Front cover - IBM Redbooks

Figure 6-28 Flow of certificates and S/MIME messages
The steps required to request a client certificate into an S/MIME client, as shown
in Figure 6-28, are the following:
1. From within the S/MIME-capable messaging client, the user requests a client
certificate. The browser used in conjunction with the messaging client will
prompt the user to fill in a client certificate request form at the Web site of a
trusted certificate authority.
2. a. As the request is being submitted, it will trigger the browser to generate and
store a private key locally. (This process tends to differ from browser to
browser, so it is best to read the documentation for your particular browser
for the specifics of how this is done.)
b. A corresponding public key is included in the HTTP header as part of the
certificate request (in PKCS #10 format) to the Web CA.
Chapter 6. Public key infrastructures 275