Get Machine Authentication Using Certificates

Certificate-based authentication servers use certificates and single sign-on (SSO) to authenticate a user, machine, or device. Authentication is performed through the interaction of public keys, private keys, and certificate authorities (CAs). Each public key comes paired with a unique private key.

By issuing certificates to machines, you permit authorized machines to access the network by authenticating to other machines, devices or servers — in either Microsoft® Windows,® Linux or UNIX environments — using a certificate. This allows authorized machines to access and share confidential data.

The Most Popular Types. The most popular types of certificate based authentication are Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). TLS and SSL use digital certificates to authenticate the server and encrypt the data exchanged between the server and the client.

A device certificate is usually present in the Local Computer store while the User certificate resides in the User's certificate store. User certificates specify which resources a given user can have access to. They are sometimes used on devices that several users share.

A machine certificate, also known as a computer certificate, is a type of certificate that grants a system the ability to perform special actions, rather than the user. It is primarily used for authentication purposes, both on the client-side and server-side.

Machine authentication is the authorization of an automated human-to-machine or machine-to-machine (M2M) communication through verification of a digital certificate or digital credentials.

Certificates allow users to be authenticated without having to remember several username and password combinations. Users often spend considerable time guessing and resetting passwords when they have many to remember.

Let's see some examples of how common Certificate-Based Authentication (CBA) is. For example, the smart card is used for accessing offices or other buildings. Another example is the SSL/TLS protocol used in web browsers. CBA is also a key component of any Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) implementation.