Assume we are going to visit the website that is only known by our little circle, and we want to protect the connections so HTTPS will be used. Because this is a small circle, we don't want to send a X.509 request to a CA and wait for the certificate. We want to use a self-signed X.509 certificate. Now, the problem is how to add our self-signed X.509 certificate to WebView2 ecosystem, so that the embedded browser is able to visit the website? Thanks.
WebView2 uses the computer's certificate store, just like the Edge browser.
So you simply install your self-signed certificate in the certificate store, under 'Trusted root certificates'. Now the computer accepts the certificate and so will WebView2.
Actually I recommend you create two certificates, on root certificate, which can only be used for signing (That's the one you install in 'Root certificate store'), and then you use that certificate to sign your server certificate, which you install on the web server. Since this certificate is signed by a trusted certificate, the browser/WebView2 will accept it.
The root certificate must be installed on all computers, where you use WebView2. The server cerficate should only be installed on your server.
Related
Let's imagine we have the server with self-signed certificate and the client which want to connect to the server. Client don't have the certificate from server installed on it's store.
Is it correct that client can fetch the certificate from server, add it to it's own certificate store (after user confirmation) and have secured connection?
I am asking because I don't want to spread the sertificate to all clients by some way.
I just want them to be able to download certificate from server during first connection attempt and use it, if user confirm it's trustable.
I am currently writing a desktop app which will need to communicate with PHP scripts on my remote server via https(with a self-signed certificate). The server-client communication code is still in the planning stages, however because I haven't yet figured out how to verify (on the client) that I am actually communicating with MY server. I'm presuming that there is some way to verify the servers identity using the certificate. I am intending to use WinHTTP for the https communication, providing it has all of the functionality that I need.
To greatly oversimplify things: clients verify the server's certificate by using a hardcoded list of trusted certificate authorities. The certificate authority list is an internal list of certificates that's baked into the client, and the client verifies that the certificate presented by the server is signed by one of the certificate authorities that the client trusts.
So, no matter what you end up doing, your client will have to keep some kind of a list of certificates that it trusts. This is a fundamental aspect of the TLS trust model. You could simply include your self-signed certificate with the client, and the client verifies that that your server presented the same certificate.
But the right answer is to run your own certificate authority. It involves some additional advance prepwork, but the end result will work much better. Instead of the several dozen, or so, standard certicicate authorities that are either included in your operating system, or your browser, your client will have exactly one trusted certificate authority in its trust list: your own certificate authority, and your client will verify that your server's certificate is signed by your certificate authority.
I have a web service that clients will have and I want the data that's sent to the server encrypted. To test this I used a self signed SSL certificate. I know that when you use a self signed cert and when you navigate to whatever address is using it that the web browser will warn you that it's unsafe etc.
I am wondering if I'm I going to run into any problems if I used this certificate instead of a verified one when the web service goes live?
Also I don't have a domain name for the server, so I am just going to use the IP address given by my ISP, is this ok to do so with the certificate, because everywhere I read about them people are talking about using them with domain names?
An SSL certificate is usually issued to a domain and is signed by an issuing authority. When a browser connects to a server the server presents its certificate to the client. The client then verifies the certificate by checking if the domain that it is accessing is the same one as mentioned in the certificate. Also, it verifies its trust chain. This means that the issuer's certificate should also be valid. If the issuer is not the root signing authority then the issuer's issuer's certificate is verified. And, ultimately the root signing authority should be trusted which means the root signing authority should be in your truststore. All major signing authorities like Verisign, Thawte etc are by default in the JDK trustore hence if you have a certificate signed by them then you do not have issues in the verification of your trust chain. If your certificate is signed by an authority that is not trusted then you need to import the issuer's certificate in your trust chain manually.
Now, when using a self signed certificate, the entity to whom the certificate is issued is itself is the root signing authority. And hence the certificate should be imported into your truststore manually. You need to do this to get your SSL handshake through. But this alone does not solve your problem. Since, you are not using any domain name, your IP is likely to be changed every time you restart your server if you are obtaining your server IP automatically through a DHCP server. If this is the case then even a trusted self signed certificate won't work once the IP changes. Because, the certificate is issued to an IP and once the IP changes the certificate would become invalid. To get around this you need to get a static IP address for your server from your network admin. Then generate a self signed certificate for your static IP. Then ask your clients to add your server certificate in their trust store.
