In PKI, a self-signed digital certificate. The basis of every X.509 PKI implementation, which, together with its attached public key, is assumed to be trusted and often accepted with no further verification. Although commercial CAs often make their root certificates public, these are rarely validated by users. _____________________________________________________________________________
a public, self-signed certificate that is the last link in a certificate chain
a self-signed certificate, containing the identity of the certification authority of the certificate server
A self-signed certification authority (CA) certificate that identifies a CA. It is called a root certificate because it is the certificate for the root CA. The root CA must sign its own CA certificate because by definition there is no higher certifying authority to sign its CA certificate.
In SET programs, the certificate at the top of the certificate chain hierarchy.
A certificate that is intrinsically trusted by entities in a Public Key Infrastructure (generally should be transported over a secure medium). Root certificates belong to a Certification Authority and are used to sign other certificates that are deemed to be valid. When a system tries to establish the validity of a certificate, one of the first things that should happen is that it should look for a chain of trust to a known, trusted root certificate. That is, if the certificate to be validated isn't signed by a root, then one checks the certificate(s) used to sign it to see if those were signed by a root cert. Lather, rinse, repeat. See Also: Public Key Infrastructure
a top level certificate that comes from a certification authority service and is issued to organizational certificate authorities to establish a basis for trust among institutional participants.
The first Certificate in a certification chain (the PKI hierarchy), self-issued by a Certification Authority using secure and trustworthy hardware and software. The Root Certificate, and its corresponding Public Key, must first be obtained or downloaded by the affirmative act of the Authorized Relying Party in order to ensure the reliability of a certification chain. (See Certification Authority; Public Key, Public Key Infrastructure.)
A self-signed certification authority certificate. It is called a root certificate because it is the certificate for the root authority. The root authority must sign its own certificate because by definition there is no higher certifying authority in the certification hierarchy. See also: certificate; certification authority (CA); certification hierarchy; root authority
A self-signed digital certificate which is the foundation of every x.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) implementation. If the root certificate is untrustworthy, so is every certificate that the root Certificate Authority (CA) signed.
Certificate of the highest certification authority of a hierarchy (root authority). It is the basis of all trust in a hierarchical PKI. A PSE with certificate is tightly bound to the certification hierarchy and the root certificate. The tight binding allows trustworthy communications with other partners, even when they have been certified by subordinate certification authorities.
In cryptography and computer security, a root certificate is an unsigned public key certificate, or a self-signed certificate, and is part of a public key infrastructure scheme. The most common commercial variety is based on the ITU-T X.509 standard. Normally an X.509 certificate includes a digital signature from a certificate authority (CA) which vouches for correctness of the data contained in a certificate.
