⚠️ Important notice
This is not a government website. Certificado Digital Global is a Registration Authority accredited to the Certisign network, a brand of Kindness in Business Consulting Ltd (UK Company No. 10386293), serving clients from London. Issuance depends on identity validation, documentation and ICP-Brasil rules. Do not send CPF, passport or sensitive documents via WhatsApp or the initial form.
O que é
The CPF digital key is really a pair: a private key, which stays with you alone, and a public key, which travels inside the e-CPF for anyone to check. Understanding that duo explains everything that seems odd about th…
Para quem
Key generated on your side, never at the RA · Issued by AC Certisign
Como resolve
Installation support in PT/EN · Service run from London
Limite
Não é site do governo. Emissão sujeita a validação de identidade, documentação e normas da ICP-Brasil.
Two keys, two roles
Private key
Generated on your computer, phone or token at the moment of issuance. It is what signs and what proves, when you log into a system, that the certificate is yours. It never leaves your device and never passes through the RA or the CA.
Public key
Born together with the private one and recorded in the e-CPF, signed by the CA. Anyone may see it; it is used to verify what the private key signed. Showing the public key does not expose the private one.
Password or PIN
Protects access to the private key. On an A1 it opens the file; on an A3 it unlocks the token, the card or the cloud. You choose it and only you know it.
The certificate
The document the CA signs stating “this public key belongs to so-and-so, CPF such-and-such, until this date”. Without the matching private key it signs nothing.
Why nobody can recover your password
With ordinary services, “forgot my password” works because the provider holds your account and can change the lock on the door. A digital certificate has no such door: the password protects a key that exists only on your device, and neither the RA nor the CA holds a copy. If the RA could recover your password, it could sign on your behalf — and the presumption of authorship would collapse. The impossibility of recovery is therefore a guarantee, not a flaw.
Where the private key lives: A1, A3 on a token and A3 in the cloud
Where the key sits
In a .pfx file on the computer or phone · Inside a chip; it cannot be copied · In the provider's HSM, reached through an app with password and second factor
Backup
Possible and recommended: export the .pfx with a password and keep it in two places · Impossible by design · Not applicable; access is through the app
Risk abroad
Replacing or losing the computer without a backup · Losing the token in a country with no quick replacement · Losing the phone that holds the app without re-enrolling the second factor
Validity
1 year · Up to 3 years · Up to 3 years
The case of someone with no backup
Lost the device, or suspect someone got hold of the file? Request revocation and a new issuance
Real case
Illustrative scenario. A Brazilian historian in Athens used an A1 e-CPF to sign expert opinions for a university in Brazil's Northeast. His laptop was stolen on a research trip; the certificate file existed only there, and the password only in his memory. First step: he requested revocation from the CA, so nobody could attempt to use the file. Second: he booked a new video validation and issued another e-CPF, this time keeping one copy of the .pfx on a USB stick and another in a password vault, both protected by a password different from his e-mail's. The opinions signed before the theft remained valid, because revocation only blocks future signatures. — Immediate revocation is what separates an inconvenience from a legal problem
Storage good practice for people living abroad
- On an A1, export the .pfx right after installation and keep two copies in different places, with a strong password distinct from your e-mail's.
- Record the certificate password in a password manager, never in a text file next to the .pfx.
- On an A3 token, carry it on trips as you carry your passport, and know that replacement means a new issuance.
- On cloud A3, enrol the second factor on a device other than the one you are most likely to lose, and keep the app's recovery codes.
- When changing computers, migrate the A1 before wiping the old one; then delete the file from any device you will sell or give away.
- Never send the .pfx and the password to another person, however trusted: the law attributes to you everything signed with them.
Doubts that tend to delay issuance
“If the key stays with me, does the RA see my password?”
No. You set the password on your own device, outside the video call; the agent never asks for it.
“I live far away; if I lose the token, am I unable to sign for months?”
No. The new issuance is done by video, from wherever you are, after revocation. For frequent travellers, cloud A3 removes the dependence on a physical object.
“My ID has expired. Can I still issue?”
Not with an expired document; a valid Brazilian passport or an RG covers the validation.
“Is it better value than a trip to Brazil?”
In-person issuance would require airfare and travel; here, from €200, you issue, receive storage guidance and are signing again on the day of issuance.
Transparent pricing
Beyond validation and issuance, we walk you through key generation, installation and — on an A1 — creating the backup copy, so that losing a device does not mean losing the certificate.
Physical token or cloud, A1 or A3 and the chosen term make up the final price; we spell it all out on WhatsApp before you decide.
Issue with storage guidance