Framework EDI Reference. eSecurityConsole Utility
Digital Certificates

Associating to Key Container

Digital certificates will normally hold only the public key of a public/private key pair.  The private key is not included.  This is because the public key is not secret, and it can be freely distributed to trading partners to verify and encrypt data.  However, the certificate is sometimes referred to sign and decrypt data, which require the private key, so it must have access to a private key to provide these services.  In this case the certificate, in turn, refers to a key container that holds the private key, and a one-to-one association must be made between the certificate and the key container.  The association that bonds the two together is a matching public key; the public key in the certificate and the public key in the key container must be exactly the same -- byte for byte -- for the association to hold.  This association stores only the information that allow the certificate to refer to the key container, such as the key container name and service provider database the key container belongs to.  It does not store the private key in the certificate.

To associate a certificate to a key container, take the following steps:

1. Select and highlight the certificate to associate to a key container.

   

2. Right click and scroll to Associate to Key Container on the popup menu.

   

3. The following dialog box is displayed:

   

   Fill in the information for the following entries in the dialog box:

   • Key Container.  Enter the key container name.  The key container must exist in the specified service provider shown in the dialog box.

4. Click OK to accept entry.