engineering department. In this example, the resource of engineering data needs to be preinstalled with the public keys of both the company-wide and the engineering department AC issuers. Contents of a typical attribute certificate Version: the version of the certificate. Holder: the holder of the certificate. Issuer: the issuer of the certificate. Signature algorithm: the algorithm by which the certificate is signed. Serial number: the unique issuance number given by the issuer. Validity period: the validity period of the certificate. Attributes: the attributes associated to the certificate holder. Signature value: the signature of the issuer over the whole data above. Benefits Using attribute certificate, the service or resource host does not need to maintain an access control list that can potentially be large or to always be connected to a network to access a central server like when using Kerberos. It is similar to the idea of capabilities in which the permission (or permissions) to use a service or resource is not stored in the service or resource itself but in the users using a tamper resistance mechanism. See also Public key certificate Security Assertion Markup Language Shibboleth Voms References External links SPKI/SDSI Certificate Documentation Public-key cryptography