A certificate is the digital equivalent of an ID card. Just as you may have several ID cards for different purposes, such as a driver's license, an employee ID card, or a credit card, you can have several different certificates that identify you for different purposes.
This section describes how to perform operations related to certificates.
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In this section: Checking Security for a Web Page Managing Smart Cards and Other Security Devices |
Much like a credit card or a driver's license, a certificate is a form of identification you can use to identify yourself over the Internet and other networks. Like other commonly used personal IDs, a certificate is typically issued by an organization with recognized authority to issue such identification. An organization that issues certificates is called a certificate authority (CA).
You can obtain certificates that identify you from public CAs, from system administrators or special CAs within your organization, or from websites offering specialized services that require a means of identification more reliable that your name and password.
Just as the requirements for a driver's license vary depending on the type of vehicle you want to drive, the requirements for obtaining a certificate vary depending on what you want to use it for. In some cases getting a certificate may be as easy as going to a website, entering some personal information, and automatically downloading the certificate into your browser. In other cases you may have to go through more complicated procedures.
You can obtain a certificate today by visiting the URL for a certificate authority and following the on-screen instructions. For a list of certificate authorities, see the online document Client Certificates.
Once you obtain a certificate, it is automatically stored in a security device. Your browser comes with its own built-in Software Security Device. A security device can also be a piece of hardware, such as a smart card.
Like a driver's license or a credit card, a certificate is a valuable form of identification that can be abused if it falls into the wrong hands. Once you've obtained a certificate that identifies you, you should protect it in two ways: by backing it up and by setting your master password.
When you first obtain a certificate, you may be prompted to back it up. If you haven't yet created a master password, you will be asked to create one.
For detailed information about backing up a certificate and setting your master password, see Your Certificates.
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When you're viewing any web page, the lock icon near the lower-right corner of the window informs you whether the entire contents of the page was protected by encryption while it was being received by your computer:
| | A closed lock means that the page was protected by encryption when it was received. | |
| | An open lock means the page was not protected by encryption when it was received. | |
| | A broken lock means that some or all of the elements within the page were not protected by encryption when the page was received, even though the outermost HTML page was encrypted. |
For more details about the encryption status of the page when it was received, click the lock icon (or open the View menu, choose Page Info, and click the Security tab).
The Security tab for Page Info provides two kinds of information:
Important: The lock icon describes only the encryption status of the page while it was being received by your computer. To be notified before you send or receive information without encryption, select the appropriate SSL warning options. See Privacy & Security Preferences - SSL for details.
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You can use the Certificate Manager to manage the certificates you have available. Certificates may be stored on your computer's hard disk or on smart cards or other security devices attached to your computer.
To open the Certificate Manager:
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In this section: Managing Certificates that Identify You Managing Certificates that Identify Others |
When you first open the Certificate Manager, you'll notice that it has several tabs across the top of its window. The first tab is called Your Certificates, and it displays the certificates your browser has available that identify you. Your certificates are listed under the names of the organizations that issued them.
To perform an action on one or more certificates, click the entry for the certificate (or Control-click to select more than one), then click the View, Backup, or Delete button. Each of these buttons brings up another window that allows you to perform the action. Click the Help button in any window to obtain more information about using that window.
The following buttons under Your Certificates don't require a certificate to be selected. You use them to perform these actions:
Certificates on smart cards cannot be backed up. Whether you select some of your certificates and click Backup, or click Backup All, the resulting backup file will not include any certificates stored on smart cards or other external security devices. You can only back up certificates that are stored on the built-in Software Security Device.
For more details about any of these tasks, see Your Certificates.
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When you compose a mail message, you can choose to attach your digital signature to it. A digital signature allows recipients of the message to verify that the message really comes from you and hasn't been tampered with since you sent it.
Every time you send a digitally signed message, your encryption certificate is automatically included with the message. This certificate allows the message recipients to send you encrypted messages.
One of the easiest ways to obtain someone else's encryption certificate is for that person to send you a digitally signed message. Certificate Manager automatically stores other people's certificates whenever they are received in this way.
To view all the certificates identifying other people that are available to the Certificate Manager, click the Other People's tab at the top of the Certificate Manager window. You can send encrypted messages to anyone for whom a valid certificate is listed. Certificates are listed under the names of the organizations that issued them.
To perform an action on one or more certificates, click the entry for the certificate (or Control-click to select more than one), then click the View or Delete button. Each of these buttons brings up another window that allows you to perform the action. Click the Help button in any window to obtain more information about using that window.
