This is for administrators at Sunet TCS members for the 2025- "HARICA generation" of the Sunet TCS service.
2025-01-13: This document is work in progress and will be updated as features are added and bugs/limitations removed, and as we gain more experience with the system.
The HARICA Certificate Manager is located at https://cm.harica.gr
Consider joining the TCS network at https://forum.sunet.se/s/tcs/ to get information and to be able to discuss the service with Sunet TCS and other users. Important news will also be shared, as before, using the SUNET-TCS-MEMBERS mailing list (where one function address per organization is present since your organization joined the service), but information about minor issues may be shared here, as well as tentative information before we know enough to raise it to the SUNET-TCS-MEMBERS level.
Email tcs@sunet.se after making sure that this document does not contain the answer to your question or a solution to your problem. Do not email Kent's personal email address.
If your question is about a concrete problem, please make sure that you include sufficient information that can be used for troubleshooting, for example:
If your question is related to a certificate or CSR, please attach it to the email you send. Do not attach keys or other secret/sensitive files.
2025-01-10: For the time being, contact HARICA support only on instructions from Sunet TCS. We will provide you with the email address when doing so.
Look at https://wiki.geant.org/display/TCSNT/TCS+2025+FAQ but keep in mind that parts of that documentation is for NREN administrators (called Enterprise Manager in HARICA CM) and not for organisation administrators (called Enterprise Admin in HARICA CA).
The HARICA Certificate Manager of course looks different from the Sectigo Certificate Manager. We are all using the same URL for HARICA CM (not a specific Sunet URL).
The containter that keeps your organization details together with the set of domains and certificates that belong to you is now called Enterprise in HARICA CM, instead of Organization (as in Sectigo CM) or Division (as earlier at DigiCert).
You who are administrators at this level are now called Enterprise Admin (approximately the same role as RAO in the Sectigo CM).s you
There is no direct replacement for the Department level that existed below Organization in the Sectigo CM, and as such there is no role corresponding to DRAO.
2025-01-10: There may be ways to implement this in the future. Please do not attempt do recreate this using Subunits or other things you find in the interface unless instructed by Sunet TCS.
The HARICA CM allows people to create users that will be matched to you organization via domain matching on the email address. Such users start out without any privileges in the system (cannot approve certificates, cannot add domains etc) but they can request certificates. This resembles the model we had with DigiCert (for Sectigo, there were only admin users of various levels).
A user cannot approve their own requests, regardless of privileges in the system. You need to have one user request a certificate and another user (with the Enterprise Approver role) approve it.
From the start of the service your can get this before your Organization Validation is completed:
When Organization Validation is completed you can also get:
Server certificate EV is not part of the contract.
2025-01-10: Other certificate types such as code-signing should become available later for a per-certificate fee
You cannot tune notifications as you could for Sectigo. From start, a single function email address per enterprise will get all notifications for new requests, expiring validations etc.
2025-01-20: You are welcome to join now using the procedures in this section, but as you can see further down we still want you to refrain from Organization Validation until needed.
To get access to the new system, first:
Then email tcs@sunet.se with a subject line "TCS2025: organization name" (substitute your real organization name). Do not send this email to Kent's personal email address. Do not come up with another form of subject line. In the email, include:
When we receive and handle the requests, we will create your Enterprise (the HARICA term for the container for your organization and its domains, certificates etc) in the system and make the indicated user the first Enterprise Manager for you.
Contact tcs@sunet.se about membership in the service. Do not send any paper documents before that and do not register in the HARICA CM system.
If you are not using CAA records to limit which Certificate Authorities are allowed to issue certificates for a domain, you do not need to add anything for HARICA.
On the other hand, if you are currently using CAA records in DNS to specify allowed Certificate Authorities for a domain, you need to make sure there is a CAA record allowing harica.gr in addition to the ones you already have.
Note: before issuing a certificate, HARICA has to verify that a correct CAA record or no CAA record at all) is in place for all names up to your base domain. For example, if you include the name ad.internal.example.org in the certificate, you must correctly answer for ad.internal.example.org, internal.example.org and example.org. If a request for any of the names result in no answer at all when queried from the outside (for example due to firewalling), or an error like SERVFAIL, the certificate will not be issued.
You might want to check the name for DNS problems (including DNSSEC) at https://dnsviz.net/
To validate the first domain added when your enterprise was created or any additional domains added later, go to Enterprise → Admin and select your enterprise line. In the new pane, select Domains. You will now be able to use the Validate Domain button to initiate Domain Control Validation (DCV).
You can select email or DNS methods:
In the field for "Email of user that will validate the Enterprise" you enter the email of yourself or any other user registered in HARICA CM that will complete the validation. Then follow the instructions in the email you get to complete validation.
Domains that have not been validated yet have a validity date in the past (the day before the domain was added).
To be able to used additional domains you need to add them first, and then validate as above. To add, go to Enterprise → Admin and select your enterprise in the list. In the pane that appears, click your enterprise in the new list too. At the enterprise information page you get to, use the globe icon (
) at the top almost rightmost corner to get to the Add Domain page.
