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Two-way (mutual) SSL authentication

 

Adobe Acrobat Sign Guide

What's New

  1. Pre-Release Notes
  2. Release Notes
  3. Important Notifications

Get Started

  1. Quick start guide for administrators
  2. Quick start guide for users
  3. For Developers
  4. Video tutorial library
  5. FAQ

Administer

  1. Admin Console Overview
  2. User Management
    1. Adding users
      1. Add a User
      2. Add Users in Bulk
      3. Add Users from your Directory
      4. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
    2. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    3. Check for users with provisioning errors
    4. Change Name/Email Address
    5. Edit a user's group membership
    6. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    7. Promote a user to an admin role
    8. User Identity Types and SSO
    9. Switch User Identity
    10. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    11. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    12. Product Profiles
    13. Login Experience 
  3. Account/Group Settings
    1. Settings Overview
    2. Global Settings
      1. Account tier and ID
      2. New Recipient Experience
      3. Self Signing Workflows
      4. Send in Bulk
      5. Web Forms
      6. Custom Send Workflows
      7. Power Automate Workflows
      8. Library Documents
      9. Collect form data with agreements
      10. Limited Document Visibility
      11. Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement 
      12. Include a link in the email
      13. Include an image in the email
      14. Files attached to email will be named as
      15. Attach audit reports to documents
      16. Merge multiple documents into one
      17. Download individual documents
      18. Upload a signed document
      19. Delegation for users in my account
      20. Allow external recipients to delegate
      21. Authority to sign
      22. Authority to send
      23. Power to add Electronic Seals
      24. Set a default time zone
      25. Set a default date format
      26. Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
        1. Upgrade to use UMG
      27. Group Administrator Permissions
      28. Replace recipient
      29. Audit Report
        1. Overview
        2. Allow unauthenticated access on the transaction verification page
        3. Include reminders
        4. Include view events
        5. Include agreement page/attachment count
      30. Transaction Footer
      31. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      32. Accessible PDFs
      33. New authoring experience
      34. Healthcare customer
    3. Account Setup
      1. Add logo
      2. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      3. Add company name
      4. Post agreement URL redirect
    4. Signature Preferences
      1. Well formatted signatures
      2. Allow recipients to sign by
      3. Signers can change their name
      4. Allow recipients to use their saved signature
      5. Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
      6. Navigate recipients through form fields
      7. Restart agreement workflow
      8. Decline to sign
      9. Allow Stamps workflows
      10. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      11. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      12. Show messages when e-signing
      13. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      14. Request IP address from signers
      15. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      5. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. New report experience
      2. Classic report settings
    9. Security Settings
      1. Single Sign-on settings
      2. Remember-me settings
      3. Login password policy
      4. Login password strength
      5. Web session duration
      6. PDF encryption type
      7. API
      8. User and group info access
      9. Allowed IP Ranges
      10. Account Sharing
      11. Account sharing permissions
      12. Agreement sharing controls
      13. Signer identity verification
      14. Agreement signing password
      15. Document password strength
      16. Block signers by Geolocation
      17. Phone Authentication
      18. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
      19. Allow page extraction
      20. Document link expiration
      21. Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
      22. Timestamp
    10. Send settings
      1. Show Send page after login
      2. Require recipient name when sending
      3. Lock name values for known users
      4. Allowed recipient roles
      5. Allow e-Witnesses
      6. Recipient groups
      7. CCs
      8. Recipient Agreement Access
      9. Required fields
      10. Attaching documents
      11. Field flattening
      12. Modify Agreements
      13. Agreement name
      14. Languages
      15. Private messages
      16. Allowed signature types
      17. Reminders
      18. Signed document password protection
      19. Send Agreement Notification through
      20. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. One-Time Password via Email
        4. Acrobat Sign authentication
        5. Phone authentication
        6. Cloud-based digital signature
        7. Knowledge-based authentication
        8. Government ID
        9. Signer Identity reports
      21. Content Protection
      22. Enable Notarize transactions
      23. Document Expiration
      24. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      25. Signing order
      26. Liquid mode
      27. Custom workflow controls
      28. Upload options for the e-sign page
      29. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
    11. Message Templates
    12. Bio-Pharma Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Enforce identity authentication
      3. Signing reasons
    13. Workflow Integration
    14. Notarization Settings
    15. Payments Integration
    16. Signer Messaging
    17. SAML Settings
      1. SAML Configuration
      2. Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
      3. Install Okta
      4. Install OneLogin
      5. Install Oracle Identity Federation
    18. Data Governance
    19. Time Stamp Settings
    20. External Archive
    21. Account Languages
    22. Email Settings
      1. Email header/footer images
      2. Permit individual user email footers
      3. Customize the Signature Requested email
      4. Customize the To and CC fields
      5. Enable Linkless Notifications
      6. Customize email templates
    23. Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
    24. Configure Options for Recipients
  4. Guidance for regulatory requirements
    1. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Compliance
      2. Create accessible forms with Acrobat desktop
      3. Create accessible AcroForms
    2. HIPAA
    3. GDPR
      1. GDPR Overview
      2. Redact a user
      3. Redact a user's agreements    
    4. 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
      1. 21 CRF part 11 validation pack
      2. 21 CFR and EudraLex Annex 11 handbook
      3. Analysis of shared responsibilities
    5. Healthcare customers
    6. IVES support
    7. "Vaulting" agreements
    8. EU/UK considerations
      1. EU/UK Cross-border transactions and eIDAS
      2. HMLR requirements for deeds signed electronically
      3. The impact of Brexit on e-signature laws in the UK
  5. Download Agreements in Bulk
  6. Claim your domain 
  7. Report Abuse links

Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements

  1. Recipient Options
    1. Cancel an email reminder
    2. Options on the e-signing page
      1. Overview of the e-sign page
      2. Open to read the agreement without fields
      3. Decline to sign an agreement
      4. Delegate signing authority
      5. Restart the agreement
      6. Download a PDF of the agreement
      7. View the agreement history
      8. View the agreement messages
      9. Convert from an electronic to a written signature
      10. Convert from a written to an electronic signature 
      11. Navigate the form fields
      12. Clear the data from the form fields
      13. E-sign page magnification and navigation
      14. Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
      15. Review the Legal Notices
      16. Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
  2. Send Agreements  
    1. Send page overview
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Recipient signing order
    6. Send in Bulk
      1. Overview of the Send in Bulk feature
      2. Send in Bulk - Configure a parent template
      3. Send in Bulk - Configure the CSV file
      4. Cancel a Send in Bulk transaction
      5. Add reminders to Send in Bulk
      6. Reporting for Send in Bulk
  3. Authoring fields into documents
    1. In-app authoring environment
      1. Automatic field detection
      2. Drag and drop fields using the authoring environment
      3. Assign form fields to recipients
      4. The Prefill role
      5. Apply fields with a reusable field template
      6. Transfer fields to a new library template
      7. Updated authoring environment when sending agreements
    2. Create forms with text tags
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. In-line Images
        3. Stamp Images
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Delegate agreements
    3. Replace Recipients
    4. Limit Document Visibility 
    5. Cancel an Agreement 
    6. Create new reminders
    7. Review reminders
    8. Cancel a reminder
    9. Access Power Automate flows
    10. More Actions...
      1. How search works
      2. View an agreement
      3. Create a template from an agreement
      4. Hide/Unhide agreements from view
      5. Upload a signed agreement
      6. Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
      7. Edit a recipient's authentication method
      8. Add or modify an expiration date
      9. Add a Note to the agreement
      10. Share an individual agreement
      11. Unshare an agreement
      12. Download an individual agreement
      13. Download the individual files of an agreement
      14. Download the Audit Report of an agreement
      15. Download the field content of an agreement
  6. Audit Report
  7. Reporting and Data exports
    1. Overview
    2. Grant users access to reporting
    3. Report charts
      1. Create a new report
      2. Agreement Reports
      3. Transaction Reports
      4. Settings Activity Report
      5. Edit a report
    4. Data Exports 
      1. Create a new data export
      2. Web form data export
      3. Edit a data export
      4. Refresh the data export content
      5. Download the data export
    5. Rename a report/export
    6. Duplicate a report/export
    7. Schedule a report/export
    8. Delete a report/export
    9. Check Transaction Usage

Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows

  1. Webforms 
    1. Create a web form
    2. Edit a web form
    3. Disable/Enable a web form
    4. Hide/Unhide a web form
    5. Find the URL or script code 
    6. Prefill web form fields with URL parameters
    7. Save a web form to complete later
    8. Resize a web form
  2. Reusable Templates (Library templates) 
    1. US Government forms in the Acrobat Sign library
    2. Create a library template
    3. Change a library template's name
    4. Change a library template's type
    5. Change a library template's permission level
    6. Copy, edit, and save a shared template
    7. Download the aggregate field data for a library template
  3. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  4. Power Automate Workflows 
    1. Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
    2. Enable the Power Automate integration
    3. In-Context Actions on the Manage page
    4. Track Power Automate usage
    5. Create a new flow (Examples)
    6. Triggers used for flows
    7. Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
    8. Manage flows
    9. Edit flows
    10. Share flows
    11. Disable or Enable flows
    12. Delete flows
    13. Useful Templates
      1. Administrator only
        1. Save all completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save all completed documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save all completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save all completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save all completed documents to Box
      2. Agreement archival
        1. Save your completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save your completed documents to One Drive for Business
        3. Save your completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save your completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save your completed documents to Box
      3. Webform agreement archival
        1. Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
        2. Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save completed   documents to Google Drive
        4. Save completed web form documents to Box
      4. Agreement data extraction
        1. Extract form field data from your signed document and update Excel sheet
      5. Agreement notifications
        1. Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
        2. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
        3. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
        4. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
      6. Agreement generation
        1. Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
        2. Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
        3. Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
  5. Custom Send workflows
    1. Custom Send Workflow Overview
    2. Creating a new Send Workflow
    3. Edit a Send Workflow
    4. Activate or Deactivate a Send Workflow
    5. Send an agreement with a Send Workflow
  6. Share users and agreements
    1. Share a user
    2. Share agreements

