Sun Microsystems Netscape Enterprise Server, Administrator'S Manual

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About Enterprise Server Security
114 Netscape Enterprise Server Administrator’s Guide
About Enterprise Server Security
Enterprise Server security is based on a number of interrelated and inter-
dependent components, all of which work together to ensure that only
authorized individuals can gain access to the server, that passwords or identities
are not compromised, and that user identities can be trusted.
This section provides an overview for the following Enterprise Server security
components:
• Encryption
• Certificates
• Configuring Enterprise Server for SSL
Encryption
Encryption is the process of transforming information so it is unintelligible to
anyone but the intended recipient. Decryption is the process of transforming
encrypted information so that it is intelligible again. A cryptographic algorithm,
also called a
cipher , is a mathematical function used for encryption or
decryption.
The encryption process alone isn’t enough to secure your server’s confidential
information. Once the information has been encrypted, and possibly
transmitted to another server, a number called a
key must be used with the
encrypting cipher to produce the actual encrypted result, or to decrypt
previously encrypted information. The encryption process uses two keys to
achieve this result: a public key and a private key. The public key is published
as part of a certificate; only the associated private key is safeguarded. (For more
information about keys and certificates, see
Managing Servers with Netscape
Console .) Consequently, information encrypted with a public key can be
decrypted only with the associated private key.
All Netscape 4.0 servers support the SSL protocol for encrypted communication
and PKCS #11 APIs for communication with software or hardware modules that
perform cryptographic operations. You need to configure the Enterprise
Administration Server for SSL if you want to enable encryption and other