This is a guide to creating self-signed certificates using on . It provides easy “cut and paste” code that you will need to generate your first key pair. After creating your first set of keys, you should have the confidence to create certificates for a variety of situations. keys are used everywhere these days and knowing how to generate them is an essential skill to posess for system admins, and an easy procedure for the hobbiest to pick up. SSL OpenSSL Linux RSA RSA certificates are used by many protocols and services, ranging from to . No matter what the application, being comfortable generating your own self-signed certificates easily, will dramatically change the way you approach your system. SSL HTTPS VPN SSL Below are the quick commands needed to get your certificate and key. If you are trying to create a certificate for Web ( ) you can take advantage of the free certificates that provides,. , its best to use Cloudflare or purchase a . SSL https signed Cloudflare Self-signing a certificate for web use, paticularly e-commerce, is a bad idea reputable signed certificate A signifies a trusted authority issuued it. This provides SEO benefits in addition to security. Visitors to your site will get warnings if you try to us a self-signed certificate. signed certificate . It is more than a disadvantage to try and use a self-signed certificate for a website Many trusted services insure their certificates against breaches. , a domain registrar and webhost, provideds up to $100,000. DNSRHINO insurance on SSL certificates If you need an SSL certificate for anything other than https – read on. All the commands below were run on 18.04 using and . If you don’t have , or want to take advantage of free cloud time, to signup witht and launch an 18.04 instance in a few clicks. If you are on a system use instead of . If you use a different distro, package manager, or you want to install from source: clone the files using , and view the file in the main directory called . Clone using the below commands: Ubuntu apt-get OpenSSL Linux click here Vultr Ubuntu RedHat/CentOS yum apt-get Linux OpenSSL git INSTALL OpenSSL How To Generate A SSL Certificate: <code style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; border: none; font-size: 0.9 em; line-height: inherit; margin: 0 px; padding: 0 px; text-align: inherit; font-family: monospace; background: transparent; border-radius: 0.2 rem; direction: ltr;">sudo su - apt-get updade apt-get install openssl</code> You should see an output similar to the output below. Many systems have installed already, so don’t be surprised if you have nothing to install. Use instead of if your system requires it. OpenSSL yum apt-get <code style= >Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Suggested packages: ca-certificates The following NEW packages will be installed: openssl upgraded, newly installed, to remove upgraded. Need to B/ kB of archives. After operation, , kB of additional disk space will be used. Selecting previously unselected package openssl. (Reading database ... files directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../openssl_1 ubuntu2 ~ _amd64.deb ... Unpacking openssl ( ubuntu2 ~ ) ... Setting up openssl ( ubuntu2 ~ ) ... Processing triggers man-db ( ubuntu0 ) ... </code> "box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; border: none; font-size: 0.9em; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; font-family: monospace; background: transparent; border-radius: 0.2rem; direction: ltr;" 0 1 0 and 0 not get 0 613 this 1 251 77326 and .1 .1 -1 .1 18.04 .5 1.1 .1 -1 .1 18.04 .5 1.1 .1 -1 .1 18.04 .5 for 2.8 .3 -2 .1 The command below creates a certificate called , and a private key called . The certificates generate with the options below, are created without a passphrase, and are valid for 365 days. The values can be edited to match your specifications. ryanserver1.crt ryanserver1.key SSL Change the names of the .crt and .key outputs from to in the code below and run the commmand. ryanserver1 yourfilename <code style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; border: none; font-size: 0.9 em; line-height: inherit; margin: 0 px; padding: 0 px; text-align: inherit; font-family: monospace; background: transparent; border-radius: 0.2 rem; direction: ltr;">openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -x509 -sha256 -days 365 -nodes -out ryanserver1.crt -keyout ryanserver1.key</code> You will be asked a number of questions relating to the owner of the certificate. For most non-production applications, you can simply hit enter a few times to accept the default values. The executed command should look like this: < style= >Generating a RSA private key .................................++++ ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................++++ writing new private key to ----- You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter , the field will be left blank. ----- Country Name ( letter ) [AU]:CA State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:ON Locality Name (eg, city) []:Toronto Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:ryangeddes.com Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Tech Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:ryangeddes.com Email Address []:ryan@ryangeddes.com</ > code "box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; border: none; font-size: 0.9em; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; font-family: monospace; background: transparent; border-radius: 0.2rem; direction: ltr;" 'ryanserver1.key' '.' 2 code code The certificate and key should now be in your current directory. