Certificate Management The ikeyman way ..

ikeyman Utility

          The "ikeyman" is a GUI utility for certificate management. You might be already familiar with this utility but this is a gentle effort from my side to provide an insight about this utility for the folks who are not aware of it. normally this utility will be there in the ..../jre/bin directory of Java installed location.

The figures below are self explainable hence i am not giving a detailed explanation.

Note:- Kindly post your comments, Add ons and offcourse the "likes" in this blog 

Creating a new key database

 

Figure 1



Open ikeyman and then select "New" from  "Key Database File" Menu.

Figure 1a

1.) Select the "Key Database File Type" value, This is the format of the key DB file. The available types are JKS, JCEKS and PKCS12.
2.) Enter a filename for new DB
3.) Type the location to store the Key DB file.
4.) Press Ok

Figure 1b

 Enter password for New DB file, Don't miss this password as this is required to operate a Key DB file.




Figure 1c



This shows the filename and location of the DB and the certificate types. Confirm the filename and location of above screen (Figure 1c) with figure1a.

Receiving a personal certificate

     You can receive your personal certificate from CA by using this option, This can be done only if you have raised the certificate request from current key DB file.



Figure 2a

 1.) Select personal certificate
2.) Press receive button from right panel




Figure 2b

  1.) Browse the certificate file from the location



Figure 2c



You can see the personal certificate label here. This label would be the one which you have entered while creating the certificate request and it can be changed by using the option "Rename" at the right pannel.

Importing a certificate

  This option is useful if you want import a certificate from another key DB file. Suppose you have created a certificate request from one of the key DB file and once after receiving the certificate from CA you want to add this to another key DB file, Here you can't use "Receive" option because you created the request from another Key DB file.

     In this scenario you can use "Receive" option from the Key DB where you originally created the certificate request to receive the personal certificate and then import this certificate from any of the Key DB file.

Figure 4a

 Select "New" from "Key Database File" menu option

Figure 4b

1.) Select the "Key Database File Type" value, This is the format of the key DB file. The available types are JKS, JCEKS and PKCS12.

2.) Enter a filename for new DB
3.) Type the location to store the Key DB file.
4.) Press OK
 

Figure 4c

Enter password for new Key DB file.




Figure 4d


1.) Select "Personal Certificate" from the drop down list
2.) Press import button from the right panel

Figure 4e

1.) Select the key DB type of the file from where you want to import the certificate.
2.) Browse/Type the Key DB filename from where you want to import the certificate.
3.) Confirm/Type the location
4.) Press OK


 

Figure 4f

Enter password of the Key DB file from where you want to import the certificate and then press OK






Figure 4g



This will list the labels of available certificates.
1.) Select label of the certificate which you want to import.
2.) Press OK




Figure 4h


Here you can change the label if you want. You can skip this if you done want a label change.
1.) Select the label
2.) Enter New Label
3.) Press Apply (after this the label testca will get changed to personalCert
4.) Press OK




Figure 4i



 This screen shows the label of the certificate which you imported just now. If you want you can select the label and press view/Edit to view the details of the certificate.

Creating a Self Signed Certificate

Figure 5a

Select "Open" from Key Database File Menu.

 

Figure 5b

1.) Enter the type of the Key DB file which you are going to open
2.) Browse/Type the filename.
3.) Confirm/Type the location.
4.) Press OK

Figure 5c

Enter the password of the Key DB file which you selected in Figure 5b





Figure 5d

 1.) Select "Personal Certificate" from drop down list
2.)  Press "New Self Signed Certificate" Button in the right panel
3.) Enter the certificate details, I have marked certain key points here for you attention.
4.) Press OK


Figure 5e

 1.) Select the label "selfsigned"
2.) Press View/Edit to view the newly created self singed certificate.


Figure 5f



This screen shows the details of newly created self signed certificate.

Adding Signers

Open a Key DB file for adding the signers



Figure 6a

  Select "Signer Certificate" from drop down list.




Figure 6b


1.) Enter/Browse the filename of the signer certificate which you want to add.
2.) Confirm the location of the file.
3.) Press OK.

Figure 6c

Enter Label for the Signer certificate.




Figure 6d

  This displays the added signer certificate, Kindly note the label..

Extracting a Certificate

Open the Key DB File


Figure 6e



1.) Select "Signer Certificate" from drop down list.

2.) Select the label of the certificate which you want to extract

3.) Press "Extract" from the right panel.

4a.) Select the Data type.

4b.) Enter a filename to store the extracted certificate.

4c.) Type the location of the file.

4d.) Press OK

 This will create a file with the name testSignerExtract in the specified location and stores the signer certificate with the label "testSigner" in it.