credential files

Nigel Wade nmw at ion.le.ac.uk
Thu Jul 31 14:05:50 UTC 2008


mark wrote:
> Nigel Wade wrote:
>> m.roth2006 at rcn.com wrote:
>>> Does anyone have any idea how a browser recognizes that a cite is
>>> asking for a
>>> credential file, and hands it back to it?
>>>
>>> For example, I go to a site, and firefox suddenly says "this sites
>>> wants a credential -
>>> is this the credential that you want to give it?" I've used a plugin
>>> that shows me http
>>> headers and responses, and see nothing where that happens.
>>>
>>> Links? Pointers? Clues for the poor?
>> What sort of credentials are you talking about? Is this SSL (https) with
>> client certificate verification? If so it's part of the initial SSL
>> handshake. The server asks the client to prove that it is who it says it
>> is by supplying a valid, authenticated, certificate.
>>
> YES! Please, please, HOW DOES IT ASK? Can I provide that in the original get,
> as additional headers, or do I have to wait for a response, and then provide it?

It's not up to the client. If the server is configured to require a client cert it will 
request it. If it isn't it won't. If it requests a client cert. then you need to supply 
one or the connection will fail. How you supply the client cert. to the client software is 
completely determined by the client software.

Google would be your best option. If you are using PERL SSLeay then this page might help:
http://search.cpan.org/~sampo/Net_SSLeay.pm-1.25/SSLeay.pm

-- 
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
             University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail :    nmw at ion.le.ac.uk
Phone :     +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555




More information about the redhat-list mailing list