certification path
1. (I) A linked sequence of one or more public-key certificates,
or one or more public-key certificates and one attribute
certificate, that enables a certificate user to verify the
signature on the last certificate in the path, and thus enables
the user to obtain (from that last certificate) a certified public
key, or certified attributes, of the system entity that is the
subject of that last certificate. (See: trust anchor, certificate
validation, valid certificate.)