Tarantella Administration Guide > Security > User prompts and root certificates

User prompts and root certificates

With a default installation of the Tarantella Security Pack, a number of flavors of X.509 certificate are supported. When users log in to a Tarantella server configured with one of the supported certificate flavors, their client device validates the certificate and the connection proceeds securely.

You can use any other type of Base 64-encoded X.509 certificate. However, these certificates can't be validated unless the appopriate root certificate is installed. If the root certificate isn't installed, users are prompted to accept or decline the certificate: in other words, users are given the responsibility of determining whether to trust the certificate. This is a potential security risk.

Installing the root certificate allows the X.509 certificates to be validated by software, and users are no longer prompted. Invalid certificates cause the connection to be dropped: users may not log in.

If you use one of the supported types of X.509 certificate, and do not install any custom root certificate, there is a chance that a man-in-the-middle attack may intercept and substitute the certificate with another unsupported type. In this scenario users are prompted, and may inadvertently accept the certificate.

Recommendation

To provide the best possible security we strongly recommend that you install the appropriate root certificate as well as the X.509 certificate for the Tarantella server. This applies whether you use a supported or an unsupported certificate flavor. The presence of the root certificate ensures that a user cannot accept a connection with a certificate that has not been validated.

In practice, this means:

• Either you need to become a Certificate Authority yourself,
• Or you need to obtain your X.509 server certificate from a Certificate Authority that also provides its root certificate.

Important: If the root certificate is not installed, secure connections and transactions can still take place. However, a man-in-the-middle attack based on certificate interception does not automatically fail, and users are prompted to accept or decline the certificate. (You can greatly reduce the risk of a successful man-in-the-middle attack by using HTTPS for web servers.)

Root certificates

For your convenience, here are the root certificates for the supported certificate flavors, with their expiry dates. (To obtain the latest root certificate, please contact your Certificate Authority.) You can copy each certificate from this page and paste it into a file. Make sure you include the "BEGIN" and "END" lines.

Thawte "Basic Web Server" root certificate

Expires: 2020-12-31

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----

VeriSign "Secure Server ID" root certificate

Expires: 2010-01-07

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----