GUID-39B459CD-8210-59B5-95F4-85CE36676735.dita"><linktext>Unified Store</linktext>

</link>

</related-links></concept>