How to import a .cer certificate into a java keystore?

Question

During the development of a Java webservice client I ran into a problem. Authentication for the webservice is using a client certificate, a username and a password. The clie

Answer 1

• If you want to authenticate you need the private key - there is no other option.
• A certificate is a public key with extra properties (like company name, country,...) that is signed by some Certificate authority that guarantees that the attached properties are true.
• .CER files are certificates and don't have the private key. The private key is provided with a .PFX keystore file normally. If you really authenticate is because you already had imported the private key.

• You normally can import .CER certificates without any problems with

  keytool -importcert -file certificate.cer -keystore keystore.jks -alias "Alias"