Configure the collection certificate store for the consumer binding on the application level

A collection certificate store is a collection of non-root, certificate authority (CA) certificates and certificate revocation lists (CRLs). This collection of CA certificates and CRLs is used to check for a valid signature in a digitally signed Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message.

Overview

Procedure

1. Locate the collection certificate store configuration panel in the administrative console.

   1. Click Applications > Enterprise applications > application_name.

   2. Under Manage modules, click module_name.

   3. Under Web services security properties, you can access the collection certificate store information for the response consumer and request consumer bindings.

      • For the response consumer (receiver) binding, click Web services: Client security bindings. Under Response consumer (receiver) binding, click Edit custom.

      • For the request consumer (receiver) binding, click Web services: Server security bindings. Under Response consumer (receiver) binding, click Edit custom.

   4. Under Additional properties, click Collection certificate store.

2. 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.

   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 application level, the store name must be unique to the application 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 and then the cell level.

3. 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, define the provider implementation in the provider list within the profile_root/properties/java.security file. However, make sure that your provider supports the same requirements of the certificate path algorithm as WebSphere Application Server.

4. Click OK and Save to save the configuration.

5. Click the name of your certificate store configuration. After you specify the certificate store provider, 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.

6. Under Additional properties, click Certificate revocation lists.

7. 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. For portability reasons, IBM recommends that you use the WebSphere Application Server variables to specify a relative path to the certificate revocation lists (CRL). 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. For a list of supported variables, click Environment > WebSphere variables in the administrative console. The following list provides recommendation 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, 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.

8. Click OK and Save to save the configuration.

9. Return to the Collection certificate store configuration panel. See the first few steps of this article to locate the collection certificate store panel.

10. Under Additional properties, click X.509 certificates.

11. Click New to create a new configuration for X.509 certificates, 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.

12. Specify a path in the X.509 certificate path field. This entry is the absolute path to the location of the X.509 certificates. The collection certificate store is used to validate the certificate path of incoming X.509-formatted security tokens.

    You can use the USER_INSTALL_ROOT variable as part of the 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 administrative console to configure the USER_INSTALL_ROOT variable.

13. Click OK and then Save to save your configuration.

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