Generate Ssl Certificate And Rsa Key
Today we will discuss how to generate a self-signed SSL certificate on Linux. SSL is on a lot of people’s minds today. With free Let’s Encrypt certificates becoming extremely common, there’s no reason for anyone to not use SSL – not to mention the search ranking benefits, and the fact that browsers will trust your site.
Step 1: Generate a Private Key. The openssl toolkit is used to generate an RSA Private Key and CSR (Certificate Signing Request). It can also be used to generate self-signed certificates which can be used for testing purposes or internal usage. The first step is to create your RSA Private Key. How to Generate a CSR for F5 BIG IP (version 9) The following instructions will guide you through the CSR generation process on F5 BIG-IP Loadbalancer (version 9). To learn more about CSRs and the importance of your private key, reference our Overview of Certificate Signing Request article.
However, you can also create your own self-signed SSL certificate for private use on your server. One big reason to do this is encryption. While your personal certificate won’t mean anything to browsers, and visitors will still get a warning message if they visit your site directly, you can at least be sure that you’re protected against “man-in-the-middle” attacks. A self-signed certificate is a good first step when you’re just testing things out on your server, and perhaps don’t even have a domain name yet.
So here’s a step by step procedure on how to create a self-signed SSL certificate on Linux.
Step 1: Create an RSA Keypair
The first step is to use the “openssl” package on Linux/CentOS to create an RSA key pair. To do this, make sure that you have the package installed. If not, install it with:
How can I find the private key for my SSL certificate. If you just got an issued SSL certificate and are having a hard time finding the corresponding private key, this article can help you to find that one and only key for your certificate. Jul 09, 2019 If the Private Key key file is lost, you’ll need to reissue your Certificate. Can I generate a new Private Key for my Certificate if I lose the old one? You can generate a new private key and CSR, or use the automatic CSR and key generation during Certificate reissue (this option is available for all Certificates except for the Multi.
If your organization doesn't have a private key and SSL certificate, follow the steps in the next section, Generating a private key and CSR to get an SSL certificate. Generating a private key and CSR to get an SSL certificate. If your organization doesn't already have a private key and SSL certificate, follow the instructions in this section. Generate key number javascript map array. How can I find the private key for my SSL certificate. If you just got an issued SSL certificate and are having a hard time finding the corresponding private key, this article can help you to find that one and only key for your certificate. After investigating (not the openssl), the fact is my colleague created the CSR by Symantec SSL assistance. Symantec generated 2 files: wwwxxxxxxxxxxcomrsacsr.txt wwwxxxxxxxxxxcomrsaprivate.key My colleague use wwwxxxxxxxxxxcomrsacsr.txt to apply cert from Thawte. So now I need to do the following steps?
Chances are that you already have it available on your system. If so, generate the key/pair using the following command:
/rsa-public-key-generation-openssl.html. This command uses 2048 bit encryption and outputs a file called “keypair.key” as shown here:
As you can see, the key has been generated and placed in the current directory.
Step 2: Extract the Private Key into an “httpd” Folder
The “/etc/httpd” folder is where the system keeps all the important SSL related stuff. So first, let’s create a new folder to hold all the files relating to our private key:
I’ve called the folder “httpscertificate” and will refer to it for all the other command line examples.
To extract the private key from the keypair file that we just created, type in the following:
Replace the section in bold with the IP address of your own server. Or if you’re able to access your site with a domain name, you can use that as well.
This will create a “key” file in the folder that we just created. And when that’s done, we can delete the original keypair file:
Step 3: Creating a “Certificate Signing Request” or CSR File
With the key, we can create a special “csr” file that we can either sign ourselves or submit to a “Certificate Authority”. It’s in a standardized format. To create it, type the following command:
Again, replace the items in bold with the IP address or domain name that you settled on in step 2. When you run this command, the tool will ask you for a bunch of personal information:
A CA can use these details to verify that you are indeed who you say you are. Fill up as much information as you can.
Once you’ve finished entering these details, the tool will wrap up its work and place a “csr” file in the directory we created for just this purpose.
Step 4: Creating the Certificate “.crt” File
With the CSR, we can create the final certificate file as follows:
This creates a “crt” file along with all the others. Here’s a screenshot of the final files in our security folder:
Now we need to tell Apache where these files are.
Step 5: Configuring Apache to Use the Files
First, we need to install the “mod_ssl” package with the command:
Once done, this will place a “ssl.conf” file inside the /etc/httpd/conf.d/ folder. We need to modify this default file:
Now scroll down till you find the lines starting with:
Change the default paths with the paths to the certificate file and key file respectively as shown here:
Save your changes. Now just restart Apache with:
And you’re done! When Apache restarts, it will be configured to allow SSL connections.
When you connect to your IP address via HTTPS the next time, you’ll be warned that it’s not a trusted certificate:
That’s ok. We know this since we signed it ourselves! Just proceed and it’ll take you to the final site:
Here you can see that it’s using the certificate that we created. It’s not much use for anyone else visiting your site since they can’t verify your identity. But you know it’s safe, and moreover that it’s encrypted. No man in the middle attacks!
If you are one of our Managed VPS hosting clients, we can do all of this for you. Simply contact our system administrators and they will respond to your request as soon as possible.
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The following instructions will guide you through the CSR generation process on Nginx (OpenSSL). To learn more about CSRs and the importance of your private key, reference our Overview of Certificate Signing Request article. If you already generated the CSR and received your trusted SSL certificate, reference our SSL Installation Instructions and disregard the steps below.
1. Log in to your server’s terminal.
You will want to log in via Secure Shell (SSH).
2. Enter CSR and Private Key command
Generate a private key and CSR by running the following command:
Here is the plain text version to copy and paste into your terminal:
Note:Replace “server ” with the domain name you intend to secure.
3. Enter your CSR details
Enter the following CSR details when prompted:
- Common Name: The FQDN (fully-qualified domain name) you want to secure with the certificate such as www.google.com, secure.website.org, *.domain.net, etc.
- Organization: The full legal name of your organization including the corporate identifier.
- Organization Unit (OU): Your department such as ‘Information Technology’ or ‘Website Security.’
- City or Locality: The locality or city where your organization is legally incorporated. Do not abbreviate.
- State or Province: The state or province where your organization is legally incorporated. Do not abbreviate.
- Country: The official two-letter country code (i.e. US, CH) where your organization is legally incorporated.
Certificate Generator Ssl
Note: You are not required to enter a password or passphrase. This optional field is for applying additional security to your key pair.
Generate Ssl Certificate And Rsa Keys
4. Generate the order
Locate and open the newly created CSR in a text editor such as Notepad and copy all the text including:
Note 1: Your CSR should be saved in the same user directory that you SSH into unless otherwise specified by you.
Note 2: We recommend saving or backing up your newly generate “.key ” file as this will be required later during the installation process.
Return to the Generation Form on our website and paste the entire CSR into the blank text box and continue with completing the generation process.
Generate Ssl Certificate And Rsa Key Size
Upon generating your CSR, your order will enter the validation process with the issuing Certificate Authority (CA) and require the certificate requester to complete some form of validation depending on the certificate purchased. For information regarding the different levels of the validation process and how to satisfy the industry requirements, reference our validation articles.
Ssl Key File
After you complete the validation process and receive the trusted SSL Certificate from the issuing Certificate Authority (CA), proceed with the next step using our SSL Installation Instructions for Nginx using OpenSSL.