Deploy Machine Certificates for Authentication

Issue client certificates to GlobalProtect apps and endpoints.
This enables the GlobalProtect portal and gateways to validate that the endpoint belongs to your organization.
Create the root CA certificate for issuing self-signed certificates for the GlobalProtect components.
Select
Device
Certificate Management
Certificates
Device Certificates
, and then click
Generate
.
Enter a
Certificate Name
. The certificate name cannot contain any spaces.
Enter the IP address or FQDN that will appear on the certificate in the
Common Name
field.
Select your root CA from the
Signed By
drop-down.
Select an
OCSP Responder
to verify the revocation status of certificates.
Configure the
Cryptographic Settings
for the certificate, including the encryption
Algorithm
, key length (
Number of Bits
),
Digest
algorithm (use sha1, sha256, sha384, or sha512), and
Expiration
(in days) for the certificate.
If the firewall is in FIPS-CC mode and the key generation algorithm is RSA, the RSA keys must be 2,048 bits or 3072 bits.
In the
Certificate Attributes
area,
Add
and define the attributes that uniquely identify the endpoints as belonging to your organization. Keep in mind that if you add a
Host Name
attribute (which populates the SAN field of the certificate), it must be the same as the
Common Name
value you defined.
Click
OK
to generate the certificate.
Install certificates in the personal certificate store on the endpoints.
If you are using unique user certificates or machine certificates, you must install each certificate in the personal certificate store on the endpoint prior to the first portal or gateway connection.
Windows
—Install machine certificates to the Local Computer certificate store and install user certificates to the Current User certificate store.
macOS
—Install machine certificates in the System Keychain and install user certificates in the Keychain on macOS.
Linux
—If you use the Cloud Identity Engine for authentication, import the client certificate into any browsers that access web pages that require authentication.
For example, to install a certificate on a Windows system using the Microsoft Management Console:
From the command prompt, enter
mmc
to launch the Microsoft Management Console.
Select
File
Add/Remove Snap-in
.
From the list of
Available snap-ins
, select
Certificates
, and then
Add
and select one of the following certificate snap-ins, depending on what type of certificate you are importing:
Computer account
—Select this option if you are importing a machine certificate.
My user account
—Select this option if you are importing a user certificate.
From the
Console Root
, expand
Certificates
, and then select
Personal
.
In the
Actions
column, select
Personal
More Actions
All Tasks
Import
and follow the steps in the Certificate Import Wizard to import the PKCS file you received from the CA.
Browse
to and select the .p12 certificate file to import (select
Personal Information Exchange
as the file type to browse for) and enter the
Password
that you used to encrypt the private key. Set the
Certificate store
to
Personal
.
Verify that the certificate has been added to the personal certificate store.
Navigate to the personal certificate store from the
Console Root
(
Certificates
Personal
Certificates
:
Import the root CA certificate used to issue the client certificates onto the firewall.
This step is required only if an external CA issued the client certificates, such as a public CA or an enterprise PKI CA. If you are using self-signed certificates, the root CA is already trusted by the portal and gateways.
Download the root CA certificate used to issue the client certificates (Base64 format).
Import the root CA certificate from the CA that generated the client certificates onto the firewall:
Select
Device
Certificate Management
Certificates
Device Certificates
and click
Import
Set the
Certificate Type
to
Local
(default).
Enter a
Certificate Name
that identifies the certificate as your client CA certificate.
Browse
to and select the
Certificate File
you downloaded from the CA.
Set the
File Format
to
Base64 Encoded Certificate (PEM)
, and then click
OK
.
On the
Device Certificates
tab, select the certificate you just imported to open the Certificate Information.
Select
Trusted Root CA
and then click
OK
.
Create a client certificate profile.
Select
Device
Certificates
Certificate Management
Certificate Profile
to
Add
a new certificate profile.
Enter a profile
Name
.
Select a
Username Field
value to specify which field in the certificate will contain the user’s identification information.
If you plan to configure the portal or gateways to authenticate users with only certificates, you must specify the
Username Field
. This enables GlobalProtect to associate a username with the certificate.
If you plan to set up the portal or gateway for two-factor authentication, you can leave the default value of
None
, or, to add an additional layer of security, specify a username. If you specify a username, your external authentication service verifies that the username in the client certificate matches the username requesting authentication. This ensures that the user is the one to which the certificate was issued.
Users cannot change the username that is included in the certificate.
In the
CA Certificates
area, click
Add
. Select the Trusted Root CA certificate you imported in step 4 from the
CA Certificate
drop-down, and then click
OK
.
Save the configuration.
Commit
the changes.