User`s guide

Chapter 14 The Certificates Screens
User’s Guide
155
The following table describes the labels in this screen.
14.4 Technical Reference
The following section contains additional technical information about the WiMAX Modem
features described in this chapter.
14.4.1 Certificate Authorities
When using public-key cryptology for authentication, each host has two keys. One key is
public and can be made openly available. The other key is private and must be kept secure.
These keys work like a handwritten signature (in fact, certificates are often referred to as
“digital signatures”). Only you can write your signature exactly as it ought to look. When
people know what your signature ought to look like, they can verify whether something was
signed by you, or by someone else. In the same way, your private key “writes” your digital
signature and your public key allows people to verify whether data was signed by you, or by
someone else. This process works as follows.
1 Tim wants to send a message to Jenny. He needs her to be sure that it comes from him,
and that the message content has not been altered by anyone else along the way. Tim
generates a public key pair (one public key and one private key).
2 Tim keeps the private key and makes the public key openly available. This means that
anyone who receives a message seeming to come from Tim can read it and verify
whether it is really from him or not.
3 Tim uses his private key to sign the message and sends it to Jenny.
4 Jenny receives the message and uses Tim’s public key to verify it. Jenny knows that the
message is from Tim, and she knows that although other people may have been able to
read the message, no-one can have altered it (because they cannot re-sign the message
with Tim’s private key).
5 Additionally, Jenny uses her own private key to sign a message and Tim uses Jenny’s
public key to verify the message.
The WiMAX Modem uses certificates based on public-key cryptology to authenticate users
attempting to establish a connection, not to encrypt the data that you send after establishing a
connection. The method used to secure the data that you send through an established
connection depends on the type of connection. For example, a VPN tunnel might use the triple
DES encryption algorithm.
The certification authority uses its private key to sign certificates. Anyone can then use the
certification authority’s public key to verify the certificates.
Table 66 TOOLS > Certificates > Trusted CAs Import
LABEL DESCRIPTION
File Path Type in the location of the file you want to upload in this field or click Browse to find it.
Choose... Click to find the certificate file you want to upload.
Apply
Click to save your changes.
Cancel
Click to return to the previous screen without saving your changes.