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Information about Certificate Authorities

Certificate Authorities (CAs) are organizations that are used as Trusted Third Parties, that is, an independent party, which both sides of a transaction (client and server) trust.

A Certificate Authority will generally publish a Certificate Service Policy Statement on their website. This statement will state the terms by which they do business, such as what requirements different classes of certificates require, what penalties may be brought against you if you break the rules, or what the limits the CA's service and responsibilities are. Before requesting a certificate from a CA, and (possibly) even before accepting certificates issued by the CA to servers, you should read the Policy Statement and decide if they are acceptable to you.

A number of CA certificates that are commonly in use are supplied with Opera, but it is your responsibility to determine if they are acceptable to you. If they are not acceptable, you should set the appropriate options for those certificates.

A Certificate Authority will publish one or more certificates that specify their Public Keys, which they are using to sign certificates. There are two types of certificates: Self-signed, and CA certificates signed by another CA.

In the latter case a certificate must be available that is either self-signed or can be followed in an unbroken chain of certificates up to a self-signed certificate. This method may be used internally for a CA using shorttime certificates, or to certify the CA services of external companies, who need their certificates to be recognized widely.

Certificate Authorities generally have Web pages where you can submit your request for a certificate, along with information that shall go into the certificate, such as name, address, other information, and the generated public key which is unique for each certificate. The CA will then perform a number of controls on your information, You may have to provide them extra information offline, and possibly in hardcopy, or by personal attendance at one of the Certificate Authority's offices.

When all controls are finished and passed, the certificate will be issued, and you will be informed how to get it by the CA. In some cases a certificate is issued directly in response to your submission, in which case you can proceed directly on to Install User Certificate in the personal certificate database.

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