



The request contains the subject's name and public key and is signed with the subject's private key.
Note that the subject's private key is used only to produce a signature when the request is output, and is not actually stored with the request.
The file containing the certificate request (DER encoded) can be converted to PEM format and sent to a CA authority. The CA authority will use the certificate request to create a certificate signed with its public certificate.
Or you can create your own certificate. You do not need to convert the file for this stage.