Method and apparatus are described wherein, in one example embodiment, a public key certificate issued by a certificate authority includes at least one characteristic that does not conform to at least one rule established for the operation of a public key infrastructure. An attribute certificate is issued to be used to modify the public key certificate in accordance with information contained in the attribute certificate to create a modified public key certificate wherein the at least one characteristic is modified so as conform to the at least one rule. According to one example embodiment, the attribute certificates may be distributed by a certificate authority, or embedded in an application that includes an engine that is used to modify the non-conforming public key certificate.