Establishing Secure Connections with Digital Certificates

You will require a secure connection to access APIs connected to your network. To establish a secure connection, digital certificates are required. A digital certificate is a file or electronic password that proves the authenticity of a device, server, or user, helping organizations ensure that only trusted devices and users can connect to their networks.

Creating a Secure SSL Connection

You must supply a certificate and private key to the API to create a secure connection, known as an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection. SSL protocols establish authenticated and encrypted links between networked computers. With an SSL connection, you can connect outside of localhost (the machine the API runs on). Without this certificate, the API will only listen for connections from the local host. External connections will only be allowed if they are secure (HTTPS or Secure WebSockets).

The identity running the API will need access to these files, so the certificates must be stored in an accessible folder or library.

Certificate Providers

It is up to the user to supply a suitable certificate for their usage. Some recommended providers are:

Browser Compatibility and Certificate Handling

If a certificate authority used is not recognized by the browser, this will need to be handled depending on the browser. You will need to sign your certificate with your own certificate authority and add it to your application or browser.

For Google Chrome, you can use this guide.
For Firefox, you can use this guide.
For Safari, you can use this guide.

If you wish to use different browsers, you will need to find their respective guides to set up certificates.

Certificate Configuration and Security

Only a single certificate configuration is supported. If a password is supplied, it is obfuscated for security. The API does not make a copy of the certificate or private key, as this could violate security protocols if they are stored in restricted folders.