[z/OS]

Setting up communications for SSL or TLS on z/OS

Secure communications that use the SSL or TLS cryptographic security protocols involve setting up the communication channels and managing the digital certificates that you will use for authentication.

To set up your SSL or TLS installation you must define your channels to use SSL or TLS. You must also create and manage your digital certificates. On z/OS® you can perform the tests with self-signed certificates, or with personal certificates signed by a local certificate authority (CA).

Self-signed certificates cannot be revoked, which could allow an attacker to spoof an identity after a private key has been compromised. CAs can revoke a compromised certificate, which prevents its further use. CA-signed certificates are therefore safer to use in a production environment, though self-signed certificates are more convenient for a test system.

For full information about creating and managing certificates, see Working with SSL or TLS on z/OS.

This collection of topics introduces some of the tasks involved in setting up SSL or TLS communications, and provides step-by-step guidance on completing those tasks.

You might also want to test SSL or TLS client authentication, which are an optional part of the protocols. During the SSL or TLS handshake, the SSL or TLS client always obtains and validates a digital certificate from the server. With the IBM® MQ implementation, the SSL or TLS server always requests a certificate from the client.

On z/OS the SSL or TLS client sends a certificate only if it has one of the following certificates:
  • For a shared channel only, a certificate with a label in the format ibmWebSphereMQ followed by the name of your queue-sharing group, for example ibmWebSphereMQQSG1
  • A certificate with a label in the formatibmWebSphereMQ followed by the name of your queue manager, for example ibmWebSphereMQQM1
  • A default certificate (which might be the ibmWebSphereMQ certificate).

If the channel is shared, the channel first tries to find a certificate for the queue-sharing group. If it does not find a certificate for a queue-sharing group, it tries to find a certificate for the queue manager.

On z/OS, IBM MQ uses the ibmWebSphereMQ prefix on a label to avoid confusion with certificates for other products.

The SSL or TLS server always validates the client certificate if one is sent. If the SSL or TLS client does not send a certificate, authentication fails only if the end of the channel acting as the SSL or TLS server is defined with either the SSLCAUTH parameter set to REQUIRED or an SSLPEER parameter value set. For more information, see Connecting two queue managers using SSL or TLS.