kSecClassIdentity

Declaration

let kSecClassIdentity: CFString

Mentioned in

• Storing an Identity in the Keychain

Discussion

An identity is a certificate paired with its associated private key. Keychain services stores the certificate and the private key separately; it represents the pair as an identity if the certificate’s kSecAttrPublicKeyHash attribute matches the key’s kSecAttrApplicationLabel attribute.

Because an identity is the combination of a private key and a certificate, this class shares attributes of both kSecClassKey and kSecClassCertificate. Multiple certificates can all attest the identity of the same private key, so the attributes that form an identity’s composite primary key are the same as those for a certificate.

The set of identity items available to your app in the keychain can change without explicitly adding, updating, or deleting identity items. For example, if the keychain contains a cryptographic key item and certificate item that form an identity and you delete the key, the identity no longer exists.