Question

Difficulty: EasyPublic Key Infrastructure and Certificate Management

A security administrator needs to obtain and deploy a new TLS server certificate signed by a public Certificate Authority (CA). What is the correct sequence of administrative steps to accomplish this task?

  1. 1Generate an asymmetric key pair (private key and public key) locally on the web server.
  2. 2Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) incorporating the public key and domain identification details.
  3. 3Submit the CSR to the Certificate Authority (CA) for identity validation and digital signing.
  4. 4Install the CA-signed digital certificate onto the web server to enable secure HTTPS communication.

Answer

The correct sequence is: 1) Generate an asymmetric key pair locally on the server; 2) Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) containing the public key and domain details; 3) Submit the CSR to the Certificate Authority (CA) for validation and signing; 4) Install the CA-signed digital certificate on the web server.
The standardized PKI certificate enrollment workflow requires local key pair generation first, followed by bundling the public key into a CSR, submitting the CSR to the CA for domain verification and signature, and finally binding the issued certificate to the web service.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Generate asymmetric key pair on the server
A public key and a protected private key are created.
The server must possess a private key before requesting a corresponding signed certificate.
2
Formulate Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
A CSR file containing the public key and organizational details is generated.
The CA requires the public key and domain identity details to construct the certificate body.
3
Submit CSR to Certificate Authority (CA)
The CA verifies domain control and issues a signed certificate.
Validation establishes trust before the CA applies its digital signature.
4
Install signed certificate on the server
The web server presents the valid CA-signed certificate during TLS handshakes.
Clients can now establish encrypted TLS sessions by verifying the certificate chain back to a trusted root CA.

Key Concept

PKI Certificate Request and Enrollment Lifecycle Workflow
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