For more details, see Other People's Certificates.
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Some websites use certificates to identify themselves. Such identification is required before the website can encrypt information transferred between the site and your computer (or vice versa), so that no one can read the data while in transit.
If the URL for a website begins with https://, the website has a certificate. If you visit such a website and its certificate was issued by a CA that the Certificate Manager doesn't know about or doesn't trust, you will be asked whether you want to accept the website's certificate. When you accept a new website certificate, the Certificate Manager adds it to its list of website certificates.
To view all the website certificates available to your browser, click the Websites tab at the top of the Certificate Manager window.
To perform an action on one or more website certificates, click the entry for the certificate (or Shift-click to select more than one), then click the View, Edit, or Delete button. Each of these buttons brings up another window that allows you to perform the corresponding action.
The Edit button allows you to specify whether your browser will trust the selected website certificates in the future.
For more details, see Website Certificates.
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Like other commonly used forms of ID, a certificate is issued by an organization with recognized authority to issue such identification. An organization that issues certificates is called a certificate authority (CA). A certificate that identifies a CA is called a CA certificate.
Certificate Manager typically has many CA certificates on file. These CA certificates permit Certificate Manager to recognize and work with certificates issued by the corresponding CAs. However, the presence of a CA certificate in this list does not guarantee that the certificates it issues can be trusted. You or your system administrator must make decisions about what kinds of certificates to trust depending on your security needs.
To view all the CA certificates available to your browser, click the Authorities tab at the top of the Certificate Manager window.
To perform an action on one or more CA certificates, click the entry for the certificate (or Control-click to select more than one), then click the View, Edit, or Delete button. Each of these buttons brings up another window that allows you to perform the action. Click the Help button in any window to obtain more information about using that window.
The Edit button allows you to view and control the trust settings for each certificate. Trust settings for a CA certificate let you to specify which kinds of certificates issued by that CA you are willing to trust.
For more details, see Authorities.
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A smart card is a small device, typically about the size of a credit card, that contains a microprocessor and is capable of storing information about your identity (such as your private keys and certificates) and performing cryptographic operations.
To use a smart card, you typically need to have a smart card reader (a piece of hardware) attached to your computer, as well as software on your computer that controls the reader.
A smart card is just one kind of security device. A security device (sometimes called a token) is a hardware or software device that provides cryptographic services and stores information about your identity. Use the Device Manager to work with smart cards and other security devices.
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The Device Manager displays a window that lists the available security devices. You can use the Device Manager to manage any security devices, including smart cards, that support the Public Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) #11.
A PKCS #11 module (sometimes called a security module) controls one or more security devices in much the same way that a software driver controls an external device such as a printer or modem. If you are installing a smart card, you must install the PKCS #11 module for the smart card on your computer as well as connecting the smart card reader.
By default, the Device Manager controls two internal PKCS #11 modules that manage three security devices:
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The Device Manager allows you to perform operations on security devices. To open the Device Manager, follow these steps:
The Device Manager lists each available PKCS #11 module in boldface, and the security devices managed by each module below its name.
When you select a security device, information about it appears in the middle of the Device Manager window, and some of the buttons on the right side of the window become available. For example, if you select the Software Security Device, you can perform these actions:
You can perform these actions on most security devices. However, you cannot perform them on the Builtin Object Token or Generic Crypto Services, which are special devices that must normally be available at all times.
For more details, see Device Manager.
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If you want to use a smart card or other external security device, you must first install the module software on your computer and, if necessary, connect any associated hardware. Follow the instructions that come with the hardware.
After a new module is installed on your computer, follow these steps to load it:
The new module will then show up in the list of modules with the name you assigned to it.
To unload a PKCS #11 module, select its name and click Unload.
Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS) 140-1 is a US government standard for implementations of cryptographic modules—that is, hardware or software that encrypts and decrypts data or performs other cryptographic operations (such as creating or verifying digital signatures). Many products sold to the US government must comply with one or more of the FIPS standards.
To enable FIPS mode for the browser, you use the Device Manager:
To disable FIPS-mode, click Disable FIPS.
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The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol allows your computer to exchange information with other computers on the Internet in encrypted form—that is, the information is scrambled while in transit so that no one else can make sense of it. SSL is also used to identify computers on the Internet by means of certificates.
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is a new standard based on SSL. By default, the browser supports both SSL and TLS. This approach works for most people, because it guarantees that the browser will work with virtually all other existing software on the Internet that supports any version of SSL or TLS.
