What Is Keychain Access on macOS

This section provides a quick introduction on Keychain Access, which is an administration tool on macOS computers store and manage passwords, private keys and PKI certificates.

What Is Keychain Access? - Keychain Access is an administration tool on macOS computers that is used mainly to store your passwords and account information and reduces the number of passwords you have to remember and manage.

When you access a website, email account, network server, or other password-protected item, you may be given the option to remember or save the password. If you choose to save the password, it's saved in your keychain so you don't have to remember or type your password every time.

But you can also use Keychain Access to manage certificates, which are issued by trusted organizations to validate websites, digital documents, and other web-based materials as shown below:

Keychain Access - Certificate Store on macOS
Keychain Access - Certificate Store on macOS

Note that certificates and other security information are stored into 4 different keychains: login, Local Items, System, System Roots. Each keychain has 5 storage categories:

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)

 Introduction of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)

 Using HTTPS with Google Chrome

 Using HTTPS with Mozilla Firefox

 HTTPS with Microsoft Edge

 Using HTTPS with Apple Safari

 HTTPS with IE (Internet Explorer)

 Android and Server Certificate

 iPhone and Server Certificate

 Windows Certificate Stores and Console

 RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and Server Certificate

macOS Certificate Stores and Keychain Access

What Is Keychain Access on macOS

 Listing of Trusted Root CA in macOS

 Exporting Root Certificate to File from macOS

 Delete/Untrust Certificates from macOS

 Unlock Keychain to Access Certificate on macOS

 Import Server Certificates to macOS

 Create My Own Root CA on macOS

 Review My Root CA Certificate on macOS

 Review Private Key of My CA Certificate on macOS

 Generate CSR (Certificate Signing Request) on macOS

 Issue New Certificate with My CA on macOS

 Verify Certificate Signed by My CA on macOS

 Keychain File Locations on macOS

 CA Certificates at "/etc/ssl | /private/etc/ssl"

 Perl Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 PHP Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 Java Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 .NET Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 CAcert.org - Root CA Offering Free Certificates

 PKI CA Administration - Issuing Certificates

 Comodo Free Personal Certificate

 Digital Signature - Microsoft Word

 Digital Signature - OpenOffice.org 3

 S/MIME and Email Security

 PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) Terminology

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB