Patent ID: 7500097

Claim:
A digital certificate issuing system for generating a digital certificate in response to a client request, comprising: a processor; a certificate translation component that translates a first certificate accompanying an incoming certificate request into a common format, wherein said certificate translation component is equipped to translate certificates of a plurality of differing certificate formats into said common format; a certificate issuing component that receives from said certificate translation component said first certificate accompanying said incoming certificate request in said common format; said certificate issuing component configured to apply a certificate issuing policy to determine whether to grant said incoming certificate request, wherein said certificate issuing policy is stored in a digital file comprising certificate issuing policy requirements including at least one client authentication requirement, at least one client authorization requirement, and at least one credential formatting requirement, wherein said certificate issuing policy requirements are expressed according to a specified syntax in a mark-up language, and wherein said specified syntax can express a plurality of requirements beyond said certificate issuing policy requirements; said certificate issuing component comprising a policy enforcement engine comprising instructions executable by said processor, said policy enforcement engine configured to enforce that the client meets said at least one client authentication requirement, said at least one client authorization requirement, and said at least one credential formatting requirement, said certificate issuing component issuing a second certificate in said common format if the client meets said at least one client authentication requirement, said at least one client authorization requirement, and said at least one credential formatting requirement; and said certificate translation component configured to translate said second certificate issued by said certificate issuing component from said common format into a format requested in said incoming certificate request.