System, apparatus, application and method for bridging certificate deployment

A certificate deployment system for a public key infrastructure (PKI), the certificate deployment system comprising:

• a certificate registration apparatus that communicates through a network with a certificate authority based on a specific certificate deployment protocol;
• a target deployment device that is not configured to conform to the specific certificate deployment protocol;
• a certificate deployment bridging apparatus operating as a bridge between the certificate registration apparatus that conforms to the specific certificate deployment protocol and the target deployment device that does not conform to the specific certificate deployment protocol, wherein
• said certificate bridging deployment apparatus communicates with the target deployment device to obtain specific items of information identifying the target deployment device, generate a certificate signing request corresponding to the target deployment device, generate a key pair including a private key and a public key, generate a self-signed certificate based on the items of information identifying the target deployment device and including the public key of the key pair, in conformance with the specific certificate deployment protocol, and employ a certificate received from the certificate authority to encrypt the self-signed certificate and transmit the encrypted self-signed certificate to the certificate registration apparatus.

A certificate deployment bridging application including one or more programs of instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by a processor of a terminal apparatus to perform a method comprising:

• communicating in conformance with a specific certificate deployment protocol with a certificate registration apparatus through a network;
• communicating with a target deployment device that is not configured to conform to the specific certificate deployment protocol;
• obtaining specific items of information in a certificate signing request identifying the target deployment device;
• causing a key pair including a private key and a public key to be generated for the target deployment device;
• generating a self-signed certificate based on the items of information identifying the target deployment device and including the public key of the key pair, in conformance with the specific certificate deployment protocol;
• employing a certificate from a certificate authority to encrypt the self-signed certificate and transmitting the encrypted self-signed certificate to the certificate registration apparatus;
• obtaining a new certificate encrypted by the public key of the key pair, applying the private key of the key pair to extract the new certificate, and uploading the new certificate to the target deployment device.