Provisioning Using Configuration Files
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VSP716A Administrator and Provisioning Manual
Securing configuration files with AES encryption
You can encrypt your configuration files to prevent unauthorised users modifying the
configuration files. The VSP716A firmware decrypts files using the AES 256 algorithm.
After encrypting a file and placing it on your provisioning server, you can enable the
VSP716A to decrypt the file after fetching it from the server.
The procedures in this section use OpenSSL for Windows for file encryption, as shown in
To decrypt a configuration file, you will need a 16-character AES key that you specified
when you encrypted the file. The key (or passphrase) is limited to 16 characters in length
and supports special characters
~ ^ ` % ! & - _ + = | . @ * : ; , ? ( ) [ ] { } < > / \ #
as well as
spaces.
To encrypt a configuration file:
1. (Optional) Place your configuration file in the same folder as the openssl executable
file. If the configuration file is not in the same folder as the openssl executable file, you
can enter a relative pathname for the [infile] in the next step.
2. Double-click the
openssl.exe
file.
3. On the openssl command line, type:
enc -aes-256-cbc -pass pass:[passphrase123456] -in [infile] -out [outfile]
-nosalt -p
Elements in brackets are examples—do not enter the brackets. Enter a 16-character
passphrase and the unencrypted configuration file filename (the "infile") and a name for the
encrypted file ("outfile") that will result.
Figure 2. OpenSSL command line
The encryption of configuration files is supported only for the auto provisioning
process. Encrypt files only if you intend to store them on a provisioning server. Do
not encrypt files that you intend to manually import to the VSP716A. You cannot
enable decryption for manually imported configuration files.
