SSL certificate requirements

Riverbed products require SSL certificates to follow ITU-T standard X.509 and base-64 encoding of DER with header and footer lines. This is generally referred to as PEM format.

Riverbed products require an unencrypted private key in a PKCS#8 format encoded in the PEM format. Encrypted private keys and binary-encoded private keys (including PKCS#12) are not accepted. If your Certificate Authority issues the PKCS#12 file, you will need to convert it to the PEM format.

The Local Credential section expects:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----

Base-64 encoded certificate

-----END CERTIFICATE-----

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----

Base-64 encoded private key

-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

Additionally, the certificates and keys must meet the minimum requirements of the operational security mode.  If the certificates do not comply with FIPS 140-3 requirements when the appliance is switched into FIPS 140-3 Compatible Cryptography mode, they will automatically be replaced by the default certificates.

The key and certificate requirements are as follows:

  • FIPS Compatible Cryptology mode:

    • SSH:  1024 bit or more RSA or DSA

    • SSL:  X.509 certificate, 1024 bit or more RSA or DSA, signed with SHA1 or higher

  • Not in FIPS Compatible Cryptology mode (minimum requirements):

    • SSH:  512 bit or more RSA or DSA

    • SSL:  X.509 certificate, 512 bit or more RSA or DSA, any signature

  • The default values are:

    • SSH:  2048 bit RSA

    • SSL:  X.509 certificate, 2048 bit RSA, SHA512 signature

Encryption key management

Appliance security