What is the difference between a critical and non-critical extension?
Originally Published: 2008-01-17
Last Modified: 2023-10-06
Article Number
Applies To
RSA Certificate Manager
Issue
Not sure if Critical or non-critical should be selected when issuing a certificate
Resolution
According to the X.509 standard, the user of a certificate should reject the certificate if an extension is flagged as critical and is not recognized. If the extension is flagged as non-critical and is aslo not recognized, the application may decide to accept the certificate anyway.
As an example, most browsers will recognize major extensions like KeyUsage, so it is a good practice to leave this extension as critical.
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