Install self-signed certificate as trusted CA in Android 4 and iPad

Steps to Install self-signed certificate as trusted CA in Android 4 and iPad

Goal: be able to allow iPad/Android clients to access server via https (the server has a certificate from self-signed CA)

Prepare and host root-ca’s certificate for client installation:

1. save server’s (or its root ca’s) certificate in Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER) format, say root_ca.crt (exported from server’s .p7b certificate from Windows)
2. add a link to root_ca.crt, say http://myserver/root_ca.crt (apache already has the mime-type for .crt as application/x-x509-ca-cert)

Install certificate as trusted CA in Android

1. In browser, hit http://myserver/root_ca.crt (this will download the certificate; then tap to install the certificate, following the instruction, if device has no pin/pwd, we’ll need to set bin or pwd during the installation)
2. to verify the certificate’s installation: “Settings -> Security -> Trusted credentials -> User tab”, should see the installed certificate there.

Install certificate as trusted CA in iPad

1. In browser, hit http://myserver/root_ca.crt (this will download the certificate; then tap to install the certificate, following the instruction)
2. to verify the certificate’s installation: Settings -> General -> Profiles (should see the installed certificate there)