Configuring the collection certificate store on the server or cell-level bindings

Collection certificate stores contain untrusted, intermediary certificate files awaiting validation. Validation might consist of checking for a valid signature in a digitally signed Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message to see if the certificate is on a certificate revocation list (CRLs), checking that the certificate is not expired, and checking that the certificate is issued by a trusted signer.

Complete the following steps to configure a collection certificate on the server level:

  1. Access the default bindings for the server level.
    1. Click Servers > Application servers > server_name.
    2. Under Security, click Web services: Default bindings for Web services security.
  2. Under Additional properties, click Collection certificate store.
  3. Click New to create a collection certificate store configuration, click Delete to delete an existing configuration, or click the name of an existing collection certificate store configuration to edit its settings. If you are creating a new configuration, enter a name in the Certificate store name field. For example, you might name your certificate store sig_certstore.

    The name of the collection certificate store must be unique to the level of the application server. For example, if you create the collection certificate store for the server level, the store name must be unique to the server level. The name that is specified in the Certificate store name field is used by other configurations to refer to a predefined collection certificate store. WebSphere® Application Server searches for the collection certificate store based on proximity.

    For example, if an application binding refers to a collection certificate store named cert1, the Application Server searches for cert1 at the application level before searching the server level.

  4. Specify a certificate store provider in the Certificate store provider field. WebSphere Application Server supports the IBMCertPath certificate store provider. To use another certificate store provider, you must define the provider implementation in the provider list within the install_dir/java/jre/lib/security/java.security file. However, make sure that your provider supports the same requirements of the certificate path algorithm as WebSphere Application Server.
  5. Click OK and Save to save the configuration.
  6. Click the name of your certificate store configuration. After you specify the certificate store provider, you must specify either the location of a certificate revocation list or the X.509 certificates. However, you can specify both a certificate revocation list and the X.509 certificates for your certificate store configuration.
  7. Under Additional properties, click Certificate revocation lists. For the generator binding, a certificate revocation list (CRL) is used when it is included in a generated security token. For example, a security token might be wrapped in a PKCS#7 format with a CRL. For more information on certificate revocation lists, see Certificate revocation list.
  8. Click New to specify a certificate revocation list path, click Delete to delete an existing list reference, or click the name of an existing reference to edit the path. You must specify the fully qualified path to the location where WebSphere Application Server can find your list of certificates that are not valid. WebSphere Application Server uses the certificate revocation list to check the validity of the sender certificate.

    For portability reasons, it is recommended that you use the WebSphere Application Server variables to specify a relative path to the certificate revocation lists. This recommendation is especially important when you are working in a WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment.

    For example, you might use the USER_INSTALL_ROOT variable to define a path such as $USER_INSTALL_ROOT/mycertstore/mycrl1 where mycertstore represents the name of your certificate store and mycrl1 represents the certificate revocation list. For a list of supported variables, click Environment > WebSphere variables in the WebSphere Application Server administrative console. The following list provides recommendations for using certificate revocation lists:
    • If CRLs are added to the collection certificate store, add the CRLs for the root certificate authority and each intermediate certificate, if applicable. When the CRL is in the certificate collection store, the certificate revocation status for every certificate in the chain is checked against the CRL of the issuer.
    • When the CRL file is updated, the new CRL does not take effect until you restart the Web service application.
    • Before a CRL expires, you must load a new CRL into the certificate collection store to replace the old CRL. An expired CRL in the collection certificate store results in a certificate path (CertPath) build failure.
  9. Click OK and then Save to save the configuration.
  10. Return to the Collection certificate store configuration panel. To access the panel, complete the following steps:
    1. Click Servers > Application servers > server_name.
    2. Under Security, click Web services: Default bindings for Web services security.
    3. Under Additional properties, click Collection certificate store > certificate_store_name.
  11. Under Additional properties, click X.509 certificates. The X.509 certificate configuration specifies intermediate certificate files that are used for certificate path validation of incoming X.509-formatted security tokens.
  12. Click New to create an X.509 certificate configuration, click Delete to delete an existing configuration, or click the name of an existing X.509 certificate configuration to edit its settings. If you are creating a new configuration, enter a name in the Certificate store name field.
  13. Specify a path in the X.509 certificate path field. This entry is the absolute path to the location of the X.509 certificate. The collection certificate store is used to validate the certificate path of the incoming X.509-formatted security tokens.

    You can use the USER_INSTALL_ROOT variable as part of path name. For example, you might type: $USER_INSTALL_ROOT/etc/ws-security/samples/intca2.cer. Do not use this certificate path for production use. You must obtain your own X.509 certificate from a certificate authority before putting your WebSphere Application Server environment into production.

    Click Environment > WebSphere variables in the WebSphere Application Server administrative console to configure the USER_INSTALL_ROOT variable.

  14. Click OK and then Save to save your configuration.
  15. Return to the Collection certificate store collection panel and click Update run time to update the Web services security run time with the default binding information, which is located in the ws-security.xml file. When you click Update run time, the configuration changes made to other Web services are also updated in the run time for Web services security.
You have configured the collection certificate store for the server or cell level.
Parent topic: Securing JAX-RPC Web services manually based on WS-Security
Related concepts
Certificate revocation list
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