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August 24, 2026

Add an Intermediate Certificate to Intermediate Certification Authorities

If you use an intermediate certification authority (CA) to issue smart card login or domain controller certificates, you must add the intermediate certificate to the Intermediate Certification Authorities group policy in Microsoft Active Directory.

Procedure

  1. On the Active Directory server, navigate to the Group Policy Management plug-in and complete the following steps:

    1. Select Start > Administrative Tools > Group Policy Management.

    2. Expand your domain, right-click Default Domain Policy, and click Edit.

  2. Expand the Computer Configuration section and open the policy for Windows Settings\Security Settings\Public Key.

  3. Right-click Intermediate Certification Authorities and select Import.

  4. Follow the prompts in the wizard to import the intermediate certificate (for example, intermediateCA.cer) and click OK.

  5. Close the Group Policy window.

Results

All of the systems in the domain now have a copy of the intermediate certificate in their intermediate certification authority store.

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