To generate a server certificate for secure RDP connections, what is the FIRST step the analyst should perform?

The first step in generating a server certificate for secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections is to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). A CSR is a block of encoded text that contains information about the organization and the public key that will be included in the certificate. It serves as a request to a Certificate Authority (CA) to issue a certificate.

When a CSR is generated, the analyst typically includes information such as the organization’s name, domain name, locality, and country code. The CSR is then sent to a CA, which validates the information and issues the SSL/TLS certificate that will secure the RDP connection.

Creating an Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responder, a Certificate Revocation List (CRL), or generating a .pfx file are subsequent steps that involve certificate management, but they do not represent the initial requirement for obtaining a new certificate. The process starts with generating the CSR, which is essential for establishing the trustworthiness of the server certificate.