Re: Proper way to reference intermediate certificates in Apache 2.2.x

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----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Van Dolson <rvandolson@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:07:09 -0800
Subject: Proper way to reference intermediate
certificates in Apache 2.2.x
To: users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


I just updated a Verisign certificate for one of our sites, and noticed
Firefox was complaining that it wasn't valid.  This usually happens
when Verisign's released a new intermediate certificate, and I
typically just install the new one and point to it using
SSLCACertificateFile.

This time around, that didn't work.

I RTFM and it seemed that SSLCACertificateFile had nothing at all to do
with intermediate certs, and everything to do with client
authentication, and that I _should_ be using SSLCertificateChainFile.
Several posts[1][2] I stumbled across seemed to confirm this as well.
I made the change in configuration directive, and sure enough,
everything began working.

Upon checking, I realized I have several other sites using
SSLCACertificateFile to point to an (older) intermediate cert file from
verisign.  I'm curious why this works when it appears to be the wrong
configuration directive for the job, but doesn't with the new
intermediate cert file?

I'm no expert on these directives, but I'll share my experience. If you look carefully at the description of the SSLCertificateChainFile directive, you'll see that it the big difference is that SSLCACertificatePath (and I assume SSLCACertificateFile) have the side effect of also allowing client certificates signed by that CA. Essentially the SSLCertificateChainFile directive allows you to break out the intermediate CA to only apply for the server certificate and not client certificates. I personally have never used client certificates, so in practice there is no difference for my setup.

--
Justin Pasher

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