---
title: "Enable or disable client certificate authentication for XP service roles"
slug: "enable-or-disable-client-certificate-authentication-for-xp-service-roles"
abstract: "Introduction to enabling or disabling client certificate authentication for roles accessing Sitecore XP Services roles."
---
# Enable or disable client certificate authentication for XP service roles

| **Applies to** | All [XP service roles](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/91/platform-administration-and-architecture/roles-overview.html) |
| --- | --- |
| **Sitecore Installation Framework** | Client certificate authentication enabled by default. |
| **Azure Toolkit** | Client certificate authentication enabled by default. |

By default, any role that accesses an [XP service role](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/91/platform-administration-and-architecture/roles-overview.html "Roles overview") must use a client certificate for authentication. Refer to the Installation Guide for your version of Sitecore for information about setting up client certificate authentication.

## Disable client certificate authentication in a development environment

To disable client certificate authentication in a development environment:

- Remove the `validateCertificateThumbprint` setting from the `<xp-service-role>\App_Config\AppSettings.config` file. Repeat for all XP service.

If you want to disable HTTPS in addition to disabling client certificate authentication, refer to the following documentation:

- [Enforce HTTPS for Experience Platform service roles](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/91/platform-administration-and-architecture/enforce-https-for-experience-platform-service-roles.html "Enforce HTTPS for Experience Platform service roles")
- [Enforce HTTPS for xConnect Search](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/91/platform-administration-and-architecture/enforce-https-for-xconnect-search.html "Enforce HTTPS for xConnect Search")

> [!note]
> We do not recommend disabling HTTPS or client certificate authentication in a production environment.