1 ;; HOWTO-SMIME.de.txt -*- coding: latin-1; -*-
2 ;; This is a HOWTO installed with Gpg4win. Lines with a ; in the first
3 ;; column are considered a comment and not included in the actually
4 ;; installed version. Certain keywords are replaced by the Makefile;
5 ;; those words are enclosed by exclamation marks.
6 To use S/MIME certificates for sign and encrypt, you have to define
7 the trustability of X.509 root certificates.
9 A root certificate (root CA) is used to check the validity of all
10 child certificates. If you trust the root certificate therby you
11 trust also all underlying certificates.
13 To avoid that each user must search and install the required root
14 certificates, and also check and authenticate the trustworthiness of
15 the same, it is useful to install a system-wide default of the most
16 important root certificates:
18 1. Store the root certificates
20 Copy root certificate file to:
22 %ProgramData%\GNU\etc\gnupg\trusted-certs
26 C:\ProgramData\GNU\etc\gnupg\trusted-certs
28 The corresponding root certificates must be available as files in DER
29 format in the above file folder, with the file extension .crt or .der.
31 You get the root certificates from the respective CA administrators.
32 CA operators often provide their root certificates also on websites
35 If the above folder is not visible?
36 Please read the reference note to the view options [1].
39 2. Store intermediate certificates
41 Some Certificate Authorities require additional intermediate
44 Copy intermediate certificates to:
46 %ProgramData%\GNU\etc\gnupg\extra-certs
50 C:\ProgramData\GNU\etc\gnupg\extra-certs
52 The format is the same as the root certificates.
57 a) Open the following file with a text editor:
59 %ProgramData%\GNU\etc\gnupg\trustlist.txt
63 C:\ProgramData\GNU\etc\gnupg\trustlist.txt
65 b) Create a new line per root certificate with the corresponding
70 You get the fingerprint from the CA operators (often
71 available from the website where you can download the root
72 certificate). Alternatively, you can get the fingerprint
73 also via the command line tool "sha1sum" from the binary root
74 certificate file (those files usually have a suffix of
75 ".crt:, ".bin", ".cert" or ".cer"):
77 sha1sum < <ROOT-CERTIFICATE-FILE>
79 A row that begins with # will be treated as a comment and ignored.
80 The end of the file must be followed by an empty row.
82 Example of two entries with comments:
83 # CN=Wurzel ZS 3,O=Intevation GmbH,C=DE
84 A6935DD34EF3087973C706FC311AA2CCF733765B S
86 # CN=PCA-1-Verwaltung-02/O=PKI-1-Verwaltung/C=DE
87 DC:BD:69:25:48:BD:BB:7E:31:6E:BB:80:D3:00:80:35:D4:F8:A6:CD S
89 In some cases it is useful to reduce the criteria for
90 checking the root certificate. To do this, you can set an
91 additional flag relax after the S:
96 3. Complete Gpg4win installation and restart computer
98 a) Enable the option "Root certificate defined or skip configuration".
100 b) Complete the Gpg4win installation wizard regular.
102 c) Restart your computer! (Required because the DirMngr have to
103 read your root certificates from step (1).)
105 Now, you have finished your S/MIME configuration successfully.
107 4. Review later in Kleopatra: Import and check certificate chains
109 Open Kleopatra and import your X.509 certificate chains. The
110 imported certificate chains should appear under the tab "Trusted
111 Certificates". Gpg4win recognizes your imported root certificates
114 Problems? Kleopatra doesn't shows your root certificate as
117 * Click on the "Redisplay" button in Kleopatra to update the
120 * Add "relax" after the relevant root certificate in the
121 trustlist.txt - see step (2).
124 For more information, see the Gpg4win Compendium, chapter 22:
125 http://gpg4win.org/doc/en/gpg4win-compendium_28.html
127 [1] Note to view options in Windows Explorer:
129 Ensure that you have enabled the folder option "Show hidden files
130 and folders". You find this option under:
132 File > Folder and Search Options > Ansicht