Netscape MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 6.1 - ADMINISTRATOR Administrator's Manual page 786

Certificates and Authentication
Certificate Chains
CA hierarchies are reflected in certificate chains. A certificate chain is series of
certificates issued by successive CAs. Figure J-7 shows a certificate chain leading
from a certificate that identifies some entity through two subordinate CA
certificates to the CA certificate for the root CA (based on the CA hierarchy shown
in Figure J-6).
Figure J-7
A certificate chain traces a path of certificates from a branch in the hierarchy to the
root of the hierarchy. In a certificate chain, the following occur:
• Each certificate is followed by the certificate of its issuer.
• Each certificate contains the name (DN) of that certificate's issuer, which is the
same as the subject name of the next certificate in the chain.
786 Managing Servers with Netscape Console • December 2001
Example of a Certificate Chain