Introduction to Certificate Services
Is This for You? This document set is written to meet the requirements of information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for the planning, design, deployment, and operations of security and network infrastructure in enterprise environments. The readers of this document set are expected to have an understanding of its technical details; however, service-level expertise is not needed to follow the enterprise-level discussions and to understand the decisions that are made.
On This Page
 | Application Architecture |
| Blueprint |
| Planning Guide |
| Build Guide |
| Operations Guide |
Application Architecture
Introduction Computer networks are no longer closed systems where the mere presence of a user can serve as a sufficient proof of identity. In this age of information interconnection, the network of an organization may consist of intranets, Internet sites, and extranets, all of which are susceptible to intrusion by individuals with malicious intent seeking a variety of data files, from e-mail messages to e-commerce transactions. To mitigate the risks incurred by this susceptibility, mechanisms for establishing and sustaining a user's identity are required. A centrally managed, electronic identity for users can provide the following:
| • | Accessibility of information: Information assets need to be accessible to authorized users and protected from unauthorized access or modification. Passwords can help, but users who have several passwords for accessing different secure systems may choose passwords that are easy to remember and consequently easy to decipher. |
| • | Non-repudiation of identity: Information needs to be sent from one user to another with the confidence that the sender of the information is valid. It is also necessary to provide reasonable confidence that the information has not been changed en route. |
| • | Privacy of information: Users should be able to send information to other users or access a computer system with confidence that the information being cannot be accessed or made available to others. It should be possible for the user or system to define who can access the information. Privacy is of particular importance when information is transmitted over the public Internet. |
These requirements deal with electronic information assets, and have a direct impact on most organizations. Any mechanism that is implemented to deal with these requirements must be both manageable and secure. A public key infrastructure (PKI) is an appropriate technology to fulfill these requirements with the use of digital certificates. PKI enables the exchange of digital certificates between authenticated entities and trusted resources. Certificates in a PKI are used to secure data and manage the identification credentials of resources within and outside the organization. Clearly, PKI itself needs to be trusted; therefore, it is managed by a pre-qualified organization or part of such organization. Such an organization can be called a certification authority (CA), but usually just the computer that runs the certificate software is called a CA. Whether the CA refers to an organization or to the software that supports certification, the CA is responsible for establishing and vouching for the identity of certificate holders. It may also revoke certificates if they should no longer be considered valid and publish certificate revocation lists (CRLs) for use by certificate verifiers to determine the validity of a certificate. The following links provide relevant information for the certificate services and documents related to PKI issues and technologies:
| • | Defining the Security Landscape: |
| • | Security Planning: |
| • | Security Strategies: |
Blueprint
This blueprint was a comprehensive blueprint of the design process for an enterprise-class public key infrastructure solution. The certificate services design process involve selecting a number of options to meet an organization’s needs for managed creation and delivery of certificates while meeting criteria for availability, security, scalability, and manageability. Some options must be selected for the organization as a whole, while other options can apply to individual users, computers, or applications that make use of certificates. The value of certificates to an organization and its IT infrastructure is undeniable. The guidance provided in this blueprint enables designers to select the correct options based on business needs and to develop a certificate services architecture appropriate for the delivery of mission-critical certificate services in an enterprise environment.
Planning Guide
This guide provided the details of the PKI design that was implemented in the test labs for the CDC and SBO scenarios. The design process and options are covered in detail in the Certificate Services Blueprint. The design that was used in the lab was, in effect, a proof of the design guidance. Using both the Service Blueprints and this Planning Guide, it is possible for a PKI service design engineer to formulate and document a very detailed PKI design in a consistent and repeatable manner.
Build Guide
A secure and reliable PKI is vital to an organization that wished to use certificate services. The guidance provided in this guide can be used to build such a configuration. The build steps and related information help to ensure a complete and consistent configuration at the end of the process. The supplied descriptions of the test methodology and tools that were used in the actual testing of the certificate services help to ensure the PKI is installed and configured correctly. Functional test cases as well as test results were presented and discussed, and all test cases described in this guide are presented in Appendix 14.15.
Operations Guide
This guide helps the readers understand the extent of operations guidance that is available for the certificate services discussed in WSSRA. This guidance has been tested in a WSSRA environment and the project team deferred to this guidance as the authoritative source of operations content.