Certificates


Certificates are used to encrypt, decrypt, digitally sign, and verify messages both internally in your GroupWise system and over the Internet. The Certificates option enables you to set and manage certificates (yours and recipients) for use in GroupWise.

Your public certificate is used to sign messages and to send to others to allow them to verify your signature on the message. Certificates have two elements: a public key and a private key. From the perspective of encrypting and sending a message, once you have imported another user's public certificate, you can encrypt and send messages to that user, using the public key element from the certificate. When the other person receives the encrypted message, that user will use the private key element in his or her certificate to decrypt the message.

From the perspective of receiving an encrypted message, you must have already sent your certificate to the sender. That person will use his or her public key element of your certificate to encrypt the message, and you will use the private key element of your certificate to decrypt the message.

NOTE

A further discussion of how to obtain a certificate file and the details of public and private keys is beyond the scope of this book.


My Certificates

The My Certificates dialog box, shown in Figure 11.14, enables you to obtain a certificate, import an existing certificate, or view and manage the properties of your certificate. This dialog box will show a list of your certificates.

Figure 11.14. This dialog box is where you configure your certificates to use in encryption.

graphics/11fig14.jpg

You will find the following features on the My Certificates dialog box:

  • Get Certificate ” Clicking this button will start your Web browser and point to the Novell GroupWise Certificate page (www.novell.com/products/groupwise/certified.html), where you can get information on supported certificates.

  • Edit Properties ” This button enables you to edit the properties of your certificate.

  • Import ” Clicking this button will enable you to browse to the file location of your certificate. Certificate files end with a .p12 or .pfx extension. You will also need to enter your certificate password. The Allow Export of Private Key in the Future option is needed for exporting the private key portion of your certificate to a file for backup or other purposes.

    Once you click OK in the Import My Certificate screen, you will be asked to set the security level in the Private Key Container dialog box. Low grants others permission to use your certificate without notification. Medium (the default) requests your permission when the certificate is going to be used, and High requests your permission with your password.

  • View Details ” This button enables you to see the detailed information about your certificate.

  • Set As Default ” If you have multiple certificates, use this button to designate the default certificate for encrypting and signing messages.

  • Certification Path ” This button shows the list of Certificate Authorities (CAs) that provided you with the certificate.

  • Export ” This button enables you to export the selected certificate to a file.

  • Remove ” This button enables you to remove the selected certificate from use in GroupWise.

These options are needed for most certificate configurations.

Certificate Authorities' Certificates

Clicking the Certificate Authorities' Certificates button brings up a dialog box that displays "Intermediate" and "Root" certificates. These are preconfigured lists of Certificate Authorities used worldwide to enable encryption and digital signatures.



Novell GroupWise 6.5 Users Handbook
Novell GroupWise 6.5 Users Handbook
ISBN: 0789729830
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 191

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