This article includes updates for Certificate Manager 8.7.1.

All listed hardware and software can be used in supported configurations of the product.

Listed third party hardware and software has been verified with the current or a previous version of Certificate Manager.

Requirements

Operating systems

Key Generation System, KGS
- Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019
- Windows 7, 8.1, 10
CM Clients
- Windows 7, 8.1, 10
- Windows Server 2016, 2019
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8
- CentOS 7

o SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15.4

OpenSUSE Leap 15.4
Rocky Linux 8, 9
CM Server
- Windows Server 2016, 2019
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8
- CentOS 7

o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15.4

o OpenSUSE Leap 15.4

o Rocky Linux 8, 9

Installing of Personal Desktop Client on Rocky Linux 8/9 and RHEL 9 requires the following pre-installed dependencies:

libpng15
EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux).

The use of CentOS together with Certificate Manager is deprecated. It is not recommended to use CentOS for new installations of Certificate Manager. Certificate Manager installations already running on CentOS is still supported until it reaches end of life on 30-06-2024. For more information regarding end of life of CentOS, see https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/#Life_Cycle_Dates

The installation will fail if the operating system is unsupported.

Database versions

Microsoft SQL Server Express and Enterprise editions:
- 2016, 2017, 2019
Oracle Express and Enterprise editions:
- 19c
PostgreSQL:
- 12, 13, 14
MySQL
- 8.0
Azure SQL Database
MariaDB
- 10.3 - 10.10

Java Virtual Machine

CM Server

Oracle Java SE JRE 11, OpenJDK 11. (64 bit).
- On Windows platforms with Oracle Java installed, the newest Java is used by default, even if multiple Java versions are installed.
- On Windows platforms with OpenJDK Java installed, the Java to be used has to be manually specified, see Install Certificate Manager server components on Windows, heading "Java version".

CM Clients

Oracle Java SE JRE 11, OpenJDK 11. (32/64 bit)
- For Linux, 64-bit Java is required in order to use Personal Desktop Client.
- For Windows with OpenJDK Java installed, the Java to be used has to be manually specified, see Launch Certificate Manager clients, heading "Specify JRE".

CM SDK

Oracle Java SE JRE 11, OpenJDK 11, JRE 8. (32/64 bit.)

For use of Brainpool elliptic curves (EC), AdoptOpenJDK is recommended.

Web application server

CM Web Services and Protocol Gateway servlets require a servlet engine supporting the Java API for Servlets v3.1. Apache Tomcat version 9.0 is the recommended engine.

Personal Desktop Client

Nexus Personal Desktop Client is a middleware for use on CM clients, for officer smart card authentication and personalization of smart cards.

Use these versions of Personal Desktop Client, they are included in the CM delivery.

For operating systems:

5.8.6 for Windows, RedHat, RockyLinux, CentOS
5.3.1 for OpenSUSE

Interoperability

Formats and standards

Certificate formats

X.509/RFC 3280/RFC 5280/RFC 6818 certificates, configurable profiles.
X.509/RFC 5755 attribute certificates.
Common PKI (alias ISISMTT) v2.0 private extensions, private attributes and optional SigG-Profile.
Card Verifiable Certificates (CVC). CV certificates must be issued over CM SDK. The following types are supported:
- according to Gematik specification Electronic Health Card, Part 1, v2.0.0 (Dec. 2007). Generations G0, G1 and G2. CPI types: 3, 4, 21, 22 and 70.

o according to the BSI Technical Guideline TR-03110, Advanced Security Mechanisms for Machine Readable Travel Documents and eIDAS Token. CPI type: 0.

Smart Tachograph certificates. Generation 1 and Generation 2.
Certificate Transparency Precertificate, RFC 6962
IEEE 1609.2 certificates for CAs, sub CAs and end-entities in V2X PKI's.
PKIX and ETSI Qualified Certificates.
OpenPGP V4 keys and certificates, RFC 4880.
Extended Validation certificates.
Swedish eID certificate profile as defined by the Swedish e-identification board.
PSD2 Qualified Certificates, as specified in ETSI TS 119 495.

