A vehicle-to-everything terminal provides a vehicle-to-everything server with a security credential that can prove an identity of the vehicle-to-everything terminal, and requests the vehicle-to-everything server to apply for a certificate for the vehicle-to-everything terminal. The security credential may be a token preconfigured in the vehicle-to-everything terminal, or may be a digital signature of the vehicle. The vehicle-to-everything server performs identity verification on the vehicle-to-everything terminal based on the security credential. After the verification succeeds, the vehicle-to-everything server selects a proper certificate server to apply for a certificate for the vehicle-to-everything terminal.