Importing Email Signing Certificate – Macintosh

Introduction

Before an email signing certificate can be used by an email client, it must be installed into the operating system’s certificate manager. For Macintosh (OS X), this certificate manager is called Keychain Access.

NOTE: Before beginning the process in this documentation, a request for a signing certificate must be completed.

Installing a personal email signing certificate

1. Go to your default download location and double-click on the signing certificate. It will have a file name of the format “yourNetID_at_domain.p12” [fig. 01].
   
   
   [fig. 01 – Certificate in downloads folder]
     
2. Keychain Access will automatically launch and request the password for your certificate. This is the password displayed to you on Step 7 of the Email Signing Certificate Request document. Type the password in (it is case sensitive) and click OK [fig. 02].
   
   
   [fig. 02 – Prompt for certificate password]
      
3. The certificate will now be imported into Keychain Access in the “My Certificates” section. Keychain Access will allow you to view the issuing agency as well as the expiration date of the certificate [fig. 03].
   
   
   [fig. 03 – Certificate installed in Keychain Access]
      
4. Your personal email signing certificate can now be used by your email programs.