Users Guide

Dell PowerConnect W-Series ArubaOS 6.1 | User Guide Certificate Revocation | 315
Chapter 11
Certificate Revocation
The Certificate Revocation feature enables the ArubaOS controller to perform real-time certificate revocation
checks using the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) or traditional certificate validation using the
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) client.
About OCSP and CRL
OCSP (RFC 2560) is a standard protocol that consists of an OCSP client and an OCSP responder. This protocol
determines revocation status of a given digital public-key certificate without having to download the entire CRL.
CRL is the traditional method of checking certificate validity. A CRL provides a list of certificate serial numbers
that have been revoked or are no longer valid. CRLs let the verifier check the revocation status of the presented
certificate while verifying it. CRLs are limited to 512 entries.
Controller as OCSP and CRL Clients
The ArubaOS controller can act as an OCSP client and issues OCSP queries to remote OCSP responders located
on the intranet or Internet. As many applications in ArubaOS (such as IKE), use digital certificates, a protocol
such as OCSP needs to be implemented for revocation.
An entity that relies on the content of a certificate (a relying party) needs to do the checking before accepting the
certificate as being valid. One check verifies that the certificate has not been revoked. The OCSP client retrieves
certificate revocation status from an OCSP responder. The responder may be the CA (Certificate Authority) that
has issued the certificate in question or it may be some other designated entity which provides the service on
behalf of the CA. A revocation checkpoint is a logical profile that is tied to each CA certificate that the controller
has (trusted or intermediate). Also, the user can specify revocation preferences within each profile.
The OCSP request is not signed by the Aruba OCSP client at this time. However, the OCSP response is always
signed by the responder.
Both OCSP and CRL configuration and administration is usually performed by the administrator who manages
the web access policy for an organization.
In small networks where there are is no Internet connection or connection to an OCSP responder, CRL is better
option than OCSP.
Controller as OCSP Responder
The ArubaOS controller can be configured to act as an OCSP responder (server) and respond to OCSP queries
from clients that are trying to obtain revocation status of certificates.
The OCSP responder on the controller is accessible over HTTP port 8084. This port is not configurable by the
administrator. Although the OCSP responder accepts signed OCSP requests, it does not attempt to verify the
signature before processing the request. Therefore, even unsigned OCSP requests are supported.
The controller as an OCSP responder provides revocation status information to ArubaOS applications that are
using CRLs. This is useful in small disconnected networks where clients cannot reach outside OCSP server to
validate certificates. Typical scenarios include client to client or client to other server communication situations
where the certificates of either party need to be validated.