WSTEP – Michael Waterman

In the previous article, we deployed the Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service (CEP) and configured support for Kerberos, Username/Password, and Client Certificate authentication. Clients can now successfully retrieve certificate enrollment policies over HTTPS using the XCEP protocol. However, while the policy infrastructure is now in place, clients still have no way to request certificates.

In this article, I’ll complete the Microsoft Certificate Enrollment Services architecture by deploying the Certificate Enrollment Web Service (CES). I’ll prepare Active Directory, configure a dedicated Group Managed Service Account (gMSA), install IIS, deploy the CES role, configure the supported authentication methods, and validate the deployment using PowerShell. By the end of this article, you’ll have a fully operational Certificate Enrollment Web Service capable of securely processing certificate requests over HTTPS using the WSTEP protocol.

If you’ve ever worked with Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS), you’ve probably come across the Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service (CEP) and the Certificate Enrollment Web Service (CES). While Microsoft provides documentation on both services, I often notice that the focus is on how to install them rather than why they exist and how they fit into the bigger picture.

When I started diving into CEP and CES myself, I quickly discovered that understanding the architecture is far more important than simply clicking through an installation wizard. Why are there two separate web services? What problem were they designed to solve? What are XCEP and WSTEP? And when should you actually consider deploying CEP and CES instead of relying on traditional certificate enrollment?

Tag: WSTEP

Part 3: Installing the Certificate Enrollment Web Service (CES)

Part 1: Understanding Microsoft Certificate Enrollment Services (CEP & CES)

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