Mail Gateway Integration XI: Enterprise Certificate Authentication

Additional Steps for Windows Server 2022 

• Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
• Expand your Server
• Expand Sites
• Right Click Default Web Site
• Click Edit Bindings
• Double-click the https entry
• Activate the Disable TLS 1.3 over TCP checkbox 
• Click OK
• Click Close
• Restart IIS

Remove Trusted Root Certificates

At this time, the default setting and logic is to accept certificates for authentication whose root and intermediate certificates are located on the Windows server. As you likely only want your own certificate, which is distributed via Silverback, to be trusted, you only need to provide the necessary certificate and remove those that are not required. To address this, we have provided a possible template for keeping one certificate as an example in the following Powershell script. Adjust the Template, and ensure to run this script as an administrator, as removing Trusted Root Certificates requires administrative privileges. Test the script in a safe environment before running it in a production environment. Overall, the script contains the following steps: 

1. Define the thumbprints: This script starts by defining an array $thumbprintsToKeep containing the thumbprints of the certificates you want to keep. Replace "YOUR_FIRST_CERT_THUMBPRINT" with the actual thumbprint of your certificate.
2. Open the certificate store: The script opens the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store in read-write mode.
3. Iterate over the certificate: The script loops through all certificates in the Trusted Root store.
4. Remove certificate: It removes each certificate whose thumbprint is not in the $thumbprintsToKeep array.
5. Close the certificate store: Finally, the script closes the certificate store.

# Define the thumbprints of the certificates to keep
$thumbprintsToKeep = @(
    "YOUR_FIRST_CERT_THUMBPRINT"
    # Add more thumbprints as needed
)

# Open the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store
$rootStore = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Store "Root", "LocalMachine"
$rootStore.Open("ReadWrite")
$certificates = $rootStore.Certificates

foreach ($cert in $certificates) {
    if ($thumbprintsToKeep -notcontains $cert.Thumbprint) {
        # Remove the certificate if its thumbprint is not in the list of thumbprints to keep
        Write-Output "Removing certificate: $($cert.Subject) with thumbprint $($cert.Thumbprint)"
        $rootStore.Remove($cert)
    } else {
        Write-Output "Keeping certificate: $($cert.Subject) with thumbprint $($cert.Thumbprint)"
    }
}

# Close the certificate store
$rootStore.Close()

Remain only required certificates

To prevent the list of certificates in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store from being automatically refreshed, for instance in response to a Windows update, you have a few options at your disposal: 

• It is possible to deactivate the automatic updates of the list of trusted root certificates.  Open gpedit.msc and select Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management, and then press Internet Communication settings. Double-click Turn off Automatic Root Certificates Update, click Disabled, and then click OK.
• As an alternative, you may choose to run the PowerShell script you have modified at a designated interval using the Task Scheduler board tool. The following configuration example demonstrates how to run the PowerShell script on a Windows Server 2019 with administrative privileges configured every 15 minutes.
  • Type taskschd.msc or Task Scheduler in the search bar and press Enter
  • Click on Create Task in the right Actions pane
  • Now configure the following settings in the respective tabs of the Task Scheduler:
    • General
      • Name: Your Task Name
      • Description: Your Task Description
      • Run whether user is logged on or not
      • Run with highest privileges
      • Configure for: Windows Server 2019
    • Triggers
      • Begin the task: On a schedule
      • Settings: Daily
      • Start: Select start date and time
      • Advanced settings: Repeat task every 15 minutes, for a duration of Indefinitely
    • Actions
      • Action: Start a program
      • Program/script: powershell.exe
        • e.g. C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
      • Add arguments: -File "C:\Path\To\YourScript.ps1"
    • Conditions
      • Uncheck any conditions that may prevent task execution
    • Settings
      • Allow task to be run on demand
      • Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed
      • If the task fails, restart every 1 minute for 3 retries (or as desired)
  • To finish, press OK and enter the credentials of an administrator when prompted