However, in some circumstances system administrators or other knowledgeable persons may wish to adjust the SSL settings to fine-tune them for special security needs or to account for bugs in some older software products.
You shouldn't adjust the SSL settings for your browser unless you know what you're doing or have the assistance of someone else who does. If you do need to adjust them for some reason, follow these steps:
For more details, see SSL Settings.
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As discussed above under Get Your Own Certificate, a certificate is a form of identification, much like a driver's license, that you can use to identify yourself over the Internet and other networks. However, also like a driver's license, a certificate may expire or become invalid for some other reason. Therefore, your browser software needs to confirm the validity of any given certificate in some way before trusting it for identification purposes.
This section describes how Certificate Manager validates certificates and how to control that process. To understand the process, you should have some familiarity with public-key cryptography. If you are not familiar with the use of certificates, you should check with your system administrator before attempting to change any of your browser's certificate validation settings.
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Whenever you use or view a certificate stored by Certificate Manager, it takes several steps to verify the certificate. At a minimum, it confirms that the CA's digital signature on the certificate was created by a CA whose own certificate is (1) present in the Certificate Manager's list of available CA certificates and (2) marked as trusted for issuing the kind of certificate being verified.
If the CA certificate is not itself present, the certificate chain for the CA certificate must include a higher-level CA certificate that is present and correctly trusted. Certificate Manager also confirms that the certificate being verified is currently marked as trusted in the certificate store. If any one of these checks fails, Certificate Manager marks the certificate as unverified and won't recognize the identity it certifies.
A certificate can pass all these tests and still be compromised in some way; for example, the certificate may be revoked because an unauthorized person has gained access to the certificate's private key. A compromised certificate can allow an unauthorized person (or website) to pretend to be the certificate owner.
One way to combat this threat is for Certificate Manager to check a certificate revocation list (CRL) as part of the verification process (see Managing CRLs, below). Typically, you download a CRL to your browser by clicking a link. If a CRL is present, Certificate Manager checks any certificate issued by the same CA against the list as part of the verification process.
The reliability of CRLs depends on the frequency with which they are both updated by a server and checked by a client. You can configure your Automatic CRL Update Preferences so that a CRL will be updated automatically at regular intervals with the version currently on the server.
Another way to combat the threat of compromised certificates is to use a special server that supports the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP). Such a server can answer client queries about individual certificates (see Configuring OCSP, below).
The server, called an OCSP responder, receives an updated CRL periodically from the CA that issues the certificates to be verified. You can configure Certificate Manager to submit a status request for a certificate to the OCSP responder, and the OCSP responder confirms whether the certificate is valid.
A certificate revocation list (CRL) is list of revoked certificates. A certificate authority (CA) might revoke a certificate, for example, if it has been compromised in some way—much the way a credit card company might revoke your credit card if you report that it's been stolen.
This section describes how to import and manage CRLs.
For background information, see How Validation Works.
For detailed descriptions of CRL settings that you can control, see Validation Settings.
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The browser uses the CRLs it has available to check the validity of certificates issued by the corresponding CAs. If a certificate is listed as revoked, the browser won't accept it as evidence of identity.
A CA typically publishes an updated CRL at regular intervals. Every CRL includes a date, specified in the Next Update field, by which the CA will publish the next update of that CRL. In general, if the date in the Next Update field is earlier than the current date, you should obtain the most recent version of the CRL. To view CRL information and set up automatic CRL updating, see Viewing and Managing CRLs.
CAs are required to produce a new CRL by the Next Update date. However, the absence of the most recent CRL does not by itself invalidate a certificate. For this reason, if the most recent CRL is not available, a certificate may be validated even though the most recent CRL shows it as expired. Automatic CRL updating can help to avoid this situation.
You can import the latest CRL from a CA into your browser. To import a CRL, follow these steps:
The Import Status dialog box appears.
Yes: The Automatic CRL Update Preferences dialog box appears. In this case, go on to step 4.
No: The Import Status dialog box closes. If you change your mind and decide to enable automatic updates after all, see Viewing and Managing CRLs.
You can view and manage CRLs available to the browser through the browser's Validation preferences:
To delete or update a CRL, select it and click the appropriate button.
To set up automatic updates for a CRL, select the CRL and click Settings. The Automatic CRL Update Preferences dialog box appears:
The settings that control OCSP are part of Validation preferences. To view Validation preferences, follow these steps:
For information about the OCSP options available, see OCSP.