The Distinguished Name (DN) uniquely identifies an entity in an X.509 certificate. The following attribute types are commonly found in the DN:
CN | Common Name |
T | Title |
O | Organization name |
OU | Organizational Unit name |
L | Locality name |
ST (or SP or S) | State or Province name |
C | Country |
The X.509 standard defines other attributes that do not usually form part of the DN but can provide optional extensions to the digital certificate.
The X.509 standard provides for a DN to be specified in a string format. For example:
CN=John Smith, O=IBM, OU=Test, C=GB
The Common Name (CN) can describe an individual user or any other entity, for example a Web server.
The DN can contain multiple OU attributes, but one instance only of each of the other attributes is permitted. The order of the OU entries is significant: the order specifies a hierarchy of Organizational Unit names, with the highest-level unit first.
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