Managing Keys And Certificates; Why Use Keys And Certificates; Wireless Security Through Tls - 3Com 3CRWX120695A, 3CRWX440095A Configuration Manual

12
Why Use Keys and
Certificates?
Wireless Security
through TLS
M
ANAGING
C
ERTIFICATES
A digital certificate is a form of electronic identification for computers.
The WX switch requires digital certificates to authenticate its
communications to 3Com Wireless Switch Manager and Web View, to
WebAAA clients, and to Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) clients
for which the WX performs all EAP processing. Certificates can be
generated on the WX or obtained from a certificate authority (CA). Keys
contained within the certificates allow the WX, its servers, and its wireless
clients to exchange information secured by encryption.
Before installing a certificate, verify with the display timedate and
display timezone commands that the WX switch is set to the correct
date, time, and time zone. Otherwise, certificates might not be installed
correctly.
Certain WX switch operations require the use of public-private key pairs
and digital certificates. All 3Com Wireless Switch Manager and Web View
users, and users for which the WX performs IEEE 802.1X EAP
authentication or WebAAA, require public-private key pairs and digital
certificates to be installed on the WX switch.
These keys and certificates are fundamental to securing wireless, wired
authentication, and administrative connections because they support
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption and dynamic Wired-Equivalency
Privacy (WEP) encryption.
In the case of wireless or wired authentication 802.1X users whose
authentication is performed by the WX switch, the first stage of any EAP
transaction is Transport Layer Security (TLS) authentication and
encryption. 3Com Wireless Switch Manager and Web View also require a
session to the WX switch that is authenticated and encrypted by TLS.
Once a TLS session is authenticated, it is encrypted.
K
EYS AND