Use the same digital cert as a client and server certificate

[Matt Brown]

Is there any difference between a client and server cert?

I have a web server with a server certificate installed for https connection.
In the mean time, my web server needs to access the database server using SSL
with strong authentication (using client cert and server cert, not just the
user id and password).

Can I use the same cert on the web server as the client cert when it connects
to the db server?

[Deepak Bala]

That depends on certain criteria. If you are willing to use a self signed ( could be a CA signed one as well) certificate and you are realdy to override the host name verifier code the answer is yes, you can use the same certificate. The certificate should exist in the trust store and key store on both ends. This should not be done on a production environment though. Surely the client and the server cannot produce the same certificate. If they do, they must be on the same machine and they represent the same entity, which means there is no need for certificate authentication when you already know the physical proximity and identity of the client and the server.