Integrate with other products

  1.  Acrobat Sign integrations overview 
  2. Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
  3. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
    1. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft 365
    2. Acrobat Sign for Outlook
    3. Acrobat Sign for Word/PowerPoint
    4. Acrobat Sign for Teams
    5. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate
    6. Acrobat Sign Connector for Microsoft Search
    7. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics 
    8. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft SharePoint 
  4. Other Integrations
    1. Acrobat Sign for ServiceNow
    2. Acrobat Sign for HR ServiceNow
    3. Acrobat Sign for SAP SuccessFactors
    4. Acrobat Sign for Workday
    5. Acrobat Sign for NetSuite
    6. Acrobat Sign for VeevaVault
    7. Acrobat Sign for Coupa BSM Suite
  5. Partner managed integrations
  6. How to obtain an integration key

Acrobat Sign Developer

  1. REST APIs 
    1. Methods documentation
    2. SDK/Developer Guide
    3. API FAQ    
  2. Webhooks 
    1. Webhook overview
    2. Configure a new webhook
    3. View or edit a webhook
    4. Deactivate or reactivate a webhook
    5. Delete a webhook
    6. Two-way SSL certificates
    7. Webhooks in the API

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

Two-way SSL authentication

Two-way SSL, often called Client-Side SSL or mutual TLS, is a mode of SSL wherein both the server and the client (web browser) present certificates to identify themselves.

Account admins can configure a client-side certificate on the Security Settings page.

Acrobat Sign verifies the SSL certificates when delivering payloads to the webhook URL. Webhooks that fail the SSL certificate verification will not deliver the JSON payload successfully. 

Use Two-way SSL to authenticate the client (Acrobat Sign) and listening service to ensure that only Acrobat  Sign can reach your webhook URL. 

If the webhook was created by a Partner Application, the webhook will use a client certificate (if available) from the Partner Application's Account to identify itself when sending webhook notifications.

Navigate to the UI controls to upload a client certificate

Below are the most common questions for both the web server verification process and the client certification verification.

Web server verification

During the registration of a webhook, Acrobat Sign verifies the webhook server URL.

Customers won't be able to register the webhook if the connection to the webhook callback URL cannot be completed from Acrobat Sign.

No.

The webhook callback URL can only be HTTPS on port 443 or 8443.

Acrobat Sign blocks outbound HTTPS traffic to all other ports.

A good way to verify the server certificate is to use the DigiCert® SSL Installation Diagnostics Tool.

Only enter the hostname e.g.: www.digicert.com

Common issues include:

  • Problem: Using an untrusted CA or self-signed certificate

Fix: Use a public CA issued SSL certificate for the webhook callback server.

Untrusted CA

  • Problem: The server is not sending the intermediate certificate

Fix: Install the intermediate certificates on the webhook callback server.

See https://www.digicert.com/kb/ssl-certificate-installation.htm for detailed information.

Missing intermediate certificates

 

Client certificate verification

In order to set up a two-way SSL for a webhook, we require the administrator to upload a .p12 (or .pfx) file that contains the private key. The file is stored securely within the customer account, and the administrator has full control to remove it at any time.

In a two-way webhook setup, Acrobat Sign is the caller/client and needs the private key to prove that the call is made by Acrobat Sign on behalf of the customer account.

  1. Verify that two-way SSL is enabled

    Two-way SSL must be enabled on the webhook callback server.

    Using any web browser, connect to the webhook callback URL. You should get:

    400 Bad Request
    No required SSL certificate sent

    This means the server is expecting the client to send client certificates (i.e.: Two-way SSL is enabled for the server).

    If you don't see the above message, then two-way SSL is not enabled.

    Note:

    You can use Postman, and do a POST request to the webhook callback URL. You should get a similar result.

