NETGEAR UTM50-100NAS, UTM5-100NAS manual V1.0, January

ProSecure Unified Threat Management (UTM) Appliance Reference Manual

On the UTM, the uploaded digital certificate is checked for validity and purpose. The digital certificate is accepted when it passes the validity test and the purpose matches its use. The check for the purpose must correspond to its use for IPsec VPN, SSL VPN, or both. If the defined purpose is for IPsec VPN and SSL VPN, the digital certificate is uploaded to both the IPsec VPN certificate repository and the SSL VPN certificate repository. However, if the defined purpose is for IPsec VPN only, the certificate is uploaded only to the IPsec VPN certificate repository.

The UTM uses digital certificates to authenticate connecting VPN gateways or clients, and to be authenticated by remote entities. A digital certificate that authenticates a server, for example, is a file that contains the following elements:

•A public encryption key to be used by clients for encrypting messages to the server.

•Information identifying the operator of the server.

•A digital signature confirming the identity of the operator of the server. Ideally, the signature is from a trusted third party whose identity can be verified.

You can obtain a digital certificate from a well-known commercial certificate authority (CA) such as Verisign or Thawte, or you can generate and sign your own digital certificate. Because a commercial CA takes steps to verify the identity of an applicant, a digital certificate from a commercial CA provides a strong assurance of the server’s identity. A self-signed digital certificate triggers a warning from most browsers because it provides no protection against identity theft of the server.

The UTM contains a self-signed digital certificate from NETGEAR. This certificate can be downloaded from the UTM login screen for browser import. However, NETGEAR recommends that you replace this digital certificate with a digital certificate from a well-known commercial CA prior to deploying the UTM in your network.

To display the Certificates screen, select VPN > Certificates from the menu. Because of the large size of this screen, and because of the way the information is presented, the Certificates screen is divided and presented in this manual in three figures (Figure 9-11 on page 9-19, Figure 9-13 on page 9-22, and Figure 9-15 on page 9-26).

The Certificates screen lets you to view the currently loaded digital certificates, upload a new digital certificate, and generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The UTM typically holds two types of digital certificates:

•CA digital certificates. Each CA issues its own CA identity digital certificate to validate communication with the CA and to verify the validity of digital certificates that are signed by the CA.

•Self digital certificates. The digital certificates that are issued to you by a CA to identify your device.

9-18 Managing Users, Authentication, and Certificates

v1.0, January 2010