Securing your data

A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate or root certificate is a data file provided by a certificate authority (CA) that digitally identifies the sender, receiver, or both parties of a secure transaction. SSL certificates are installed on machines running FileMaker applications to provide secure connections between FileMaker Server and FileMaker clients. By default, FileMaker Server provides a standard SSL certificate signed by FileMaker, Inc. that provides a secure connection without verifying the server name.

• To enable SSL connections between the Database Server and FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Go clients, and between the Database Server and the Web Publishing Engine, click the Database Server > Security tab and select Require secure connections. See Database Server security settings.

• Decide whether to use the setting Enable progressive downloading on the Database Server > Security tab. This option allows progressive downloading of data so that FileMaker clients can use interactive content as it is downloaded. However, the data is downloaded over an unencrypted HTTP connection, not an HTTPS connection, even when the Require secure connections setting is enabled.

• To verify your server name to clients and prevent web browsers from displaying certificate warnings, request a signed SSL certificate that matches your specific server name. You request a certificate from a trusted CA supported by FileMaker, Inc. Use the fmsadmin CERTIFICATE command to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR), which you send to a CA, and a private key that you keep secret. See CERTIFICATE command for more information.

• You can enable and disable specific extended privileges, such as PHP, XML, and FileMaker WebDirect for the Web Publishing Engine. For example, if you know that all files on one server will be shared with Custom Web Publishing with PHP, you can disable all other types of web publishing. Even if a file includes extended privileges that allow access to XML data, access to XML data is not available while the file is hosted with that FileMaker Server deployment. To enable or disable any web publishing technology for all files on FileMaker Server, click Web Publishing, then click the PHP, XML, or FileMaker WebDirect tab. On each of these tabs, you can enable or disable web publishing for all hosted databases even if they have the corresponding extended privilege enabled. See Configuring web publishing settings.

• You can enable FileMaker Server to authenticate users via an external authentication server such as Apple Open Directory or Windows Active Directory. For more information, see External authentication for database access.

• If your organization uses an LDAP directory service, you can enable Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) in the Database Server > Directory Service tab to encrypt the user names and passwords that FileMaker Server and FileMaker Pro clients use to log in to the LDAP server. See FileMaker clients settings and About user details.

• In FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can use the Database Encryption feature to encrypt the contents of a database file. FileMaker Server supports hosting encrypted databases. With FileMaker Server, the server administrator or group administrator enters the encryption password when the file is opened for hosting. See Opening hosted files.