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Change the signer auto-exchange prompt at the client

 

For clients to communicate with WAS, clients must obtain a signer certificate from the server. Clients can use the retrieveSigners command to connect to a server to obtain the appropriate signer. A prompt displays that asks whether or not you want to add a signer to the truststore. If the SSL configuration uses an automated script that might hang, use the prompt to obtain the certificate. The com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt property in the profile_home/properties/ssl.client.props file controls the signer certificate prompt. By default, this property is set to true, meaning the prompt is enabled.

 

Overview

Complete the following steps to disable or enable the signer-exchange prompt at the client:

 

Procedure

  1. Open the profile_home/properties/ssl.client.props file using an editor.

  2. Locate the section containing the SSL configuration information for the client that you are working with.

  3. Change the value of the com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt property to false if you do not want the signer-exchange prompt, or set it to true if you want to be prompted.

  4. Save and close the file.

 

Results

When the com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt property is set to false, no prompt displays, so you can exchange signers while some administrative clients are running. When the com.ibm.ssl.enableSignerExchangePrompt property is set to true, a signer-exchange prompt displays, and you are asked to accept or reject the certificate. The prompt looks like the following example:

 

Example 

C:\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\dmgr\bin>serverStatus -all
ADMU0116I: Tool information is being logged in file
           C:\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\Dmgr\logs\serverStatus.log
ADMU0128I: Starting tool with the dmgr profile
ADMU0503I: Retrieving server status for all servers
ADMU0505I: Servers found in configuration:
ADMU0506I: Server name: dmgr

*** SSL SIGNER EXCHANGE PROMPT ***
SSL signer from target host 192.174.1.5 is not found in truststore 
C:/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/Dmgr/etc/trust.p12.

Verify that the digest value matches what is displayed at the server in the following signer information: 

Subject DN:    CN=hostname.austin.ibm.com, O=IBM, C=US
Issuer DN:     CN=hostname.austin.ibm.com, O=IBM, C=US
Serial number: 1128544457
Expires:       Thu Oct 20 15:34:17 CDT 2006
SHA-1 Digest:  91:A1:A9:2D:F2:7D:70:0F:04:06:73:A3:B4:A4:9C:56:9D:A8:A3:BA
MD5 Digest:    88:72:C5:88:00:1C:A7:FA:D6:EB:04:88:AC:A1:C9:13

Add signer to the truststore now? (y/n) y
A retry of the request might need to occur.
ADMU0508I: The Application Server "server1" is STARTED.

 

What to do next

Clients can instigate communications for various processes using signer certificates obtained from WAS.


Secure installation for client signer retrieval

 

Related Reference


ssl.client.props client configuration file