Black Box ET1000A, ET0010A Handling Revocation Check Failures, Validating Certificates Using Ocsp

Validating Certificates

To install a CRL on the ETEP:

1Switch to the Certificate Manager perspective.

2In the Appliances view, right-click on the target ETEP and choose Install CRL.

3Navigate to the appropriate directory and select the CRL file that you want to install.

4Click Open.

5Push the modified configuration to the ETEP in order to complete the installation.

To view CRLs

1In the Appliances view, right-click the target ETEP and click View CRLs in the shortcut menu. A list of installed CRLs is displayed in the CRLs view.

To delete CRLs

1In the Certificate Manager perspective, select the target ETEP.

2Click the CRLs tab.

3Right-click on the CRL that you want to remove and select Delete.

Handling Revocation Check Failures

Not being able to check a CRL does not automatically indicate that a certificate is expired or revoked, especially if the CRL is stored on a server on a different network. By default, if an EncrypTight component cannot check a CRL for any reason, it logs the failure, but still allows a secure communication session to be created. In the EncrypTight software and on the ETKMS, you can change this behavior to fail the authentication instead.

To change the default ETKMS action when a CRL cannot be checked:

1Log in as root and edit the file /opt/etkms/conf/kdist.properties and add or edit the following line in the Certificate Configuration section:

ignoreRevocationCheckErrors=false

2Save and close the file.

To change the default EncrypTight action when a CRL cannot be checked:

1In EncrypTight, select Edit > Preferences.

2Click ETEMS to expand the tree and then click Communications.

3Click Ignore CRL access failure to clear the check box.

4Click OK.

Validating Certificates Using OCSP

As an alternative to using CRLs, you can validate certificates with the online certificate status protocol (OCSP). With OCSP, the device that wants to check the validity of a certificate reads the certificate to determine the URL of the OCSP responder and sends a request that identifies the certificate in question. Organizations can also explicitly specify a URL to use for the OCSP responder. The OCSP responder returns a signed OCSP response indicating the validity of the certificate.

EncrypTight User Guide 289