Controller Based WLANs

What is PEM Format?
 
PEM or Privacy Enhanced Mail is a Base64 encoded DER certificate.  PEM certificates are frequently used for web servers as they can easily be translated into readable data using a simple text editor.  Generally when a PEM encoded file is opened in a text editor, it contains very distinct headers and footers.  Below are some examples of different files in PEM format.
 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----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-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
 
Above is the example of a CSR (certificate signing request) in PEM format.  You can see that PEM has the characteristics of containing a header, the body (which consists mainly of code) and footer.
 
The header and footer is what identifies the type of file, however be aware that not all PEM files necessarily need them.
 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- and -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- show a CSR in PEM format.
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- and -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY----- show a private key in PEM format.
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and -----END CERTIFICATE----- show a certificate file in PEM format.
 
What is DER Format?
 
DER files are digital certificates in binary format, instead of the ASCII PEM format.
 
DER files may end with .der or .cer, so to differentiate between DER.cer and PEM.cer files, you may need to use a text editor to read the file.  A DER file should not have any BEGIN/END statements and will show garbled binary content.
 
Both digital certificates and private keys can be encoded in DER format.
 
DER is often used with Java platforms.
 
What is PKCS#7/P7B Format?
 
The PKCS#7 or P7B format is usually stored in Base64 ASCII format and has a file extension of .p7b or .p7c. P7B certificates contain "-----BEGIN PKCS7-----" and "-----END PKCS7-----" statements. A P7B file only contains certificates and chain certificates, not the private key. Several platforms support P7B files including Microsoft Windows and Java Tomcat.
 
What is PKCS#12/PFX Format?
 
The PKCS#12 or PFX format is a binary format for storing the server certificate, any intermediate certificates, and the private key in one encryptable file. PFX files usually have extensions such as .pfx and .p12. PFX files are typically used on Windows machines to import and export certificates and private keys.
 
When converting a PFX file to PEM format, OpenSSL will put all the certificates and the private key into a single file. You will need to open the file in a text editor and copy each certificate and private key (including the BEGIN/END statements) to its own individual text file and save them as certificate.cer, CACert.cer, and Private Key respectively.