X509Certificate2.GetSubjectName Method

public System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Name GetSubjectName()

Retrieves the subject name from the certificate.

Declaration

public X509Name GetSubjectName();

Parameters

This method does not take any parameters.

Return Value

A X509Name object that contains the subject name of the certificate.

Remarks

The subject name identifies the entity to which the certificate was issued.
This method returns an X509Name object, which represents the distinguished name (DN) of the certificate's subject.
The X509Name object contains a collection of relative distinguished names (RDNs) that make up the subject DN.

Exceptions

PlatformNotSupportedException: The .NET Core and .NET 5+ versions of this API are not supported on all platforms.

Example

The following code example demonstrates how to retrieve and display the subject name of an X.509 certificate.

                    
using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;

public class CertificateSubjectName
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        try
        {
            // Assume 'cert' is an initialized X509Certificate2 object.
            // For demonstration, we'll load a common certificate from the current user's personal store.
            // In a real application, you would obtain the certificate through appropriate means.
            X509Store store = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
            store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);

            X509Certificate2 cert = null;
            if (store.Certificates.Count > 0)
            {
                // Get the first certificate in the store for demonstration
                cert = store.Certificates[0];
            }
            store.Close();

            if (cert != null)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Certificate Found:");
                Console.WriteLine($"Subject Name: {cert.SubjectName.Name}"); // Using the Name property for simpler display
                Console.WriteLine($"Raw Subject Name: {cert.SubjectName.RawData}"); // Displaying raw data for inspection

                // Alternatively, using GetSubjectName()
                X509Name subjectNameObj = cert.GetSubjectName();
                Console.WriteLine($"Subject Name (via GetSubjectName): {subjectNameObj.Name}");

                // You can also iterate through the RDNs
                Console.WriteLine("Relative Distinguished Names:");
                foreach (X509Rdn rdn in subjectNameObj.EnumerateRelativeDistinguishedNames())
                {
                    foreach (X509Attribute attribute in rdn)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine($"  - {attribute.Oid.FriendlyName}: {attribute.Value}");
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("No certificates found in the current user's personal store.");
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"An error occurred: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}
                    
                

MSDN Library