Share via


Specify a Cryptographic Service Provider

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012

Specifying a cryptographic service provider

  • Using the Windows interface

  • Using a command line

To specify a cryptographic service provider by using the Windows interface

  1. To open the NAP client configuration console, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click Run, type NAPCLCFG.MSC, and click OK.

  2. In the console tree, open Health Registration Settings, and click Request Policy.

  3. Right-click Cryptographic Service Providers, and then click Properties.

  4. In the Cryptographic Service Providers Properties dialog box, click Specific, and then click the cryptographic service provider you want to use.

Additional considerations

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

  • If you configure request policy settings on your client computers, you must configure identical request policy settings on your HRA servers. If your HRA servers are not configured to use exactly the same asymmetric key algorithm, hash key algorithm, and cryptographic service provider as your client computers, then your HRA servers will not be able to communicate with your client computers. Your client computers could be deemed unhealthy and could have limited network connectivity.

To specify a cryptographic service provider by using a command line

  1. To open a command prompt, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and click Command Prompt.

  2. Type the following to obtain a list of the cryptographic service providers that are supported on the client computer: netsh nap client show csps

  3. Type: netsh nap client set csp name = <name> keylength = <keylength>

The following table provides a guideline for the placeholder text in the Netsh command.

Placeholder Possible Values Description

<name>

Any supported cryptographic service provider.

The name of the cryptographic service provider you want to use to encrypt communication between a client computer and an HRA server.

<keylength>

Any integer. (Optional)

Specifies the length of the asymmetric key. The default is 2048.

Additional considerations

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

  • If you configure request policy settings on your client computers, you must configure identical request policy settings on your HRA servers. If your HRA servers are not configured to use exactly the same asymmetric key algorithm, hash key algorithm, and cryptographic service provider as your client computers, then your HRA servers will not be able to communicate with your client computers. Your client computers could be deemed unhealthy and could have limited network connectivity.

Additional references

Configure NAP Client Request Policy

Configure Health Registration Settings

Command-Line Syntax Notation