Installing a Certificate Authority’s Certificate

You can import a private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. and certificate pair to use for the root certificate or intermediate certificate. The CA Certificate Import page may be used to:

Upload a certificate that has been issued by another Certificate Authority. This process is required when configuring an intermediate Certificate Authority.

A private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. is not required, as the Certificate Authority has already generated one and used it to create the certificate signing request.

Upload a certificate and private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. to be used as the Certificate Authority’s certificate. This process may be used to configure a root Certificate Authority.

A private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. is required, as the Certificate Authority’s existing private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. will be replaced.

 

This form may be used multiple times in order to import each of the certificates in the trust chain. Check the message displayed above the form to determine which certificate or type of file must be uploaded next.

To upload a certificate:

1. On either the Certificate Management or Intermediate Certificate Settings page, click the Import Certificate link above the form. The Step 1 area of the CA Certificate Import form opens.

Figure 1  The CA Certificate Import Form, Step 1

2. Select one of the radio buttons to either copy and paste the certificate as encoded text or browse to the file to upload. The form expands to include options for that method.

3. If you selected Copy and paste certificate as text:

To upload a single certificate, copy and paste the certificate into the Certificate text field. The text must include the “BEGIN CERTIFICATE” and “END CERTIFICATE” lines. Leave the passphrase fields blank.

To upload a certificate and private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender., copy and paste the certificate and private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. into the Certificate text field. The text must include the “BEGIN CERTIFICATE” and “END CERTIFICATE” lines, as well as the “BEGIN RSA Rivest, Shamir, Adleman. RSA is a cryptosystem for public-key encryption, and is widely used for securing sensitive data, particularly when being sent over an insecure network such as the Internet. PRIVATE KEY” and “END RSA Rivest, Shamir, Adleman. RSA is a cryptosystem for public-key encryption, and is widely used for securing sensitive data, particularly when being sent over an insecure network such as the Internet. PRIVATE KEY” lines.

Figure 2  The CA Certificate Import Form, Step 2

4. If you selected Upload certificate file, click Choose File in the Certificate row to browse to the file and select it.

To upload a single certificate, choose a certificate file in PEM (base-64 encoded) or binary format (.crt or PKCS#7). Leave the passphrase fields blank.

To upload a certificate’s private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. as a separate file, choose the private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. file in PEM (base-64 encoded) format. If the private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. has a passphrase, enter it in the Private Key Passphrase and Confirm Passphrase fields. The private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. will be automatically matched to its corresponding certificate when uploaded.

To upload a combined certificate and private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender., choose a file in either PEM (base-64 encoded) or PKCS#12 format. If the private key The part of a public-private key pair that is always kept private. The private key encrypts the signature of a message to authenticate the sender. The private key also decrypts a message that was encrypted with the public key of the sender. has a passphrase, enter it in the Private Key Passphrase and Confirm Passphrase fields.

Figure 3  The CA Certificate Import Form, Step 3

5. Click Upload Certificate to save your changes.

If additional certificates are required, you will remain at the same page. Check the message displayed above the form to determine which certificate or type of file must be uploaded next. When the trust chain is complete, it will be displayed. This completes the initialization of the certificate authority.