Automated OCSP monitoring

OCSP Monitor is an automatic audit management system that warns administrator about any OCSP service failures or irregularities.

Continuous Monitoring

OCSP Monitor runs continuously and can allow various Test Scenarios to be run to monitor performance and validation policy. Ascertia recommends:

• Checking availability and response times by running a simple check on a valid certificate once every few minutes
• Checking that a fresh CRL is being used by the OCSP responder – using a CRL freshness policy test run as required, e.g. every hour
• Running a comprehensive policy check twice a day to ensure that the defined validation policy is being enforced, e.g. correct trusted, not trusted results issued, valid OCSP signatures, checking nonce and unauthorised request handling
• Running checks on disaster recovery systems to ensure they are operational

Client based testing

CSP Monitor actually tests the status of an OCSP server by making real OCSP calls. This is the only real way to measure server performance rather than by deducing the status of the service from generated events.

Email and/or SMS

OCSP Monitor can send summary reports using emails, warning alerts can also be sent by email and/or SMS message gateways. screenshot 1 | screenshot 2

Easy Configuration

OCSP Monitor has an intuitive wizard to help set-up test scenarios and the required test cases within these. Each test scenario can be set to run between specific start and stop times. Reports can be customised per test scenario as shown below: screenshot 1 | screenshot 2 | screenshot 3 | screenshot 4 | screenshot 5 | screenshot 6

Detailed Monitoring Checks and Alerts

OCSP Monitor has been designed by security experts to provide high quality management information, for example:

• Each test scenario can have several test cases to perform multiple positive and negative checks screenshot
• Each test scenario can have its own trust anchors defined for accurate trust checking screenshot
• When a test scenario fails a customisable failure report is sent to a defined list of operations staff - each scenario can have different staff identified
• Customisable reports can be sent using SMS or email or both as required - both internal and external staff can be notified - useful when using managed services
• When a scenario completes a summary report can be sent to selected service management staff showing the minimum, average and maximum response delay statistics observed as well as a summary of the successful and failed tests observed during the period screenshot
• At the end of day a summary report for all scenarios can be sent to service management staff detailing the main statistics for all scenarios screenshot

Enterprise Architecture

OCSP Monitor has been designed to provide high quality management information, for example: Each test scenario can have multiple test cases with multiple checks When a test scenario fails a customisable failure report is sent to a configurable list of operations staff. Different scenarios can have different operations staff identified.
When a scenario completes a summary report can be sent to service management staff showing the minimum, average and maximum response delay statistics observed as well as a summary of the failures observed during the period. At the end of day a summary report for can be sent to service management staff detailing the results for all the configured scenarios.

Maximise your OCSP server uptime

OCSP Monitor provides near real-time feedback on OCSP responder issues as they arise. When OCSP services are used it is often assumed that they are functioning correctly and will continue to do so. OCSP Monitor enables multiple test scenarios to run each with a defined set of positive and negative tests to check for correct behaviour and to report on server performance. screenshot 1 | screenshot 2

Clear Reporting

OCSP Service Level Agreements can now be accurately checked and reported on. The identification and reporting of OCSP service issues identification has always been rather hit and miss until now. OCSP Monitor provides for easy change of test policies so that a selected level of detailed testing can be carried as required to suit the business demands. History data is maintained and detailed English language analysis of OCSP request and response data is available as a standard feature. screenshot 1 | screenshot 2