Certificates

Manage certificates for secure device communication in Connectware.

Connectware manages certificates to ensure secure communication between devices and systems. It verifies the authenticity of certificates during TLS and mTLS connections, allowing only authorized entities to access the system for increased data integrity and security in industrial environments. You can upload certificates to the Connectware certs volume.

Certs Volume

The certs volume is a dedicated volume that stores all the necessary certificates used for secure communications, including TLS and mTLS certificates. This volume typically holds the certificates and private keys needed to authenticate, encrypt, and verify secure connections within Connectware. It ensures that the certificates are easily accessible to the Connectware services, enabling secure communication between devices, clients, and servers.

The certificates volume plays a critical role in managing certificates for tasks such as establishing secure MQTT connections, handling client-server authentication, and maintaining overall system security.

Certificates are stored in the certs volume with the cybus_ca.crt file holding the current list of certificates. The backup of the previous certificate list is stored in the cybus_ca_backup.crt file.

Custom CA Certificates

Custom CA certificates in Connectware are user-provided Certificate Authority (CA) certificates that are added to the system to establish trust for secure communications. These certificates allow Connectware to authenticate and verify devices, clients, or servers that use certificates signed by a non-default or custom CA, rather than relying solely on the built-in Cybus CA.

By adding custom CA certificates, you can integrate your own Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to ensure that Connectware can recognize and trust certificates issued by external CAs. This increases security and flexibility for specific industry use cases or corporate policies.