Download the sample CSV file and edit it to add one or more domains instead of the HARICA example names. Upload the edited file and accept it. The domains will not show up at once (there is a manual check by HARICA before they are accepted). When the domains have been added you can validate them as per above.
2025-01-10: The CSV parser requires the first line to contain the text Domain without quotes around it. If your spreadsheet program adds quotes, you may have to removed them. In other words, the expected file format is a test file with Domain on the first line and then one or more domain names on the subsequent lines.
Contact tcs@sunet.se if this is needed.
When your Enterprise is first added to the system, its organization is not validated. You can still request DV server certificates and email-only S/MIME-certificates. You need to complete Organization Validation too if any of this applies to you:
If any of the above conditions apply to you, contact tcs@sunet.se and ask us to initiate Organization Validation for you. Tell us which of the conditions above apply to you.
Everybody who is to access the system (for certificate requests or as administrator) needs to have a user:
As an Enterprise Admin you can elevate additional users to have more privileged roles than normal users (who can just request certificates).
Then, as Enterprise Admin, go to Enterprise → Admin and select the Users tab close to the top (between Enterprises and Certificates). Select the appropriate user from the list presented (which will show users with emails under your domains).
2025-01-23: The list will not show all users (only the first 20?) and you need to use the down arrow to load more or use the filter function. Be aware that the search box only searches among the already displayed users.
In the pane shown for the selected user, select the Account info pane. You can select to additional roles for the user:
When you have selected the role(s), do not forget to:
2025-10-13: If the choices you make does to seem to "take" when you look at the Account info again right after saving, exit the Users pane for something else and go back and check again. The information should now be correct.
To reset the two-factor authentication for yourself, if you can still login via the old two-factor, go to the menu in the top right corner where the name is displayed, select Profile and then under Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) first Disable and then Enable again.
To reset the two-factor for another user, have one of your Enterprise Admins go to the Account Info pane for the user (as above under Administrator Roles) and use the Disable button for Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). The user will then have to login and enable two-factor authentication again (using the menu in the top right corner where the name is displayed, select Profile and then under Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) use Enable).
If you are the only Enterprise Admin in your Enterprise and you ned to reset the two-factor authentication for yourself and you cannot login via the old two-factor, you need to contact tcs@sunet.se for help.
Roles will be lost! When the two-factor authentication is disabled for a user (by any of the means above), all roles that user has is removed and has to be added back again by an Enterprise Admin. We recommend that you have at least two Enterprise Admins so one of you can reinstate the other if they need to reset their two-factor authentication. Having more than one Enterprise Admin is of course also a good idea for general operational redundancy.
All certificate requests are done with menu options in the left-side menu of the system.
You need to have a user in the system (see above) to create certificate requests, but the user does not need to have any administrator/approver roles.
You cannot approve your own request. Another user with the Enterprise Approver role needs to do that. In converse, if you are the one who will approve the certificate, you need to have another user request it.
Use the Certificate Requests → Server alternative in the left-side-menu.
On the first page, you can first enter an optional friendly name for the certificate. The friendly name is only shown to the requester in certificate listings. It will not be seen by approvers/admins. We suggest you leave it blank, as the CN (the first "real" name entered) will be shown in that case.
You then add one or more names to be present in the certificate. The first name added will be the CN of the certificate, and all names added will be present as SAN DNS entries in the certificate. The web interface talks about adding domains, but you are entering the full names you want in the certificate.
*.subdomain.example.org, add only that and not subdomain.example.org. You will get subdomain.example.org in the certificate too.No names for the certificate are picked up from the CSR you upload at the end of the request process. You have to add them at this stage. 2025-01-13: This may be changed in the future.
There is a limit of 100 names in the certificate.
You can also use the Import feature to import names from files, including:
.csr. You will have to upload the same CSR file again at the end where it is used for the key part..pem, .crt or .cer.DNS Name on the first line and the requested names on consecutive lines. The filename has to end in .csv.On the next page, select the certificate type:
CN=name in the subject (as well as all the names as SAN DNS entries).O=Organization name and L=Your city.If the DV or OV option is shown as "from AMOUNT€ year" instead of "free", do not proceed. Probable reasons are:
Confirm the choice of type and then confirm the information and accept the terms of use etc.
On the Submit Request page, use Submit CSR manually to get a box to paste the CSR into. Accept the terms of use etc again and Submit the request.
2025-01-16: You may get the error message "You have already used this key before. If your private key gets compromised, we will have to revoke ALL CERTIFICATES associated with this key." if there is a blank line before the CSR in the box (and maybe for other syntax errors too). Do not proceed, but make sure the CSR format is OK and resubmit. Of course, you will also get this message if you are trying to reuse a key.
2025-01-13: The need to accept the terms of use etc twice will be removed in the future.
Your certificate request will now be listed under Pending Certificates until one of your Enterprise Approver approves it. An email is sent to the notification alias about the pending approval.
