X500DistinguishedName Class
Represents the distinguished name of an X509 certificate. This class cannot be inherited.
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
This class is like an extension to the SubjectName or IssuerName property, which is the name of the person or entity that the certificate is being issued to. X.500 is an international standard for distributed directory services. The distinguished name uses the following format:
[X500:/C=CountryCode/O=Organization/OU=OrganizationUnit/CN=CommonName]
The following field length limits apply:
Field | Length Limit |
|---|---|
CountryCode | 2 characters |
Organization | Up to 64 characters |
OrganizationUnit | Up to 32 characters |
CommonName | Up to 64 characters |
The following guidelines apply:
Field values can be uppercase or lowercase.
Delimiters are slash marks (/) and must appear before the first value and between subsequent values.
Delimiters can be followed by a space.
The following is an example of a correctly formatted name: [X500:/ C=US/ O=Microsoft/ OU=WGA/ CN=TedSt]
The following code example shows how to use the X500DistinguishedName class.
Imports System Imports System.Security.Cryptography Imports System.Security.Permissions Imports System.IO Imports System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates Class X500Sample Shared msg As String Shared Sub Main() Try Dim store As New X509Store("MY", StoreLocation.CurrentUser) store.Open((OpenFlags.ReadOnly Or OpenFlags.OpenExistingOnly)) Dim collection As X509Certificate2Collection = CType(store.Certificates, X509Certificate2Collection) Dim fcollection As X509Certificate2Collection = CType(collection.Find(X509FindType.FindByTimeValid, DateTime.Now, False), X509Certificate2Collection) Dim scollection As X509Certificate2Collection = X509Certificate2UI.SelectFromCollection(fcollection, "Test Certificate Select", "Select a certificate from the following list to get information on that certificate", X509SelectionFlag.MultiSelection) msg = "Number of certificates: " & scollection.Count & Environment.NewLine MsgBox(msg) Dim x509 As X509Certificate2 For Each x509 In scollection Dim dname As New X500DistinguishedName(x509.SubjectName) msg = "X500DistinguishedName: " & dname.Name & Environment.NewLine MsgBox(msg) x509.Reset() Next x509 store.Close() Catch e As Exception msg = "Error: Information could not be written out for this certificate." MsgBox(msg) End Try End Sub 'Main End Class 'X500Sample
System.Security.Cryptography.AsnEncodedData
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X500DistinguishedName
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.