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Utilities - Keychains, Curious.

east85

east85

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 24, 2010
1,343
495
Is there a guide to the Keychains app featured under Utilities in the Applications folder?

I know these certificates are pretty important and related directly with the security and functionality of OS X. What red flags should I be looking for? I've noticed a number of root certificates listed that aren't even in English.

Thanks.
 
No red flags, really. The certificates that are in there are used for a variety of things, but you'd have to take some pretty specific steps to accept a certificate that wasn't valid (including entering your admin password twice). Just don't delete the certificate's that are in there, you can break all sorts of things, at least temporarily.

jW
 
Mal said:
No red flags, really. The certificates that are in there are used for a variety of things, but you'd have to take some pretty specific steps to accept a certificate that wasn't valid (including entering your admin password twice). Just don't delete the certificate's that are in there, you can break all sorts of things, at least temporarily.

jW
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

How exactly are they deemed valid without my consent? Is there some way that Apple automatically checks these certificates on a server somewhere?

If anyone feels up to giving these a glance:

http://i.imgur.com/j2JFI.png
http://i.imgur.com/IzHtq.png
http://i.imgur.com/at2o9.png
http://i.imgur.com/I3rhC.png
http://i.imgur.com/9h8Kz.png
http://i.imgur.com/n01qM.png

I honestly don't see why something like Go Daddy Hosting would be there with root authority for example. I never authorized anything like that... just curious.
 
Certificates are signed by Certificate Authorities. What you're viewing there is the list of acknowledge valid Certificate Authorities that Apple recognizes. Not a list of the actual certificates used by the machine.

jW
 
Mal said:
Certificates are signed by Certificate Authorities. What you're viewing there is the list of acknowledge valid Certificate Authorities that Apple recognizes. Not a list of the actual certificates used by the machine.

jW
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up, I just like to know what's going on. I have had a bit of trouble finding resources to learn more about OS X honestly. I've only been using it for a short while. While on Windows I at least have the comfort of knowing exactly what is going on, where and why, but then again I've used it about a decade longer. I usually have a habit of micromanaging what I can.

Even after having exhausted a number of guides on here I think there's a ton of things that feel alien to me.

I should pick up some literature or something... not sure where to start.
 
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