'In the context of APNs, does p8 and p12 mean token and certificate based authentication respectively?
From what I know, PKCS 8 is often used to store private keys, and PKCS 12 is often used to store certificates.
And to communicate with APNs, you need authentication tokens or certificates.
Does that mean those .p8 files are keys used to create tokens, and those .p12 files are used as certificates?
Solution 1:[1]
.p8 is a key
The .p8 is an authentication token signing key, or simply, key. Your server can use this to authenticate with APNs. You can use this to create a JWT token (A few objects encoded and signed) and send this to APNs to authenticate. Specifically you use the .p8 to sign the JWT payload/ token, and append this signature to the JWT, and then encrypt it (Signed, then Encrypted). More information available in Communicate with APNs using authentication tokens and Establishing a Token-Based Connection to APNs. The way you would create the token is documented in
Communicating with APNs. For example, the JWT must be encrypted, and it must be less than 1 hour old. It provides access to all applications, so you must use the apns-topic request header to specify the application.
.p12 is a certificate
The .p12 is a certificate. If your system has this certificate installed, it can use TLS and identify as you, so there's no further authentication needed. More information available in Communicate with APNs using a TLS certificate. It provides access to one app.
A good resource is Communicating with APNs.
Does that mean those .p8 files are keys used to create tokens,
Yes
and those .p12 files are used as certificates?
Yes
Sources
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Source: Stack Overflow
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