--- title: Configuring PingCentral to run in FIPS-compliant mode description: Instructions on configuring PingCentral to run in FIPS-compliant mode. component: pingcentral version: 3.1.1 page_id: pingcentral:pingcentral_for_iam_administrators:pingcentral_installing_configuring/pingcentral_fips_mode canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingcentral/3.1.1/pingcentral_for_iam_administrators/pingcentral_installing_configuring/pingcentral_fips_mode.html revdate: October 16, 2025 --- # Configuring PingCentral to run in FIPS-compliant mode Running PingCentral in FIPS-compliant mode guarantees that all cryptographic algorithms and protocols meet the U.S. federal standard for security compliance. When you're connecting PingCentral to an external database, you must use a FIPS-compliant authentication method. PingCentral is currently running FIPS 140-3. Learn more about this version in [FIPS 140-3](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/fips/140-3/final). To enable this option, access the `/conf/application.properties` file and set the `pingcentral.fips.enabled` property value to `true`. | | | | - | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | If on Linux systems, the Bouncy Castle FIPS-approved secure random number generator might drain a large amount of entropy during initial seeding. If available entropy becomes too low, the PingCentral server or bundled command-line tools could stall on startup for an extended period of time. If this occurs, then you will likely need to integrate with a hardware random number generator or install an entropy-supplementing daemon like `rngd`. |