• Client authentication ensures whether the users are legitimate or not
  • In HTTPS, browsers and webservers communicate over secured SSL encrypted conneciton
  • Servers determine a visitor’s identity using the following methods
    – If tomcatAuthentication=“false", then it retrieves the username and assumes all authentication is done
    – If tomcatAuthentication=“true", CLIENT-CERT results in the value of org.apache.catalina.authenticator.SSLAuthenticator is input to the application
  • The client and the server present each other their certificates from the keystores in authentication process
  • Authentic client and server certificate copies are stored in each of the keystores for secured SSL communication

💖Certificate Generation with Keytool

  • Keystore class is a memory collection of keys and certificates
  • Keytool is a command line tool provided by Java for generating keystores
  • Every keystore has a unique private key that cannot be exported but can be copied easily
  • A keytool helps in sharing public version of the private key with the server

💖Certificate Generation with Keytool (Cont’d)

  • Generating the Client and Server Keystores
  • Exporting the Client’s Public Certificate and Importing it in to the Server’s Keystore
  • Export the Server’s Public Certificate and import it in to the Client’s Keystore
  • Configure Tomcat for SSL using the Server Keystore

Note:
– Appropriate paths and passwords substituted for truststorePass. truststoreFile. keystorePass, and keystoreFile in { tomcat.home } / conf / server.xml
– clientAuth attribute enquires clients to provide authentication certificates

Implementing Encryption and Certificates in Client Application