Getting a Certificate from a Keystore try { KeyStore keyStore = KeyStore.getInstance( KeyStore.getDefaultType()); InputStream in = new FileInputStream(".keystore"); keyStore.load(in, "password".toCharArray()); java.security.cert.Certificate cert = keyStore.getCertificate("Principal"); process(cert); } catch (KeyStoreException e) { } catch (java.security.cert.CertificateException e) { } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) { } catch (java.io.IOException e) { }