How Pki Works - HP 1920 Series User Manual

Figure 367 PKI architecture
Entity
An entity is an end user of PKI products or services, such as a person, an organization, a device like a
router or a switch, or a process running on a computer.
CA
A CA is a trusted authority responsible for issuing and managing digital certificates. A CA issues
certificates, specifies the validity periods of certificates, and revokes certificates as needed by publishing
CRLs.
RA
An RA is an extended part of a CA or an independent authority. An RA can implement functions
including identity authentication, CRL management, key pair generation and key pair backup. It only
examines the qualifications of users. It does not sign certificates. Sometimes, a CA assumes the
registration management responsibility and no independent RA exists. The PKI standard recommends
that an independent RA be used for registration management to achieve higher security of application
systems.
PKI repository
A PKI repository can be an LDAP server or a common database. It stores and manages information like
certificate requests, certificates, keys, CRLs and logs, and it provides a simple query function.
LDAP is a protocol for accessing and managing PKI information. An LDAP server stores user information
and digital certificates from the RA server and provides directory navigation service. From an LDAP server,
an entity can retrieve digital certificates of its own and other entities.

How PKI works

In a PKI-enabled network, an entity can request a local certificate from the CA and the device can check
the validity of certificate. The following describes how it works:
1.
2.
3.
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An entity submits a certificate request to the CA.
The RA verifies the identity of the entity and then sends the identity information and the public key
with a digital signature to the CA.
The CA verifies the digital signature, approves the application, and issues a certificate.
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