Sun Microsystems Netscape Enterprise Server, Administrator'S Manual

Page: 128 / 532

Using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
128 Netscape Enterprise Server Administrator’s Guide
• Specifying Ciphers
• Setting Security (SSL) Preferences
• Adding a PKCS #11Module
• Using SSL Configuration File Directives
Activating SSL
To activate SSL for Enterprise Server, perform the steps described in “Activating
SSL,” on page 73 in Chapter 3, “Setting Administration Preferences.”
URLs to an SSL-enabled Enterprise Administration Server are constructed using
https
instead of simply
http
. URLs that point to documents on an SSL-
enabled server have this format:
https://<servername.[domain.[dom]]:[port#]>
For example,
https://admin.mozilla.com:443
. If you use the default
secure http port number (443), you don’t have to use the port number in the
URL.
Specifying Ciphers
A cipher is an algorithm used in encryption. Some ciphers are more secure, or
stronger, than others. Generally speaking, the more bits a cipher uses during
encryption, the harder it is to decrypt the data.
When initiating an SSL connection with a server, a client lets the server know
what ciphers it prefers for encrypting information. In any two-way encryption
process, both parties must use the same ciphers. Because a number of ciphers
are available, your server needs to be able to use the most popular ones.
You can choose ciphers from the SSL 2 protocol, as well as from SSL 3.
Improvements were made to the protocol after version 2 that improve security
and performance; you should not use SSL 2 unless you have a real need to
service clients that are not capable of using SSL 3. Client certificates are not