MQ Authentication issue: SSLCAUTH is required but SSLCIPH is blank

Question

I am trying to test the authentication exits in a MQ server. All the channels has the SSLCAUTH attribute set to REQUIRED. As I know, this means each client must have SSL certificate in order to put message in channel and if they don't have valid SSL certificate, the connection will be refused. However, when I checked the SSLCIPH attribute for these channels, they are all blank. IBM documentation says: "The SSLCIPH attribute can contain a blank value, meaning that you are not using SSL or TLS. If one end of the channel has a blank SSLCIPH attribute, the other end of the channel must also have a blank SSLCIPH attribute."

So, I am totally confused here. Are the channels using SSL certificate for authentication or not. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The SSLCAUTH attribute is only applicable if the SSLCIPH attribute is not blank. In other words the SSLCIPH attribute is the big switch for SSL/TLS being used. Only then will the SSLCAUTH attribute even be looked at.