User`s guide

VMG8924-B10A and VMG8924-B30A Series User’s Guide 213
CHAPTER 19
Certificates
19.1 Overview
The Device can use certificates (also called digital IDs) to authenticate users. Certificates are based
on public-private key pairs. A certificate contains the certificate owner’s identity and public key.
Certificates provide a way to exchange public keys for use in authentication.
19.1.1 What You Can Do in this Chapter
•The Local Certificates screen lets you generate certification requests and import the Device's
CA-signed certificates (Section 19.4 on page 216).
•The Trusted CA screen lets you save the certificates of trusted CAs to the Device (Section 19.4
on page 216).
19.2 What You Need to Know
The following terms and concepts may help as you read through this chapter.
Certification Authority
A Certification Authority (CA) issues certificates and guarantees the identity of each certificate
owner. There are commercial certification authorities like CyberTrust or VeriSign and government
certification authorities. The certification authority uses its private key to sign certificates. Anyone
can then use the certification authority's public key to verify the certificates. You can use the Device
to generate certification requests that contain identifying information and public keys and then send
the certification requests to a certification authority.
19.3 The Local Certificates Screen
Click Security > Certificates to open the Local Certificates screen. This is the Device’s summary
list of certificates and certification requests.
Figure 127 Security > Certificates > Local Certificates