.DER

📌 A .DER file arrangement is recognized as a digital certificate stored in the Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER) specification. Specifically, the .DER file instance includes a binary representation of the certificate. Therefore, .DER extension entries are generally applied to maintain, open up, store, and handle X.509 certificates in a public cryptography area. Web servers employ the digital certificate technology to define whether a certain website is legitimate and authentic. When a user decides to visit a certified web-portal in their web-browser, the trusted web-server sends the digital file certificate of the relevant site to the browser area. After a browser consecutively verifies the certified file, it shows the relevant online-resource. (In case a browser is not capable of verifying a certificate, instead it may display a page that notifies “This website’s certificate is expired.”). Some of the digital certificate samples are stored and opened in the .DER file arrangement. Web admins, competent in maintenance of web-servers and web-sites, would obviously encounter the .DER file pattern. Web-admins are also granted the facilities to design .DER-embraced certificates with the assistance of OpenSSL, a secure networking communication package. Although most of the relevant .DER data layouts serve for verification of website digital certificates, .DER file entities can also be applied for other common identification targets.

How to open an .DER file?

📌 The noted file composition and internal structure can be analyzed, examined, opened, and monitored by Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome web-browsers. Besides, the individual .DER-adapted entries can be easily reviewed, comprehended, and discovered by OpenSSL and Apple Keychain Access tools, while the latter option is integrated into macOS desktop UI shell.