Registration authority
A Registration Authority (ger .: registration authority , shortly RA ) is an entity within a security infrastructure (PKI) and serves as the registration authority for digital certificates.
The registration authority works closely with the certification authority (CA) and is responsible for the secure identification and registration of the subscriber. The validated application ( Certificate Signing Request ) is forwarded to the certification authority, whereby the transported data is secured against manipulation. The Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) is mostly used for this .
In the case of certificates that are issued to persons, it is possible, for example, to check an official document with a photo to ensure that the certificate can also be assigned to this person. For web server certificates, an extended validation can be carried out to increase trustworthiness .