.P12 File Extension

File containing a digital certificate that uses PKCS#12 (Public Key Cryptography Standard #12) encryption; used as a portable format for transferring personal private keys or other sensitive information.

P12 keys store a private key that can encrypt information which can only be decrypted by the corresponding public key. This helps validate the source of transmitted information. Likewise, data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted by the private key.