CSR File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
File Extension .csr
MIME Type application/pkcs10
Used For Certificate enrollment requests
Encryption Not encrypted but can be signed
Standard PKCS #10
Contains Public key, identifying information
Created By CSR generation tools or command line utilities
File Structure Binary or ASCII (PEM format)
Signature Contains a digital signature
Public Key Algorithm RSA, DSA, ECDSA
Key Lengths Typically 2048-bit for RSA
Hashing Algorithm SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512
Usage SSL/TLS certificates, signing certificates
CSR Format PEM or DER
PEM Header -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
PEM Footer -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
DER Format Binary
Common Tools for Generation OpenSSL, Keytool
Self-Signing Capability Possible but not common
Common Use Cases Applying for digital certificates from CAs