The PKI component that verified Ben as being legitimate to receive the certificate is the registration

authority (RA). An RA is an entity that is responsible for identifying and authenticating certificate

applicants, approving or rejecting certificate applications, and initiating certificate revocations or

suspensions under certain circumstances. An RA acts as an intermediary between the certificate

authority (CA) and the certificate applicant, and performs the necessary checks and validations

before forwarding the request to the CA. The CA is the entity that signs and issues the certificates,

and maintains the certificate directory and the certificate revocation list. A certificate directory is a

repository of issued certificates that can be accessed by users or applications to verify the validity

and status of a certificate. A validation authority (VA) is an entity that provides online certificate

validation services, such as OCSP or SCVP, to verify the revocation status of a certificate in real

time123. Reference:

Public key infrastructure - Wikipedia, Wikipedia, March 16, 2021

Components of a PKI - The National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC, 2020

Network Defense Essentials Courseware, EC-Council, 2020, pp. 3-26 to 3-27