{"id":40809,"date":"2021-05-10T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/how-does-certificate-based-authentication-work\/"},"modified":"2021-05-10T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T10:00:00","slug":"how-does-certificate-based-authentication-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/how-does-certificate-based-authentication-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How does certificate-based authentication work?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

I find a few universal truths when mentioning certificates to people. Most people I speak with consider them to be a very secure concept almost without fail. However upon mentioning that I want to talk about certificates: that person\u2019s face turns a slightly lighter shade, their eyes get a bit wider, and they have this immediate fight or flight instinct kick in.<\/p>\n

I can tell you, this is a subject that does not have to be scary, there are just a few misunderstandings. One such example of a common misunderstanding:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSince the Certificate was issued by Active Directory\u2019s Certificate Authority, then authenticating that certificate is the same as an Active Directory authentication\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I realize how and why that assumption was made, it gets awfully confusing to try and separate out Active Directory from a Certificate Authority when they are so tightly integrated. However, let me assure you, standard Certificate Authentication is the same, regardless of whether the CA is built by Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Entrust, etc.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take some time and review how Certificate-Based Authentications actually work. When presented with a certificate, an authentication server will do the following (at a minimum):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Has the Digital Certificate been issued\/signed by a Trusted CA?<\/li>\n
  2. Is the Certificate Expired \u2013 checks both the start and end dates<\/li>\n
  3. Has the Certificate been revoked? (Could be OCSP or CRL check)<\/li>\n
  4. Has the client provided proof of possession?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s examine the above 4 items one at a time:<\/p>\n

    Has the Digital Certificate Been Signed by a Trusted CA?<\/p>\n

    The signing of the certificate really has two parts. The first part is the certificate must have been signed correctly (following the correct format, etc). If it is not, it will be discarded immediately. Next, The signing CA\u2019s public key must be in a Trusted Certificates store, and that certificate must be trusted for purposes of authentication. Using Cisco ISE as an example, the trusted certificate will need to have the \u201cTrust for client authentication\u201d use-case selected (as seen below).<\/p>\n

    READ MORE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Certificate-based authentication is a cryptographic technique that allows one computer to securely identify itself to another across a network connection, using a document called a public-key certificate.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story) READ MORE HERE…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[738],"tags":[812,740,29,1061,762],"class_list":["post-40809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-networkworld","tag-data-center","tag-idg-insider","tag-mobile-security","tag-network-security","tag-networking"],"yoast_head":"\nHow does certificate-based authentication work? 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud 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