Simple Mode Cert Regeneration (Access)

When simple mode certificates are going to expire, they need to be regenerated so the component(s) that have the old certificates may still communicate with other COREid components. The method for regenerating certificates varies between the COREid Access and Identity Systems. The Access Server, WebGate and AccessGate components all use the configuration tool relevant to their install. These are as follows:

• <coreid_install_dir>\oblix\tools\configureAAAServer
• <coreid_install_dir>\oblix\tools\configureWebGate
• <coreid_install_dir>\oblix\tools\configureAccessGate

Access Server
configureAAAServer reconfig "c:\Program Files\coreid\access"

WebGate
configureWebGate -i "c:\Program Files\coreid\WebComponent\access" -t WebGate -R

AccessGate
configureAccessGate -i "c:\Program Files\coreid\WebComponent\access" -t AccessGate -RRestart the COREid component to get it to bind to TCP/IP port with the new certificate.

See Also: Simple Mode Cert Regeneration (Identity)

Simple Mode Cert Regeneration (Identity)

When simple mode certificates are going to expire, they need to be regenerated so the component(s) that have the old certificates may still communicate with other COREid components. The method for regenerating certificates varies between the COREid Access and Identity Systems. The Identity Server and WebPass (and Access Manager too) have a utility called gencert. The gencert utility is located in:

<coreid_install_dir>\oblix\tools\gencert

to use the tool to regenerate certificates, execute gencert as follows:

gencert.exe "c:\Program Files\COREid\identity"OR
gencert.exe "c:\Program Files\COREid\WebComponent\identity"
Restart the COREid component to get it to bind to TCP/IP port with the new certificate.

See also: Certificate Expiration Dates #2

Certificate Expiration Dates #2

A quick fix for an expired simple mode cert is to simply copy the 3 .pem files from the ../config/simple directory of a component that is still working, and restart the service. These certificate files are completely interchangeable within an environment (I think that the only requirement is that they need to be generated using the same passphrase). When copying between Access and Identity components, be sure to change the file name prefix (ois/aaa).

To quickly identify the expiry date of a simple mode certificate on a Windows system, make a copy of the cert file (ois_cert.pem or aaa_cert.pem), rename the extension to .cer, and double-click it.

Also see: NulliBlogs - COREid Nitty-Gritty: Certificate Expiration Dates

COREid Dual Transport Mode Operation

There is a little known, unsupported feature of COREid that allows server components to listen in two transport modes at once: either open/simple or open/cert. I had the good fortune of discovering this feature about 5 years ago. I had to convert a live production system that was installed in open mode to cert mode. We were looking at taking downtime to do the change, but by pure chance I stumbled accross another solution. I had reconfigured an identity server component, to listen in cert mode and it was late a night and I forgot to switch the transport mode in the COREid UI to cert from open. I started the identity server without making the switch and tested the port to see if it was listening in cert mode. When you telnet to the identity server port it responds with the mode in which it is listening.

I was expecting to see the word

CERT
but what I saw instead was

OPEN
CERT

This was a welcome surprise for us. It meant that we could convert the identity and access servers one at a time to listen in both modes without taking the entire service down. Then after giving all of the application owners sufficient time to reconfigure their Webpasses, WebGates and AccessGates we could turn open mode off (by switching the transport in the UI to cert). This worked very effectively.

Certificate Expiration Dates

have you ever had a certificate expire and COREid components stop functioning on you. Once you figured out that it was a certificate you were like, "oh-oh, there might be a few more expiring in the next few minutes, hours, days, etc." This is one of those things that us mere mortals re-learn how to do once a year and then promptly re-forget immediately afterwards.

The openssl tool installed alongside each COREid component can be used to determine the valid dates for a certificate. The following example examines a self signed COREid certificate ("simple mode") . The same example holds true for all COREid components: Identity Server, Access Server, WebPass, WebGate and Access Manager (frequently installed alongside WebGate).

C:\>cd \Program Files\COREid\WebComponent\access\oblix\tools\openssl
C:\>openssl x509 -in ..\..\config\simple\aaa_cert.pem -noout -dates
notBefore=Mar 28 22:23:15 2005 GMT
notAfter=Mar 28 22:23:15 2006 GMT