Java Glossary : cacerts

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cacerts

A file used to keep the root certificates of signing authorities. Its default password is changeit. In the JRE look for it in:

cacerts list of trusted certificat authorities :

in C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_04\lib\security\cacerts in the JRE on your local hard disk.
in J:\j2sdk\1.4.2_04\jre\lib\security\cacerts in the JDK on your local hard disk.

Just to confuse you, there are even other copies of it in C:\program files\Java Web Start\cacerts. On my machine I found 10 copies! Lot's of luck guessing which one it is using at any given time.

Since you implicitly trust all the Certificate Authorities in the cacerts file for code signing and verification you must manage the cacerts file carefully. The cacerts file should contain only certificates of the CAs you trust.

cacerts is stored in jks format similar to PKCS #12 containing only public keys, protected by a passphrase, but no private keys. It may also contain SSL keys.

The first four signature bytes of a Sun cacerts file in hex are FEEDFEED.

certificate ¤ keyman: a more user-friendly cacerts manipulator ¤ keystore ¤ keytool ¤ PKCS ¤ SSL

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