When an Enterprise Approver has approved the certificate, you can download it using the download arrow to the right of the certificate in the listing.
2025-01-13: We will add more information about download options when the correct certificate chain is in place.
Before you can request this type of certificate you need to:
) at the top almost rightmost corner to get to the Update Enterprise tags page. Enable the "#IGTF-Organization" toggle and Save.When requesting a server certificate, choose OV as the type on the second page (after entering names). Confirm on the next page. Then on the "Organization information" page, enable the "Request an IGTF eScience Digital Certificate" checkbox. As stated there, your "L" and "O" name components will be converted to ASCII as needed.
Before you can request this type of certificate you need to:
) at the top almost rightmost corner to get to the Update Enterprise tags page. Enable the "#IGTF-Organization" toggle and Save.Power users may choose to use the Submit CSR manually (having generated a key before, and combining the key and the downloaded certificate as needed afterwards).
2025-01-10: This section will be added soon. Most of you will like to wait until self-service with federated login is in place.
You need to have the Certificate Approver role to approve a certificate request. Also, you cannot approve your own request.
As Enterprise Approver, go to Enterprise → SSL Requests. Select the request in the list of pending requests. On the page you get, the Consent tab should be active (with a red X showing it is not yet handled). Enter any comment you want in the message box and use the Accept button to approve the certificate.
If you want, you can also have the message sent to the requester using the "Inform user" checkbox, and if you press Update instead of Accept, the user will get the message but the certificate will not (yet) be approved. The file options at the top is for including documents, if they are relevant to the approval process.
After approving, the certificate is issed and the request is moved to the Completed section.
As approver, your can use Enterprise → SSL Certificates to see certificates. If you select a certificate, you will see the Details pane, and can also choose the Download and Revoke tabs to do that.
The certificate requester will get an email about the certificate and can download it (see above).
2025-01-13: This section will be added soon. Most of you will like to wait until self-service with federated login is in place.
2025-01-10: ACME via HARICA is not at this moment on par with what was offered by Sectigo, but improvements are on the roadmap. We will update this section when it is in place. We recommend using Let's Encrypt for ACME as of now.
2025-01-17: The current API offered by HARICA is basically the one used between the web browser and their backend. If you are an experienced API user, you may be able to use this already, but it is not for the faint of heart. We will update this section if and when the API is enhanced for automation tasks.
Resources for those who would like to try it anyway:
We ask that you use the staging environment (cm-stg-harica.gr) for testing instead of the production environment (cm.harica.gr) if your tests will involve requesting certificates. Contact tcs@sunet.se if you need help to set up your Enterprise there for testing (configuration from production is not mirrored there).
See the information at GEANT's wiki https://wiki.geant.org/display/TCSNT/TCS+2025+FAQ#TCS2025FAQ-IsSAMLSupported?
For ADFS Toolkit, you can also look at the HARICA section at Manual attribute releases with ADFS Toolkit and for Shibboleth at How-To - SAML-konfiguration Sunet TCS
We recommend that you use the STAGING environment for testing basic attribute release, user creation/login etc as that database is not shared with the production environment so you will not interfere with existing users. When it works there, you can enable it for PRODUCTION as well.
If you do not have specific demands to support older devices and operating systems that have not got trust stores updates since 2021, we recommend that you only serve the GEANT TLS RSA 1 intermediate certificate as a chain certificate (or the GEANT TLS ECC 1 version if you have an ECC certificate). The full details of the chains follow below.
Your server certificate is signed by
CN=GEANT TLS RSA 1, O=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions CA, C=GR
(CA https://crt.sh/?caid=390054, certificate https://crt.sh/?id=16099180997. PEM download https://crt.sh/?d=16099180997)
which is signed by
CN=HARICA TLS RSA Root CA 2021, O=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions CA, C=GR
(CA https://crt.sh/?caid=202184)
which should be in the browser/OS/etc trust stores as a self-signed CA certificate (https://crt.sh/?id=4147041876), but is also available as an intermediate CA certificate (https://crt.sh/?id=5191324706) signed by
CN=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions RootCA 2015, O=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions Cert. Authority, L=Athens, C=GR
(CA https://crt.sh/?caid=14566)
which should be in the browser/OS/etc trust stores on older devices.
Your server certificate is signed by
CN=GEANT TLS ECC 1,O=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions CA,C=GR
(CA https://crt.sh/?caid=390050, certificate https://crt.sh/?id=16099180990, PEM download https://crt.sh/?d=16099180990)
which is signed by
CN=HARICA TLS ECC Root CA 2021, O=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions CA, C=GR
(CA https://crt.sh/?caid=202185)
which should be in the browser/OS/etc trust stores as a self-signed CA certificate (https://crt.sh/?id=4147045948), but is also available as
an intermediate CA certificate (https://crt.sh/?id=5191324707) signed by
CN=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions ECC RootCA 2015, O=Hellenic Academic and Research Institutions Cert. Authority, L=Athens, C=GR
https://crt.sh/?caid=14546
which should be in the browser/OS/etc trust stores on older devices.