[Contents] [Index]

Client Configuration

When configuring the client, it must be set up to trust the CA certificate and to access the certificate revocation list (CRL). For more information on client-side configuration, see the documentation for SSH Tectia Client and Connector.

X.509 Certificates

To configure the client to trust the server's certificate, perform the following tasks:

1. Copy the CA certificate(s) to the client machine. You can either copy the X.509 certificate(s) as such, or you can copy a PKCS #7 package including the CA certificate(s).

   Certificates can be extracted from a PKCS #7 package by specifying the -7 flag with ssh-keygen2.

2. Define the CA certificate(s) to be used in host authentication in the ssh2_config file:

   HostCA <ca-certificate>

   Only one CA certificate can be defined per HostCA keyword. The client will only accept certificates issued by the defined CA.

   You can disable the use of CRLs by using the HostCANoCrls keyword instead of HostCA:

   HostCANoCrls <ca-certificate>

   Note: CRL usage should only be disabled for testing purposes. Otherwise it is highly recommended to always use CRLs.

3. Also define the LDAP server(s) used for CRL checks in the ssh2_config file.

   LDAPServers ldap://server1.domain1:port1

   Defining the LDAP server is not necessary if the CA certificate contains a CRL distribution point extension.
4. If the CA services (OCSP, CRLs) are located behind a firewall, define also the SOCKS server in the ssh2_config file.

   SocksServer socks://socks_server:port/network/netmask,network/netmask

Entrust Certificates

The client is set to trust the Entrust certificate in the same way as with standard X.509 certificates. See the instructions above.