Understanding Certification Path Construction

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) supports a number of security-related services, including data confidentiality, data integrity, and end-entity authentication. Fundamentally, these services are based on the proper use of public/private key pairs. The public component of this key pair is issued in the form of a public key certificate and, in association with the appropriate algorithm(s), it may be used to verify a digital signature, encrypt data, or both 1 .