I have to read the certificate from LDAP to check for its expiry date. My code is like this,,,,

List<?> CNs = ldapTemplate.search("", andFilter.encode(), new AttributesMapper() {

@Override
public Object mapFromAttributes(Attributes attributes) throws NamingException {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
return (Object) attributes.get("userCertificate").get(); //LINE-1get the certificate given uid:
}
});

System.out.println("Cert List size: "+CNs.size()); // prints 1
String temp = CNs.get(0).toString();
InputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream(temp.getBytes());
CertificateFactory factory = CertificateFactory.getInstance("X509");
X509Certificate cert = (X509Certificate) factory.generateCertificate(in); // ERROR :Could not parse certificate: java.io.IOException: Empty input


when "userCertficate;binary" is used, it throws NullPointerException at the LINE-1
Any idea?????????????