Certificate Revocation List (CRL) formats

X.509/RFC3280/RFC5280 CRL.
Full and delta CRL.
Direct and indirect CRL.
Partitioning according to revocation reasons.
Immediate CRL issuing option: besides the regular issuing, a CRL can be generated immediately at revocation of a certificate.

Certificate Issuance List

A Nexus proprietary format used by CM to inform the Nexus OCSP Responder about issued or activated certificates to enable the non-issued concept of RFC 6960 and for activation of user certificates. The CIL format is similar to CRL in structure and is signed alike by the CA.

The following types of CILs are provided:

Complete CIL
Size segmented CILs
Delta CIL

Certificate Transparency

Support for precertificates according to RFC 6962, Certificate Transparency, with version 1 Signed Certificate Timestamps (SCTs) and Log servers.

Algorithms and key types

CA signatures RSA, RSASSA-PSS, DSA. Key lengths as supported by HSM (e.g. RSA 1024 - 16384 bit). Algorithms: SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, SHA3-224, SHA3-256, SHA3-384, SHA3-512, RipeMD-160.
CA signatures EC: Prime field based ECDSA algorithms with named curves as supported by HSM, hash functions as above.
CA signatures EdDSA: Ed25519PH, Ed25519, Ed448PH and Ed448.
End user keys RSA when using the CM RA client: 1024-8192 bits (soft tokens and on smart card/token type). Longer key lengths can be used with other enrollment API's and with CM SDK based clients.
End user keys EC: Prime field based ECDSA algorithms with arbitrary curve parameters (only on smart cards). Certificates for ECDSA keys can be requested only via CM SDK.
End user keys Edwards: Ed25519PH, Ed25519, Ed448, Ed448PH, X25519 and X448 keys.

Certificate enrollment protocols

Third party devices, clients, servers, and software components with built-in support for standards-based certificate enrollment protocols can benefit from the corresponding server-side support in Certificate Manager.

These are the supported standard-based protocols:

ACME - Automatic Certificate Management Environment, RFC 8555
CMP- Certificate Management Protocol, RFC 4210, RFC 4211
CMC- Certificate Management over CMS, RFC 5273
EST– Enrollment over Secure Transport, RFC 7030
EST-coaps– EST over secure CoAP, IETF draft (draft-ietf-ace-coap-est)
SCEP- Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol, draft-nourse-scep-23
WinEP- Windows certificate auto enrollment using Windows certificate templates

In addition to the standards-based protocols, listed above, CM provides protocols that offers additional features for customized clients, web front-ends, etc:

CM SDK– CM Software Development Kit, a Java API.
CM REST API- CM RESTful API.
C2X REST API- RESTful API for V2X certificate enrollment.
CM WS– SOAP Web Services

For more information, see 8.7.1 - Certificate Manager interfaces.

Monitoring

Operational logs and signed audit logs
Ping-request for system health checks
SNMP v3
Syslog
Metrics

Software token formats

PKCS#12 v1.1, according to RFC 7292
PGP, OpenPGP V4 keys and certificates. RFC 4880.

Smart cards

Smart card support as provided in middleware used by card personalization software, for example CM clients, Smart ID Identity Manager, and SmartAct.

By default, Certificate Manager uses Nexus Personal Desktop to communicate with smart cards.

The following smart cards are supported for personalization:

Atos CardOS 4.4, 5.0, 5.3
Gemalto IDClassic 340
Gemalto IDPrime MD 840 Nexus Profile. Gemalto product name: ENT_Nexus_IDPrime MD 840_PPR. PDM-Customer Item: C1105591 A.

CardOS smart cards must be prepared with the card profiles delivered with CM, in accordance with ISO/IEC 7816-15:2004.

Third-party software

X.500 directories

Certificate Manager supports directory servers compliant with LDAPv3 and X.500 for retrieving user data, publication of certificates and CRLs.

Certificate Manager is tested and commonly used with, but not limited to, the following directory servers:

Atos DirX Directory
ApacheDS
Microsoft Active Directory
OpenLDAP

Mobile Device Management solutions

MDM software that supports SCEP can request certificates for registered devices.

