# Introduction

Oracle Wallet Manager v2.1 is a Java-based application security administrators use to manage public-key security credentials on clients and on servers. Public-key cryptography requires that parties who want to communicate in a secure manner possess certain security credentials. This collection of security credentials is stored in a wallet. An Oracle wallet is an abstraction used to store and manage security credentials for clients and servers.

Security credentials consist of a public/private key pair, a certificate, and trusted certificates. Each entity that participates in a public key system must own a public/private key pair. The public key for the entity is published, so that other entities that want to send it secure information can encrypt that information with the recipient entity's public key. The Oracle Wallet Manager is used to administer wallets, generate public/private key pairs for clients and servers, and administer certificates.