Did you know?
-- Your provisioning server does not need to be connected to the Internet in order to use Cisco's certificate.
-- The only requirement is that the phones or SPA devices have network access to the provisioning server.
-- There is no need for the phones or provisioning server to have access to the Internet.
-- The Cisco SPA301 and SPA303 IP phones use a different CA to the Cisco SPA5xxG phones, and older Sipura, and Linksys devices.
Refer to https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-23639 and https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-12709
-- The SPA Phones and ATAs support mutual SSL authentication [SSLVerifyClient require] based on certificates signed by Cisco.
This document describes the certificate signing (CSR) process, what to do, where to run commands, and what information you must provide.
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You must generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) as part of the certificate signing process.
The CSR identifies and describes your organization.
Your web server needs a private key in order to generate a CSR. This document helps you create a private key on the web server in step A1.
This private key is private to you and your web server. Do not share it with anyone! Do not include your private key in your CSR email request in step B1.
When generating the CSR in step A2, you will be asked for a "CN" (Common Name, also sometimes called "your name" depending on the operating system on your web server) This name is used to uniquely identify the web server so the name must use fully qualified domain name (FQDN) syntax.
During the SSL authentication handshake, the SPA device will verify that the certificate it receives, is indeed from the machine who presents it, this can only be accomplished with a FQDN.
For example, if your server's hostname is proserv and your domain is domain.com, then provserv.domain.com is the fully qualified CN to submit.
Step A: Creating the CSR
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Use the opensource "openssl" utility to generate a private key in step 1 and then generate your CSR. Both steps 1 and 2 must be run on the web server.
1. Generate a private key which you will use to generate the certificate signing request
webserver# openssl genrsa -out <file.key> 2048
2. Generate the CSR using the private key that you just created.
webserver# openssl req -new -key <file.key> -out <file.csr>
IMPORTANT:
When prompted for an email address, you must provide a valid email address so Cisco can contact you if needed.
This email address will be visible in this CSR. Cisco will notprocess the CSR without a valid email address.
Step B: Preparing the Certificate to send to your sales representative
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1. Compress the CSR with the zip utility to prevent email servers from truncating the CSR. [Do not include the web server's private key)
2. List the devices for which you require the certificate, for example: SPA3xx, SPA5xx, SPA9XX, WRPXXX, RTPXXX, WRTPXXX, and WAGXXX
[This tells Engineering what devices to include in the combinedca.crt certificate for client authentication]
3. Email the CSR and device list to your Cisco sales representative.
4. The Cisco sales rep forwards the CSR to ciscosb-certadmin@cisco.com
Note: A certificate will only be generated if a Cisco sales representative sends the CSR to the email alias.
5. Cisco signs the CSR and sends the certificate/s to the Cisco sales representative. The Cisco sales representative sends the certificate/s to you.
6. Install the certificate/s on your HTTPS server. This certificate is valid for two (2) years.
Following is an example for Apache's Linux httpd.conf file
...
...
# Server Certificate:
SSLCertificateFile .../etc/httpd/conf/...crt
# Server Private Key:
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/conf/...key
# Client authentication (Optional) Certificate Authority (CA)
SSLVerifyClient require
SSLCACertificatePath .../etc/httpd/conf/
SSLCACertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf/combinedca.crt
# If using SSLVerifyDepth Do not set it greater than 2, for example:
# <Location>
# SSLRequireSSL
# SSLVerifyDepth 2
# </Location>
...
...
<end>