  2. Verify client certificate locally

    The client credential can either be a self-signed certificate or CA issued certificate. However, it must minimally conform to the following X.509 v3 extensions:

    X.509 v3 extension

    Value

    ExtendedKeyUsage

    clientAuth (OID: 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.2)

    KeyUsage

    digitalSignature

    The client certificate must be a PKCS12 file with extension .p12 or .pfx, and it must include both the client certificate (so the server can verify the identity of the client) and the client's private key (so the client can digitally sign messages for the server to verify during the SSL handshake). 

    Use the openssl command to verify the p12 (pfx) file:

    openssl pkcs12 -info -in outfile.p12

    The passphrase for the private key should be requested. The output should contain both certificates as well as an Encrypted Private Key like:

    Bag Attributes
        localKeyID: 9D BD 22 80 E7 B2 B7 58 9E AE C8 42 71 F0 39 E1 E7 2B 57 DB
    subject=/C=US/ST=California/L=San Jose/O=Adobe Inc./CN=sp.adobesignpreview.com
    issuer=/C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/CN=DigiCert TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    MIIGwDCCBaigAwIBAgIQAhJSKDdyQZjlbYO5MJAYOTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADBP
    MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEVMBMGA1UEChMMRGlnaUNlcnQgSW5jMSkwJwYDVQQDEyBE
    ...
    JAKQLQ==
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    Bag Attributes: <No Attributes>
    subject=/C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/CN=DigiCert TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1
    issuer=/C=US/O=DigiCert Inc/OU=www.digicert.com/CN=DigiCert Global Root CA
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    MIIEvjCCA6agAwIBAgIQBtjZBNVYQ0b2ii+nVCJ+xDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADBh
    MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEVMBMGA1UEChMMRGlnaUNlcnQgSW5jMRkwFwYDVQQLExB3
    ...
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    Bag Attributes
        localKeyID: 9D BD 22 80 E7 B2 B7 58 9E AE C8 42 71 F0 39 E1 E7 2B 57 DB
    Key Attributes: <No Attributes>
    -----BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----
    MIIFDjBABgkqhkiG9w0BBQ0wMzAbBgkqhkiG9w0BBQwwDgQI7eNh2qlsLPkCAggA
    ...
    FHE=
    -----END ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY-----

    Certificates should minimally include the end-entity certificate and the intermediate certificates. Ideally, it will also include the root CA certificate.  

    Alert:

    Make sure the .p12 or .pfx file is passphrase protected.

  3. Create a self-signed client certificate (optional)

    Client certificates can either be CA issued or self-signed, depending on your need.

    To generate a self-signed client certificate, use the following openssl command:

    openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -keyform PEM -keyout ca.key -x509 -days 3650 -outform PEM -out ca.cer

    Caution:

    Keep the resulting files secret as they are your self-signed CA certificates.

    Next, generate the client .p12 file:

    1. Generate a private key for the SSL client:

      openssl genrsa -out client.key 2048

    2. Use the client’s private key to generate a cert request:

      openssl req -new -key client.key -out client.req

    3. Issue the client certificate using the cert request and the CA cert/key:

      openssl x509 -req -in client.req -CA ca.cer -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 101 -extensions client -days 365 -outform PEM -out client.cer

    4. Convert the client certificate and private key to pkcs#12 format for use by browsers:

      openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey client.key -in client.cer -out client.p12

    5. Remove the client private key, client certificate, and client request files as the pkcs12 has everything you need.

      rm client.key client.cer client.req

  4. Verify the client certificate against the remote server

    • Use Postman to load the client PFX file in Settings > Certificates.
    • Select Add Certificate to add the client certificate.
    Postman settings

    • Configure the HTTP header for x-adobesign-clientid:
    Configure the header

    Once configured, send a POST request to the webhook callback URL.

    You should get a 200 response.

  5. Why does Acrobat Sign reject my PFX file even after I have verified it with Postman?

    If you have followed the above process for pfx file verification, and Acrobat Sign still rejects the pfx file,  it's likely the file was generated by a Microsoft tool that can produce a non-standard PKCS12 file.

    In that case, use the below openssl commands to extract the certificates and private key from the pfx file, and then generate a properly formatted PKCS12 file:

    // Extract certificates and private key from pfx file
    openssl pkcs12 -info -in microsoftclientssl.pfx -passin pass:"" -out clientcert.crt -nokeys
    openssl pkcs12 -info -in microsoftclientssl.pfx -passin pass:"" -out clientcert.key -nodes -nocerts
    
    // Create new PKCS12 file
    openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey clientcert.key -in clientcert.crt -out clientcert.pfx

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