Nexus has explicitly verified the following software:

Microsoft Intune
MobileIron
VMware AirWatch

Microsoft Enroll on behalf of (EOBO)

WinEP has been confirmed with the following software:

Windows (CMC)
See 8.7.1 - Verify Enroll on behalf of for Windows for more information.
Citrix FAS
See https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/federated-authentication-service for support and help with configuration of Citrix FAS.

Third-party hardware

Firewalls and routers

Certificate enrolment for firewalls and network equipment using SCEP is based on version: draft-nourse-scep-23.

The following devices are explicitly verified:

Cisco – current SCEP compatible IOS and ASA versions
Fortinet FortiGate firewall series with up-to-date firmware

Hardware Security Modules

A PKCS#11 compliant device can be used for handling of CA key pairs, system keys, protection of archived keys, and for key generation.

For functional specifications, known issues and limitations related to current PKCS#11 drivers, see each HSM vendor’s web site.

The following devices are explicitly verified for Certificate Manager and for Nexus OCSP Responder:

AEP Systems Sureware Keyper, FIPS 140-1 level 4
Atos Bull Trustway Proteccio NetHSM

o Has been verified for CA key operations with the CIS. Not verified for use with CF server TLS certificate, PIN certificate and the KAR functionality.

DocuSign ARX PrivateServer
Gemalto SafeNet ProtectServer Internal - Express 2
Gemalto SafeNet ProtectServer External 2
Thales Luna CA3, FIPS 140-1 lvl 3
Thales Luna CA4, FIPS 140-2 lvl 3
Thales Luna SA 4.4, FIPS 140-2 lvl 3
- When used with CM, since Thales Luna disallow key export when in FIPS mode, enable non-FIPS mode for use with CM KAR, Key Archiving and Recovery.
Thales Luna SA 5.0, FIPS 140-2 lvl 3
- When used with CM, since Thales Luna disallow key export when in FIPS mode, enable non-FIPS mode for use with CM KAR, Key Archiving and Recovery.
Thales Luna G5
Thales Luna HSM 6
Thales Luna Network HSM 7
Thales Luna PCIe HSM 7
IBM 4758, FIPS 140-1 level 3 and 4
Nitrokey HSM 2
Entrust nShield Connect+, FIPS 140-2 level 3
Entrust nShield Solo+, FIPS 140-2 level 3
Entrust nShield Edge
Utimaco CryptoServer Security Server CS 10/50 LAN/PCI, FIPS 140-2 level 3 (level 4 for physical)
Utimaco CryptoServer Security Server Se 12/52/420/1200 LAN/PCI, FIPS 140-2 level 3
Yubico YubiHSM 2

PIN decryption is not allowed using a FIPS mode HSM.

Card stackers

Stackers used for smart card handling with KGS.

Fischer Electronicsysteme GmbH
Zeitcontrol MKW Professional.

Card printers

Mass production of cards with card printers is enabled in Registration Authority and Batch Explorer clients by using Nexus Card SDK. Card SDK enables card printing and feeding of cards, while Nexus Personal Desktop Client handles chip personalization.

Printer models as supported by the Nexus Card SDK. The printer must be equipped with a smart card chip coupler that can be accessed over USB from the client computer. A PC/SC driver has to be installed on the client.
A license for Nexus Card SDK must be purchased separately.

PIN letter printers

Printers using a vendor provided driver is expected to work with CM Secure Printer for PIN letters. Dot matrix printers, capable of printing on 3-layer PIN envelopes, which have been explicitly tested:

Tally T2340/24
EPSON LQ-300, 300+II

Laser printers can be used for printing PIN letters equipped with a removable PIN protection label.

Smart card readers

Readers for personalization of cards and for using smart card based CM officers with the CM clients.

PC/SC compliant card readers.
PC/SC 2.01 Part 10 compliant PIN-pad readers
HID/Omnikey 6121 Mobile USB smart card reader (to be used with smart cards in SIM format).

LTE Devices

LTE equipment that supports SCEP or CMP can request certificates after being registered in CM.