Security Features And Considerations; Using Ssl Certificates And Protocol - VMware ACE Management Server Administrator's Manual

ACE Management Server Administrator's Manual

Security Features and Considerations

By default, ACE Management Server uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to provide encrypted and
secure communications.
Following is an overview of security features and recommendations on how to configure the ACE
Management Server to avoid security problems:

Traffic to and from clients is protected by HTTPS – By default, ACE Management Server creates a
self‐signed certificate when you install it to use for HTTPS traffic. These certificates are secure, but you
can also configure ACE Management Server to use your own certificate and key pairs.

Traffic from ACE Management Server to Active Directory is encrypted – If the server is integrated with
an Active Directory service, it communicates with the service through an SSL‐protected link. LDAP traffic
is encrypted at the application layer. Credentials are protected by using the Kerberos protocol to
authenticate credentials.

Sensitive configuration options are encrypted – Passwords stored in the configuration file are encrypted.

Database security – The database store contains sensitive data such as cryptographic keys. Configure
your database security so that it is protected from intrusion and protected in case of data loss. For more
information about features that are available to protect your data, see your database documentation.
SSL encrypts data through the use of a public‐key and private‐key pair. The public key is known to everyone
and the private key is known only to the message recipient. URLs that require an SSL connection start with
https.
During ACE Management Server installation, the following two files are created:

server.key – An RSA 1024‐bit key, this is the private key.

server.crt – A self‐signed certificate. Its signature is verified by the public key, which is embedded in
the certificate. This public certificate is valid for 10 years from the date and time at which the server is
installed. The certificate file is encoded in PEM format.
By default, these files are stored in the SSL directory in the VMware ACE Management Server program
directory.
VMware Player, which runs the ACE instances, does not trust any certificates stored on the host machine on
which it is running. Instead, it relies on a complete certification chain that is included in the ACE package.
Using self‐signed certificates is adequate for most security needs.
You can, however, use a certificate issued by a certificate authority. If you have multiple ACE Management
Server instances, you can use one certificate for all or you can use a different certificate on each one.

Using SSL Certificates and Protocol

When an ACE‐enabled virtual machine connects to an ACE Management Server, it downloads the public
certificate for that server and any chain of certificates required to verify the server's public certificate. A server
certificate might have a chain of several certificates that must be verified step by step until the verification
process reaches the root, or trusted, certificate in the certificate store. The first time a connection is made to a
server by any ACE‐enabled virtual machine on a Workstation administrator machine, the certificate and its
verification are downloaded to the Workstation host system.
The store or collection of certificates that is downloaded when an ACE‐enabled virtual machine connects to a
server is included in each ACE package that you create with that virtual machine. It is saved in the ACE
Resources directory. When you deploy and run an ACE instance of this ACE‐enabled virtual machine, the
VMware Player application uses the certificates included in the package to verify connections made to the ACE
Management Server. It verifies that the certificates that are in the ACE package match those that the server
provides. If they do not match exactly, VMware Player displays an error message and does not run the
instance.
18 VMware, Inc.