Why does macOS require you to install a certificate signed by securelogin.arubanetworks.com when connecting to wifi?

Question

WiFi

Good afternoon. I'm trying to connect from a macos laptop to a wifi (built on aruba iap) network with wpa2-enterprise (it uses freeradius+ldap Mschap authentication). Why do I have to save the certificate on my poppy signed by securelogin.arubanetworks.com when entering the login password? why is it needed on my device at all? the network does not use captive-portal, the point does not act as proxy servers, only 802.1x authentication is used, the point is the authenticator.

Answer 1

This is the radius server certificate and is required to securely transfer your credentials to the radius. Mac requires not to add, but to approve the certificate as trusted, because the certificate itself is self-signed. Accordingly, if you do not want to approve a certificate, then you need to read the topic about certificates.