Microsoft® Windows® Group Policy Guide

Deploying Public Key Policies

Kerberos authentication is the most commonly used computer to computer authentication mechanism for Windows computers. Kerberos is in fact, the default authentication mechanism in Active Directory domains. In addition to Kerberos authentication, Windows computers can use public key certificates for authentication.

How Public Key Certificates Work

Public key certificates provide a standard way of identifying users and computers securely. A certificate is like a unique signature that can be associated only with a particular identity. Public key certificates have a wide variety of uses for users and computers alike. They can be used for enabling IPSec communications between computers, for signing code to ensure the code ...