Creating a Certificate Signing Request

Enter the Stronghold Configuration Manager.

Select New Key Generation to create a new key file.

Enter key size (either 512 or 1024 bits) and follow instructions for generating the random data. 1024 bits is the recommended key size.

**** Note: The encryption key size (512 bit, 1024 bit) has nothing to do with the actual session key (128 bit, 40 bit)

When creating a CSR you must follow these conventions.

Enter the Distinguished Name Field information.

he following characters can not be accepted: < > ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / \ ( ) ?. &

Distinguished Name Field	Explanation	Example
Country Name	The two-letter ISO abbreviation for your country	US = United States
State or Province Name	The state or province where your organization is located. Can not be abbreviated.	Georgia
City or Locality	The city where your organization is located.	Atlanta
Organization Name	The exact legal name of your organization. Do not abbreviate	IPS S.L.
Organizational Unit	Optional for additional organization information	Marketing
Common Name (Server Host Name)	The fully qualified domain name for your web server. You will get a certificate name check warning if this is not an exact match.	If you intend to secure the URL https://secure.yourURL.com, then your CSR's Server Hostname must be secure.yourURL.com
Server Admin.'s email address	Your email address	abc@yourURL.com

The key pair will be generated and saved in the file:

strongholdserverroot/private/hostname.key.

example: /usr/local/stronghold/private/www.something.com.key

Edit this file to extract the CSR data to send to IPSCA. This is the text

beginning with "-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----"

up to and including the text "-----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----".

Submit your CSR to IPSCA.

Note: See also C2Net's documentation on key generation and installation instructions for both STRONGHOLD 2.3 and STRONGHOLD 2.4.x .

CSR installation

Installing a Certificate for C2 Net Stronghold Server 2.4.2

The certificate that you will receive from IPSCA will contain two parts - a server part,and a CA part. These will be clearly marked in the certificate that you will receive.

• Installing the Server Certificate
• Installing the Intermediate CA Certificate
• Browser versions

Installing the Server Certificate

Please make sure you are using Stronghold 2.4.2. If you are using an
earlier release of Stronghold, please install 2.4.2 before installing your
Global Server Certificate. Please contact support for more information.

There are 8 steps involved in installing your certificate successfully. Please
print out these instructions and follow them carefully. Then, you
can start enjoying the benefits of 128 bit secure, authenticated
communication with your customers.

PLEASE NOTE: There are TWO certificates :

1)The Intermediate CA Certificate, and
2)The Server Subscriber Certificate for your company

YOU WILL NEED TO INSTALL BOTH CERTIFICATES for your server to properly
initiate 128 bit sessions with browsers.

TO INSTALL THE SERVER SUBSCRIBER CERTIFICATE:

(1) Run the command "getca servername" where "servername" is the same name
you used when you generated the key or certificate request, using "genkey
servername" or "genreq servername"

(2) Return to the email and copy the certificate marked
        as the SERVER CERT including the two lines labeled "-----BEGIN
        CERTIFICATE-----" and "-----END CERTIFICATE-----" onto the
        clipboard.

(3) Paste the clipboard into the terminal window where you've run "getca"

(4) Enter Control-D or the appropriate EOF character for your terminal

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Installing the Intermediate CA Certificate

(5) Add a directive to your configuration file

SSLCACertificateFile certs/ipsca.cert

(6) Download the intermediate Certificate from here then copy the certificate including the two lines labeled

        "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----"
                and

        "-----END CERTIFICATE-----"
        onto the clipboard.

(7) Paste the clipboard into the file ssl/certs/ipsca.cert located
     in your ServerRoot directory
(8) Make Sure Your Customers are using recent versions of
     the browsers.



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Browser Versions

Make Sure Your Customers are Using the Proper Versions of the browsers. As noted before you enrolled for the Server Certificate, these certificates do not work with the older versions of Microsoft and Netscape Browsers.

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Creating a Certificate Signing Request

Explanation