Extract text from digital signature files (P7S)
To convert P7S signatures to another format, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader or other Encoded software.
To convert other file formats to the "PKCS #7 Cryptographic Signature" file type, you need software like Adobe Acrobat Reader or a similar tool.
A .P7S file is a PKCS #7 digital signature file used to securely authenticate digital documents and email messages. It contains cryptographic information, such as the digital certificate of the sender, and ensures that the data has not been altered in transit. These files are most commonly seen as an smime.p7s attachment in email clients like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, indicating that the email is digitally signed. They can also be associated with signed PDF documents in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
The major disadvantage of the .P7S format is its poor accessibility. It is a highly specialized cryptographic envelope, meaning average users cannot simply double-click it to read its contents. If your email client or document viewer lacks the necessary S/MIME support or the correct public keys, the file appears as a useless, unopenable attachment causing user confusion.
Users often need to convert or extract data from .P7S files to verify the sender's identity or obtain the raw certificate. The best targets for conversion are standard certificate formats like CER, CRT, or PEM, which can be easily imported into web browsers or operating system keystores. Extracting the text to a standard TXT file may also reveal readable metadata about the signer, though the visual "document" content is never present in the signature itself.
This file format is exceptionally difficult to convert because it is not a standard document; it is a binary ASN.1 encoded cryptographic structure. Often, only the original email client or a specialized cryptography tool like OpenSSL can properly read or export the embedded certificates. Despite this, convert.guru can still identify the file format, inspect the file, and show text or internal content. Just drag and drop your file to see what it is and extract embedded formats if supported.
Convert.Guru analyzes your P7S file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted P7M, PDF, P7, P7B, SIG, ZIP, PKCS7, XML, CDW, JPG, SPC, DOCX and CER files.
If you want to convert P7S file to PDF, XPS, PEM, PFX, JPG, SIG, TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, ODT or PAGES, you can use Adobe Acrobat Reader or similar software from the "Cryptographic Digital Signature File" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert PDF, DOC, ASC, TODO, NFO, MEMO, README, DOCX, JPG, TXT, NOTE or RTF files to P7S, try Adobe Acrobat Reader or another comparable tool in the "Cryptographic Digital Signature File" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our P7S converter.