An example is Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS). The certificate is issued by a public key infrastructure (PKI) in your organization. For example, self-signed certificates can't be revoked. Not all services work with self-signed certificates.ĭifficult to establish an infrastructure for certificate lifecycle management. The certificate needs to be manually added to the trusted root certificate store on all client computers and devices, but not all mobile devices allow changes to the trusted root certificate store. The certificate isn't automatically trusted by client computers and mobile devices. The certificate is signed by the application that created it. The three primary types of digital certificates are described in the following table. A certificate is considered valid if it hasn't been revoked (it isn't in the CA's certificate revocation list or CRL), or hasn't expired.
For Windows users, computers, and services, trust in the CA is established when the root certificate is defined in the trusted root certificate store, and the certificate contains a valid certification path. The public and private keys are used by the client and the server to encrypt data before it's transmitted.
For example: web user authentication, web server authentication, Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), Internet Protocol security (IPsec), and code signing.Ī certificate contains a public key and attaches that public key to the identity of a person, computer, or service that holds the corresponding private key. Typically, the authentication is one-way, where the source verifies the identity of the target, but mutual TLS authentication is also possible.Ĭertificates can be issued for several uses. A certificate is a digital statement that's issued by a certification authority (CA) that vouches for the identity of the certificate holder and enables the parties to communicate in a secure manner by using encryption.ĭigital certificates provide the following services:Įncryption: They help protect the data that's exchanged from theft or tampering.Īuthentication: They verify that their holders (people, web sites, and even network devices such as routers) are truly who or what they claim to be.
They're used to create the encrypted channel that's used for client communications.
Digital certificates overviewĭigital certificates are electronic files that work like an online password to verify the identity of a user or a computer. This topic describes the different types of certificates that are available, the default configuration for certificates in Exchange, and recommendations for additional certificates that you'll need to use with Exchange.įor the procedures that are required for certificates in Exchange Server, see Certificate procedures in Exchange Server. For additional information, see Exchange Server TLS Guidance.
In Exchange Server 2016 and later, all cryptography settings are inherited from the configuration specified in the operating system. It will also configure elliptic curve key exchange algorithms with priority over non-elliptic curve algorithms.
The default configuration for encryption will enable TLS 1.2 only and disable support for older algorithms (namely, DES, 3DES, RC2, RC4 and MD5). Exchange Server 2019 includes important changes to improve the security of client and server connections.