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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Intermediate

Registration Authority

PKI component that verifies the identity of certificate requesters before the CA issues certificates.

Definition

The RA handles enrollment and identity proofing but does not sign certificates. Offloading verification to RAs allows CAs to scale and lets organizations delegate identity checks to local offices. In many deployments the RA function is built into the CA software.

Example

A university's IT office checks a professor's ID and approves the request before the CA issues an S/MIME certificate.

Exam tip

RA verifies identity; CA signs and issues.

Don't confuse it with

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