Your company has an Active Directory domain.
You have a two-tier PKI infrastructure that contains an offline root CA and an online issuing CA. The Enterprise certification authority is running Windows Server 2008 R2.
You need to ensure users are able to enroll new certificates.
What should you do?
A. Renew the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) on the root CA. Copy the CRL to the CertEnroll folder on the issuing CA.
B. Renew the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) on the issuing CA, Copy the CRL to the SysternCertificates folder in the users’ profile.
C. Import the root CA certificate into the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store on all client workstations.
D. Import the issuing CA certificate into the Intermediate Certification Authorities store on all client workstations.
Correct Answer: A
Explanation/Reference:
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http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/2900.offline-root-certification-authority-ca.aspx
Offline Root Certification Authority (CA)
A root certification authority (CA) is the top of a public key infrastructure (PKI) and generates a self-signed certificate. This means that the root CA is validating itself (self-validating). This root CA could then have subordinate CAs that effectively trust it. The subordinate CAs receive a certificate signed by the root CA, so the subordinate CAs can issue certificates that are validated by the root CA. This establishes a CA hierarchy and trust path.
CA Compromise
If a root CA is in some way compromised (broken into, hacked, stolen, or accessed by an unauthorized or malicious person), then all of the certificates that were issued by that CA are also compromised. Since certificates are used for data protection, identification, and authorization, the compromise of a CA could compromise the security of an entire organizational network. For that reason, many organizations that run internal PKIs install their root CA offline. That is, the CA is never connected to the company network, which makes the root CA an offline root CA. Make sure that you keep all CAs in secure areas with limited access. To ensure the reliability of your CA infrastructure, specify that any root and non-issuing intermediate CAs must be offline. A non-issuing CA is one that is not expected to provide certificates to client computers, network devices, and so on. This minimizes the risk of the CA private keys becoming compromised, which would in turn compromise all the certificates that were issued by the CA.
How Do Offline CAs issue certificates?
Offline root CAs can issue certificates to removable media devices (e.g. floppy disk, USB drive, CD/DVD) and then physically transported to the subordinate CAs that need the certificate in order to perform their tasks. If the subordinate CA is a non-issuing intermediate that is offline, then it will also be used to generate a certificate and that certificate will be placed on removable media. Each CA receives its authorization to issue certificates from the CA directly above it in the CA hierarchy. However, you can have multiple CAs at the same level of the CA hierarchy. Issuing CAs are typically online and used to issue certificates to client computers, network devices, mobile devices, and so on.
Do not join offline CAs to an Active Directory Domain Services domain
Since offline CAs should not be connected to a network, it does not make sense to join them to an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain, even with the Offline Domain Join [This link is external to TechNet Wiki. It will open in a new window.] option introduced with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Furthermore, installing an offline CA on a server that is a member of a domain can cause problems with a secure channel when you bring the CA back online after a long offline period. This is because the computer account password changes every 30 days. You can get around this by problem and better protect your CA by making it a member of a workgroup, instead of a domain. Since Enterprise CAs need to be joined to an AD DS domain, do not attempt to install an offline CA as a Windows Server Enterprise CA.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc740209%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
Renewing a certification authority
A certification authority may need to be renewed for either of the following reasons: Change in the policy of certificates issued by the CA
Expiration of the CA’s issuing certificate
