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Certificates
Digital Certificates (also known as X509 Certificates) are used to authenticate the identity of users and systems, and are issued by Certification Authorities (CA) such as Verisign, Thawte and other organizations. Digital Certificates are used by this router during the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) authentication phase to authenticate connecting VPN gateways or clients, or to be authenticated by remote entities.
Trusted Certificates (CA Certificate)
Trusted Certificates or CA certificates are used to verify the validity of certificates signed by them. When a certificate is generated, it is signed by a trusted organization or authority called the Certificate Authority. The table contains the certificates of each CA.

When a remote VPN gateway or client presents a digital certificate, the authentication process verifies that the presented certificate is issued by one of the trusted authorities. The Trusted CA certificates are used in this authentication process.

The following data is displayed for each certificate entry in the table:
CA Identity (Subject Name): The organization or person to whom the certificate is issued.
Issuer Name: The name of the CA that issued the certificate.
Expiry Time: The date after which the certificate becomes invalid.
Select All: Select all the certificates in the table.
Delete: Purge the selected certificate or certificates.
New certificates can be uploaded to the router with the Upload Trusted Certificate option. Click on Browse and select the certificate file located on your computer. Click Upload to store the certificate on the router.
Active Self Certificates
This table lists the certificates issued to you by trusted Certification Authorities (CAs), and available for presentation to remote IKE servers. The remote IKE server validates this router using these certificates. For each certificate, the following data is displayed:
Name: A unique name used to identify a certificate.
Subject Name: This is the name which other organizations will see as the Certificate Holder (owner). This is usually your registered business or company name.
Serial Number: The serial number is used by the CA to identify the certificate itself in their records.
Issuer Name: The name of the CA which issued the certificate.
Expiry Time: The date on which the Certificate expires. You should renew the certificate before it expires.
Select All: Select all the certificates in the table.
Delete: Purge the selected certificate or certificates.
Generate Self Certificate Request
One of the steps in creating a certificate is to generate a certificate request from the computer or the device that will be using the certificate. The Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file needs to be submitted to the CA who will then generate a certificate for this device.
To generate a certificate request:
v Enter the required data in the Generate Self Certificate Request section. The Subject field will populate the CN (Common Name) entry of the generated certificate. Subject names are usually defined in the following format: CN=<device name>, OU=<department>, O=<organization>, L=<city>, ST=<state>, C=<country>. For example: CN=router1, OU=my_company, O=mydept, L=SFO, C=US.
v Click Generate. A new certificate request is created and added to the Self Certificate Requests table. To view a request, click on the View button under the Action column.
v Copy the contents of the Data to supply to CA text box and save it in a file.
v Follow the instructions of the CA to complete the certificate signing process.
Self Certificate Requests
The Self Certificate Requests table displays a list of all the certificate requests made.
Uploading a Certificate File
After obtaining the signed certificate file from the CA click Browse, locate the signed certificate file on your computer and use the Upload button to upload the certificate.
Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL)
CRL (Certificate Revocation List) files show certificates that have been revoked, and are no longer valid. CRL files are provided by the CA periodically and can be downloaded from the CA’s website.
To upload a new CRL, click Browse, locate the CRL file which you downloaded from the CA’s website on to your computer. Click on the Upload button to upload the CRL file to the router.
 

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