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netvope
Asked: 2011-09-18 16:52:20 +0800 CST

Are SSL Client Certificates well supported by all major browsers?

  • 772

We're thinking of improving the authentication of some critical webpages with client certificates, but we're not sure whether it's a widely used standard.

Are SSL Client Certificates well supported by all major browsers? In particular, do they work on the following browsers?

  • Internet Explorer
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Apple Safari (Mac and iOS)
  • Android Web Browser

(We use Apache on the servers, if that matters)

security authentication web

2 Answers

  1. I don't have a way of testing all of this, but this site came up on google with instructions for installing PKCS#12 certificate/key pairs in a number of different situations, including on the iPhone.

    It seems that Android only uses PKCS#12 certificates for VPN authentication. Here is the wishlist entry for browser client authentication support using imported certificates.

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  2. That depends on the CA (Certificate Authority) and whether they are included as defaults or updates to the various web browsers. You can get a general idea by looking through the default CAs included/identified with the various web browsers.

    Non-included CAs will result in a warning screen via the web browsers, which may cause some alarm/concern with some users.

    SSL over HTTPS support is generally universal across the contemporary web browsers.

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