all known versions, 1.0, 1.5, and 1.7 of the specifications), the subject name, the public key (algorithm identifier + bit string), and a collection of attributes providing additional information about the subject of the certificate. The attributes can contain required certificate extensions, a challenge-password to restrict revocations, as well as any additional information about the subject of the certificate, possibly including local or future types. Example of a PKCS #10 CSR The PKCS#10 standard defines a binary format for encoding CSRs for use with X.509. It is expressed in ASN.1. Here is an example of how you can examine its ASN.1 structure using OpenSSL: openssl asn1parse -i -in your_request A CSR may be represented as a Base64 encoded PKCS#10; an example of which is given below: The above certificate signing request's ASN.1 structure (as parsed by openssl) appears as the following, where the first number is the byte offset, d=depth, hl=header length of the current type, l=length of content: 0:d=0 hl=4 l= 716 cons: SEQUENCE 4:d=1 hl=4 l= 436 cons: SEQUENCE 8:d=2 hl=2 l= 1 prim: INTEGER :00 11:d=2 hl=3 l= 134 cons: SEQUENCE 14:d=3 hl=2 l= 11 cons: SET 16:d=4 hl=2 l= 9 cons: SEQUENCE 18:d=5 hl=2 l= 3 prim: OBJECT :countryName 23:d=5 hl=2 l= 2 prim: PRINTABLESTRING :EN 27:d=3 hl=2 l= 13 cons: SET 29:d=4 hl=2 l= 11 cons: SEQUENCE 31:d=5 hl=2 l= 3 prim: OBJECT :stateOrProvinceName 36:d=5 hl=2 l= 4 prim: UTF8STRING :none 42:d=3 hl=2 l= 13 cons: SET 44:d=4 hl=2 l= 11 cons: SEQUENCE 46:d=5 hl=2 l= 3 prim: OBJECT :localityName 51:d=5 hl=2 l= 4 prim: UTF8STRING :none 57:d=3 hl=2 l= 18 cons: SET 59:d=4 hl=2 l= 16 cons: SEQUENCE 61:d=5 hl=2 l= 3 prim: OBJECT :organizationName 66:d=5 hl=2 l= 9 prim: UTF8STRING :Wikipedia 77:d=3 hl=2 l= 13 cons: SET 79:d=4 hl=2 l= 11 cons: SEQUENCE 81:d=5 hl=2 l= 3 prim: OBJECT :organizationalUnitName 86:d=5 hl=2 l= 4 prim: UTF8STRING :none 92:d=3 hl=2 l= 24 cons: SET 94:d=4 hl=2 l= 22 cons: SEQUENCE 96:d=5 hl=2 l= 3 prim: OBJECT :commonName 101:d=5 hl=2 l= 15 prim: UTF8STRING :*.wikipedia.org 118:d=3 hl=2 l= 28 cons: SET 120:d=4 hl=2 l= 26 cons: SEQUENCE 122:d=5 hl=2 l= 9 prim: OBJECT :emailAddress 133:d=5 hl=2 l= 13 prim: IA5STRING :none@none.com 148:d=2 hl=4 l= 290 cons: SEQUENCE 152:d=3 hl=2 l= 13 cons: SEQUENCE 154:d=4 hl=2 l= 9 prim: OBJECT :rsaEncryption 165:d=4 hl=2 l= 0 prim: NULL 167:d=3 hl=4 l= 271 prim: BIT STRING 442:d=2 hl=2