Cisco ISE for BYOD and Secure Unified Access, 2nd Edition

Appendix D The ISE CA and How Cert-Based Auth Works

This appendix provides a primer on certificate-based authentications as described by Aaron Woland.

I find a few universal truths when mentioning certificates to IT professionals. Almost without fail, most people I speak with consider certificates and public key cryptography (PKI) to be a very secure concept. However, upon mentioning to someone that I want to talk about certificates or PKI, that person’s face turns a slightly lighter shade, their eyes get a bit wider, and they have this immediate fight-or-flight instinct kick in.

This is a subject that does not have to be scary; there are just a few misunderstandings. One example of a common misunderstanding is the notion that a certificate is ...