This would be a bit tedious for your clients. But, if you have a fixed number of clients and the client machines are under your control then you could add the server certificate to the client trust store yourself. But, if your server is open to all or have a huge number of client then I would suggest to get a certificate signed by a well known and trusted certification authority. Again, you would still need to have a static IP irrespective of who signs your certificate unless your server gets a domain name.
The issue with self-signed certificates is the same in any scenario, browser or non-browser: it assures absolutely nothing by itself. The purpose of SSL is two-fold: encryption and authentication. Typically both aspects are being used/required by SSL clients for a connection to be really regarded as secure.
For authentication ("who am I talking to?"), certificates are used. To authenticate your peer with a certificate, you will either have to have a copy of that certificate to compare to, or you will need to have a copy of the certificate of a signer of that certificate to compare the signature to. If you have neither, the certificate doesn't assure anything.
Meaning: self-signed certificates are fine if the client has a copy of that certificate and can trust the source of where they got the certificate from. If you have a very narrow use case where every client that's going to connect to your web service will have had prior contact with you (e.g. via email) and you are able to give a copy of the certificate to them for them to install into their local trust store, then they are able to establish a secure and authenticated connection to you regardless.
This is not workable for a typical website with arbitrary, random visitors; that's what signed certificates are for, where an already trusted entity can vouch for a heretofore unknown 3rd entity. It may be workable in a vendor-customer scenario though.
Having said that, certificates are dirt-cheap to free nowadays and lend more credibility and professionalism to your service.
And yes, certificates can be issued for IP addresses.
I have a website hosted on my web server contacting a secure web service on another server. I have created a self signed certificate and attached it to the https:// binding. I have done 2 things to try and accept the certificate on my web server:
Open IE and browse to my wsdl file in the web service - Installed the certificate to the Trusted Root Cert Authority.
Exported the certificate from the other server, gone into MMC and installed imported it manually into the Local Computer Trusted Root Cert Auth.
Neither of these have worked and I am not sure which route to try next.
System: Windows Server 2008 running IIS7.
Many thanks for your time.
I had to do this the way everyone else seems to do it by overriding the certificate check. Not what I wanted but has sorted it for now.
I need to secure communication between my application and my Web Service.
I own both the application and the Web Service, and I was wondering if it is possible to use HTTPS to do so.
I don't need a certificate to prove to myself who I really am (!), so I don't want to buy an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority. I just need to make sure no one can intercept the data I pass as WebMethod parameters; Can I create a free certificate and use that to secure communication?
One other thing: I don't want to be forced to get a dedicated, public IP address for my Web Service since it is hosted on a shared Web server.
Definitely it's doable, but hinges on a few conditions.
Create your own self signed certificate. The lack of a certificate authority won't matter in your case because your app is your own consumer.
The host must allow you to configure your IIS site with an SSL cert. Hopefully the tools they provide are good enough.
The shared IP that your web site has currently cannot have more than one certificate bound to it. You're now at the mercy of your host to not move your site to a different IP. It may or may not have an SSL cert on another site at that time. Basically - the first one wins. An IP cannot have more than one cert-secured website.
There are many articles out there showing how to create and install a self signed certificate in IIS. What you need to remember is that this certificate will not be valid as it is not delivered by a certificate authority. Once you set a certificate on the server side you need to indicate to the client to accept the invalid certificate by using the ServerCertificateValidationCallback property:
ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback =
(sender, certificate, chain, sslPolicyErrors) => true;
You can't use a SSL certificate (self signed or otherwise) without a dedicated IP address. Unless your shared hosting provider provides a shared SSL certificate on your IP, you will need to purchase a dedicated IP.
If you want to go through the trouble of doing it, you can use a self-signed certificate and have a tertiary server (or use the IIS server that is self-signing) to be your own certificate authority. This would allow you to generate your own certificate for free, then since you have control over the servers, you could just add your CA server as a trusted and intermediary root certificate authority.
Creating Certificate Authorities and self-signed SSL certificates