Understanding, requesting, and using X.509 Certificates on macOS

Speakers: Timothy Perfitt

Level: Intermediate, Hands-on (BYOD for attendees)

Excerpt: Digital Certificates are a secure way for authentication and are a key component for many network services access by macOS. This session covers the basics of X.509 certificates, including the parts of a digital certificate, generating and submitting certificate signing requests, verifying digital signatures, and more. Attendees will use their own mac to create a certificate signing request, manually verify the signature in the certificate, and configure services on macOS to use the certificate. You’ll leave understanding what role certificates play in IT infrastructures, how to create and submit certificate signing requests, and how to configure common services on macOS to use certificate-based authentication. You’ll also learn about how newer Macs have a secure enclave that can be used to store digital keys.

Description: Digital Certificates are a secure way for authentication and are a key component for many network services access by macOS. This session covers the basics of X.509 certificates, including the parts of a digital certificate, generating and submitting certificate signing requests, verifying digital signatures, and more. Attendees will use their own mac to create a certificate signing request, manually verify the signature in the certificate, and configure services on macOS to use the certificate. You’ll leave understanding what role certificates play in IT infrastructures, how to create and submit certificate signing requests, and how to configure common services on macOS to use certificate-based authentication. You’ll also learn about how newer Macs have a secure enclave that can be used to store digital keys.

During the session, you’ll generate your own Active Directory certificate signing request using kerberos credentials, install a certificate in your keychain, and use that certificate in a variety of ways.


About the speaker

Timothy Perfitt (Twitter: @tperfitt) – Founder – Twocanoes Software

Timothy Perfitt is founder and CEO of Twocanoes Software. He started the company in 2012 in Naperville, IL in an effort to build best of breed Mac and iOS software and hardware. Taking advantage of Apple’s iBeacon and the excitement around close-proximity sensors, Twocanoes has created a short-range Bluetooth device that alerts customer-aware systems of a nearby mobile device called Bleu.

Prior to starting Twocanoes, Timothy worked for Apple for over 10 years and developed the first ever certification training for OS X and OS X server, which led him to work with the Apple engineering team that focused on Higher Education and Fortune 500 large scale environments.

Timothy graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and in 2006, received his Masters Degree in Computer Science with a thesis on large scale, distributed peer-to-peer microblogging.

Timothy lives in Naperville, IL, with his wife and 10 year old son. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in the Solomon Islands from 1991 to 1993 and is fluent Pijin, the common language of the Solomon Islands.

This entry was posted in MacAdmins 2018 Sessions. Bookmark the permalink.