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Certificates and Authentication
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Managing Servers with Netscape Console • December 2001
As shown in the next section, one of the advantages of certificate-based
authentication is that it can be used to replace the first three steps in Figure B-4
with a mechanism that allows the user to supply just one password (which is not
sent across the network) and allows the administrator to control user
authentication centrally.
Certificate-Based Authentication
Figure B-5 shows how client authentication works using certificates and the SSL
protocol. To authenticate a user to a server, a client digitally signs a randomly
generated piece of data and sends both the certificate and the signed data across
the network. For the purposes of this discussion, the digital signature associated
with some data can be thought of as evidence provided by the client to the server.
The server authenticates the user’s identity on the strength of this evidence.
Like Figure B-4, Figure B-5 assumes that the user has already decided to trust the
server and has requested a resource, and that the server has requested client
authentication in the process of evaluating whether to grant access to the requested
resource.
Figure B-5
Using a Certificate to Authenticate a Client to a Server
Unlike the process shown in Figure B-4, the process shown in Figure B-5 requires
the use of SSL. Figure B-5 also assumes that the client has a valid certificate that can
be used to identify the client to the server. Certficate-based authentication is
generally considered preferable to password-based authentication because it is
based on wheat the user has (the private key) as well as what the user knows (the
password that protects the private key). However, it’s important to note that these
Summary of Contents for NETSCAPE CONSOLE 6.0 - MANAGING SERVERS
Page 1: ...Managing Servers with Netscape Console Netscape Console Version6 0 December 2001 ...
Page 18: ...Getting Additional Help 18 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 20: ...20 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 40: ...Uninstallation 40 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 42: ...42 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 80: ...Working with Netscape Servers 80 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 110: ...110 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 118: ...The Netscape Administration Page 118 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 166: ...166 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 208: ...Using Client Authentication 208 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 226: ...Using the Windows NT SNMP Service 226 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 228: ...228 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 264: ...Managing Certificates 264 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 280: ...The SSL Handshake 280 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...
Page 302: ...302 Managing Servers with Netscape Console December 2001 ...