1. Introduction

This application is intended as Certificate- and key-store and as signing application issuing certificates.

All data structures (Keys, Certificate signing requests, Certificates and Templates) can be imported and exported in several formats like DER or PEM. Import means reading a file from the filesystem and storing the data structure into the database file, while exporting means to write the data structure from the database file to the filesystem to be e.g imported into an other application.

When opening a new database the first time, it needs a password to encrypt the private keys in the database. This is the default password. Every time this database is opened the application asks for the password. This input dialog may be canceled and the database is still opened successfully. However, the access to the keys is not possible without supplying the correct database password everytime a key is used.

The different cryptographic parts are divided over 5 Tabs: Keys, Requests, Certificates, Templates and Revocation lists. All items can be manipulated either by a context menu available by right-clicking on the item, or by using the buttons at the right border. Every item is identified by an internal name which is unique in one tab-view and is always shown in the first column.

1.1 File formats

There are several default file-formats to exchange cryptographic data with other applications.

• DER Distinguished Encoding Rules is the binary ASN.1 encoding of the data.
• PEM Privacy-Enhanced Mail is the base64 encoded version of the DER formated data with additional header and footer lines to be transported via e.g. E-mail
• PKCS#X Public Key Cryptography Standards published by RSA Laboratories

1.2 Further reading

1. SSL Certificates HOWTO
2. OS-PKI book

1.3 Copyright

Copyright (C) 2001 - 2009 Christian Hohnstaedt.

 All rights reserved.


 Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 
 modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

 - Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 - Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
   and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 - Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors may be 
   used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
   specific prior written permission.


THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


This program links to software with different licenses from:

 - http://www.openssl.org which includes cryptographic software
   written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com)"

 - http://www.trolltech.com

1.4 Credits

Kerstin Steinhauff <tine (at) kerstine.de>
        Arts and graphics

Ilya Kozhevnikov <ilya (at) ef.unn.ru>
        Registry stuff for WIN32

Paul Kirner <kirner (at) fhwgt.de>
        Providing compile and test hardware

Wolfgang Glas <wolfgang.glas (at) ev-i.at>
        Implementation of SPKAC and UTF8 support

Bugreports and feature input:
        Frank Werner <Frank (at) WeSoft.de>
        Peter Bieringer <pb (at) bieringer.de>

Thank you very much.