Certificates; Chapter 22 Certificates; Certificates Overview; What You Can Do In This Chapter - ZyXEL Communications VMG Series User Manual

22.1 Certificates Overview

The Zyxel Device can use certificates (also called digital IDs) to authenticate users. Certificates are
based on public-private key pairs. A certificate contains the certificate owner's identity and public key.
Certificates provide a way to exchange public keys for use in authentication. Certificates are based on
public-private key pairs. A certificate contains the certificate owner's identity and public key.
Certificates provide a way to exchange public keys for use in authentication.

22.1.1 What You Can Do in this Chapter

• The Local Certificates screen lets you generate certification requests and import the Zyxel Device's
CA-signed certificates
• The Trusted CA screen lets you save the certificates of trusted CAs to the Zyxel Device
page 293).

22.2 What You Need to Know

The following terms and concepts may help as you read through this chapter.
Certification Authority
A Certification Authority (CA) issues certificates and guarantees the identity of each certificate owner.
There are commercial certification authorities like CyberTrust or VeriSign and government certification
authorities. The certification authority uses its private key to sign certificates. Anyone can then use the
certification authority's public key to verify the certificates. You can use the Zyxel Device to generate
certification requests that contain identifying information and public keys and then send the
certification requests to a certification authority.

22.3 The Local Certificates Screen

Click Security > Certificates to open the Local Certificates screen. Use this screen to view the Zyxel
Device's summary list of certificates, generate certification requests, and import signed certificates.
(Section 22.4 on page 293).
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(Section 22.4 on