intermediate CA

The CA that issues a cross-certificate to another CA. [X509] (See: cross-certification.)

Deprecated Term: IDOCs SHOULD NOT use this term because it is not widely known and mixes concepts in a potentially misleading way. For example, suppose that end entity 1 ("EE1) is in one PKI ("PKI1"), end entity 2 ("EE2) is in another PKI ("PKI2"), and the root in PKI1 ("CA1") cross-certifies the root CA in PKI2 ("CA2"). Then, if EE1 constructs the certification path CA1-to-CA2-to-EE2 to validate a certificate of EE2, conventional English usage would describe CA2 as being in the "intermediate" position in that path, not CA1.