Viewing Comodo Personal Certificate in Firefox

PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Viewing Comodo Personal Certificate in Firefox

This section provides a tutorial example on how to view detail information of a personal certificate issued by Comodo and installed in Firefox.

After installing my personal certificate from Comodo with Firefox, I need to verify it:

1. Run Mozilla Firefox, click the menu icon, then select "Options". The preferences page shows up.

2. Click the "Security" icon on the left, then scroll down to the "Certificates" section.

3. Click the "View Certificates" button. The Certificate Manager dialog box shows up.

4. Click the "Your Certificates" tab. I see my personal certificate listed under "COMODO CA Limited".

5. Select my certificate and click "View" button. The certificate opens up with the "General" tab:

This certificate has been verified for the following uses:
   Email Signer Certificate
   Email Recipient Certificate

Issue To
   Common Name (CN) <Not Part Of Certificate>
   ...

Issue By
   Common Name (CN) COMODO RSA Client Authentication and Secure Email CA
   ...

6. Click "Details" tab. I see the certificate verification path:

COMODO RSA Certification Authority
   COMODO RSA Client Authentication and Secure Email CA
      E=herong_yang@yahoo.com

7. Click on "Subject" line in the "Certificate Fields" section. I see only one entry:

E = herong_yang@yahoo.com

Here is my understanding of certificate:

It has a private key, because it is listed under the "Your Certificates" tab, and stored in a "Software Security Device". So this certificate is considered as a "Digital ID".
It is issued for email signing and encryption only.
COMODO verified and certified my email address only. This is why the "Subject" has no name, organization, or location information.
It is valid for 1 year only. Not too bad for a free certificate.