Folks, I'm new here. (I usually hang out at TSO-REXX and RACF-L.) In fact I
joined IBM-MAIN specifically so I could ask some newbie-type questions about
SMP/E. But just now another more urgent issue has come up: Is this a good
place to ask a few general questions about digital certificates?
I'm handling security for a client whose previous security jock apparently had
better things to do, so I find there are a lot of cleanup issues to deal with.
One has to do with digital certificates, which should be in my bailiwick but
I'm new at them. I see several IDs with one keyring each:
1) In most IDs the keyring is empty. I presume I can delete those empty
keyrings without any risk.
But since I'm here asking questions I may as well check to be sure: Nothing
bad can happen if
I remove an empty keyring, right?
2) In one ID (let's call it USER3) the keyring has 3 certificates:
a) The HANDSHAKE certificate (call it CERTA) expired in 2011.
b) CERTA is signed by CERTB, which expired in 2014.
c) CERTB is signed by CERTC, which expires in a few months.
I brought this to the attention of my boss, but no one knows what this
collection of certificates
may ever have been used for, if indeed it was ever used at all.
i) Since the certificate chain is so long expired, is it even possible it's
still be in use?
ii) If we choose to disconnect it just to see whether anything breaks, what
method would you
recommend using? Something that could be reversed easily if necessary,
of course. Would I
merely remove one of the certificates from the keyring, being confident
that I can add it back
again afterward if desired?
3) Another ID (USER2) has 2 certificates in much the same state as USER3: The
HANDSHAKE cert is
expired, the signing (root) certificate is still good to go. So same
questions about this one.
4) USER2 also has, in the same keyring, a dozen or so apparently unrelated
certificates from the
CERTAUTH ID, all with usage CERTSIGN. I suppose they're useless and can be
removed?
If this is not the right place to ask, feel free to steer me somewhere else,
with or without derisive flames as it suits you :). I'm reading documentation,
but it's also nice to get confirmation from experienced admins, especially in a
subject with so many corners and pitfalls.
---
Bob Bridges, cell 336 382-7313
robhbrid...@gmail.com
rbrid...@infosecinc.com
/* Of a proposed course of action the Enemy wants men, so far as I can see, to
ask very simple questions: Is it righteous? Is it prudent? Is it possible?
Now, if we can keep men asking "Is it in accordance with the general movement
of our time? Is it progressive or reactionary? Is this the way that History
is going?", they will neglect the relevant questions. -advice to a tempter,
from The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis */
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