User certificates

A user certificate is a digital document that validates the identity of the client or user that owns the certificate. User certificates are issued by a Certificate Authority and contain information that identifies the client or user , such as the user's distinguished name (DN). The certificate also contains the user's public key.

Servers can use the certificate to authenticate the identity of the client (or user) when initiating a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) communications session. Other users may be able to determine the identity of the user by examining the user's certificate, but can only authenticate the user during SSL.