When it comes to securing communications, authentication establishes itself as a truly crucial issue. Users must be able to prove their identity to those with whom they communicate and must be able to verify the identity of others. A certificate is a common credential that provides a means to verify identity.
Windows stores certificates, certificate revocation lists and certificate trust lists locally on your computer in a permanent storage called certificate store. LDAP Administrator delivers means to view and manage certificates stored on your PC.
Viewing Certificates DetailsTo be able to view your certificates:
In the Tools menu, click
Certificate Manager to launch the Certificate Manager.
Certificates are split into five categories. Each of the categories is a separate tab inside the Certificates Manager dialog. These categories are:
Personal. Certificates issued to you personally.
Other People. Certificates issued to other individuals or companies.
Intermediate Certification Authorities. An Intermediate Certification Authority issues server certificates, personal certificates, publisher certificates, or certificates for other Intermediate Certification Authorities. Intermediate Certificate Authorities issue and validate personal digital certificates. These certificates must be verified by a root certificate in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities.
Trusted Root Certification Authorities. Certificates issued by those root certification authorities that you explicitly trust.
Trusted Publishers. Certificates from certification authorities that are trusted by Software Restriction policies.
Note: The Trusted Publishers category is only present in Windows XP.
Double-click a certificate to view its detailed infomation. The Certificate dialog consists of the following three tabs:
General. Default view for displaying a purpose of a certificate.
Details. Displays the actual X.509 fields, extensions, and properties of a certificate. You may also click Edit Properties in this view to be able to modify the Friendly Name and Description fields, as well as to specify the area of use for the certificate.
Certification Path. Displays the certification path.
Importing CertificatesUse the Certificate Manager to restore certificates from files.
To import a certificate:
In the Tools menu, click
Certificate Manager to launch the Certificate Manager.
Click Import to launch the Certificate Import Wizard. Click Next.
Click the Browse button to locate and select the certificate you'd like to import. Then, having selected the file, click Next.
If you want the wizard to select the store automatically, select the Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certificate box. If you want to select a store manually, select the Place all certificates in the following store option and click Browse to find the store. Then, click Next.
Read the information displayed in the Completing the Certificate Import Wizard window, then click Finish.
After a certificate has been added to the certificate store, you'll become capable of using it when required in process of certificate-containing LDAP attribute modifications or while connecting to an LDAP server using SSL.
Exporting CertificatesUse the Certificate Manager to back up certificates, or to move them to another PC.
To export certificates:
In the Tools menu, click
Certificate Manager to launch the Certificate Manager.
Select one or more certificates you want to export and click Export to launch the Certificate Export Wizard. Click Next.
Select an export file format and click Next.
Enter the name of the file you want to export and click Next.
Verify the choices you have made in the wizard and click Finish to complete export.