Transmitting encoded digital certificate data to certificate authority using mobile device
View Patent ↗Techniques are disclosed for managing a digital certificate enrollment process. A certificate assistant on a server is configured to encode certificate enrollment data in a barcode graphic, such as a quick response (QR) code. A mobile phone application can then scan the barcode graphic using a camera to recover and transmit the enrollment data to a certificate authority. Doing so allows a system administrator (or other user) to complete the certificate enrollment process in cases where the server is blocked from connecting to a certificate authority (CA) directly, e.g., because the server is behind a firewall blocking any outbound network connections from being initiated.
1. A computer-implemented method for managing digital certificate enrollment data, the method comprising:
generating, by operation of one or more computer processors, a public key corresponding to a private key stored on a server, wherein the server is blocked from establishing a network connection with a certificate authority;
storing the public key in a certificate signing request (CSR) to be sent to the certificate authority by a mobile device as the certificate enrollment data;
generating at least a first encoding of the CSR storing the public key, wherein the first encoding includes one or more quick response (QR) codes encoding the certificate signing request; and
rendering a display of the first encoding of the CSR storing the public key, wherein the mobile device is configured to read the rendered display of the first encoding and wherein the mobile device includes a camera configured recover the CSR from first encoding and wherein the mobile device transmits the CSR to the certificate authority.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the certificate authority correlates the CSR with a pending certificate request.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first encoding is an alphanumeric encoding recovered using a mobile device configured with optical character recognition (OCR) applications.
4. A computer-implemented method for managing digital certificate enrollment data, the method comprising:
generating, by operation of one or more computer processors, a public key corresponding to a private key stored on a server, wherein the server is blocked from establishing a network connection with a certificate authority;
generating at least a first encoding of the public key; and
rendering a display of the first encoding of the public key, wherein a mobile device is configured to read the rendered display of the first encoding, wherein the mobile device includes a camera configured recover the first public key from first encoding and wherein the first encoding is one or more quick response (QR) codes recovered using the mobile device and wherein the mobile device is configured to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) to be sent to the certificate authority as the certificate enrollment data.
5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a processor, performs an operation for managing digital certificate enrollment data, the operation comprising:
generating, by operation of one or more computer processors, a public key corresponding to a private key stored on a server, wherein the server is blocked from establishing a network connection with a certificate authority;
storing the public key in a certificate signing request (CSR) to be sent to the certificate authority by a mobile device as the certificate enrollment data;
generating at least a first encoding of the CSR storing the public key, wherein the first encoding includes one or more quick response (QR) codes encoding the certificate signing request; and
rendering a display of the first encoding of the CSR storing the public key, wherein the mobile device is configured to read the rendered display of the first encoding and wherein the mobile device includes a camera configured recover the CSR from first encoding and wherein the mobile device transmits the CSR to the certificate authority.
6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the certificate authority correlates the CSR with a pending certificate request.
7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the first encoding is an alphanumeric encoding recovered using a mobile device configured with optical character recognition (OCR) applications.
8. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory hosting an application, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation for an operation for managing digital certificate enrollment data, the operation comprising:
generating, by operation of one or more computer processors, a public key corresponding to a private key stored on a server, wherein the server is blocked from establishing a network connection with a certificate authority,
storing the public key in a certificate signing request (CSR) to be sent to the certificate authority by a mobile device as the certificate enrollment data,
generating at least a first encoding of the CSR storing the public key, wherein the first encoding includes one or more quick response (QR) codes encoding the certificate signing request, and
rendering a display of the first encoding of the CSR storing the public key, wherein the mobile device is configured to read the rendered display of the first encoding and wherein the mobile device includes a camera configured recover the CSR from first encoding and wherein the mobile device transmits the CSR to the certificate authority.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the certificate authority correlates the CSR with a pending certificate request.