Expiration of Personal Certificates

Overview

MIT secure Web certificates do not last forever. Being the key to many services at MIT, for security reasons certificates are given a limited lifetime:

• MIT personal certificates obtained starting June, 2007, will expire on July 31, 2008. Personal certificates obtained between June, 2006 and June, 2007, will expire on July 31, 2007.
• MIT CA (Certification Authority) certificates obtained after April, 2006, are valid until August, 2026. MIT CA certificates obtained before April, 2006, expired on July 13, 2006.

You may get a new personal certificate at any time, whether or not existing ones have expired. The following steps describe how to check when your personal certificate will expire.

Note: Expired personal certificates usually do not need to be deleted from the system. Unexpired and expired certificates can coexist and, in fact, expired certificates must remain on your system in order to read email or data encrypted under them.

Check Expiration Date

In Firefox

1. On Athena, Linux, and Macintosh: open Preferences.
   On Windows: open Tools > Options
   
   
2. In the Preferences/Options window, click Advanced, then click on View Certificates.
   
   
3. In the Certificate Manager window, you should see your personal certificates listed (if not, click Your Certificates).
   Result: The expiration date is given in the column headed Expires On.
   
   
4. Close the Certificate Manager window, then click OK in the Preferences/Options window.

In Internet Explorer

1. Go to Tools > Internet Options.
   
   
2. Click the Content tab, then click the Certificates button (middle of the window).
   
   
3. In the Certificates window, click on the Personal tab.
   Result: Your personal certificates should be listed. The expiration date is given in the column headed Expiration Date.
   
   
4. Close the Certificates window, then click OK in the Internet Options window.

In Safari

Safari stores your MIT CA (Certificate Authority) and personal certificate in a file known as a Keychain.

1. Under your Mac OS X account, go to Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access. If necessary, click Show Keychains in the lower left-hand corner of the Keychain Access window.
   
   
2. In the list of Keychains, click login.
   
   
3. Scroll to find the certificates with your name. Selecting a certificate displays information about it at the top of the window, including the expiration date.
   

Get a New Personal Certificate

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Getting Help

• Athena users: Athena Consulting
• Linux, Macintosh, or Windows users: Computing Help Desk

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