PEM encoded certificate

File Format
Name	PEM encoded certificate
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Security PEM encoded certificate
Extension(s)	.pem, .crt, .cer

PEM encoded certificate is a file format for storing X.509 certificates. It is one of many PEM formats.

A certificate file should have a corresponding private key file.

Format

A PEM encoded certificate is simply a base64-encoded DER encoded certificate file, with some delimiting lines added.

More than one certificate may be stored in a single file. There may also be other types of objects, such as private keys, stored in the same file.

Identification

A PEM encoded certificate file is plain text. It contains one or more pairs of "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" and "-----END CERTIFICATE-----" lines, with base64-encoded data between them.

Examples

To display the contents of a PEM encoded certificate using OpenSSL:

 openssl x509 -noout -text -in example.pem

To convert from PEM encoded certificate format to DER encoded certificate format:

 openssl x509 -in example.pem -outform der -out example.der

Software

• OpenSSL

Sample files

• dexvert samples — text/pemCertificate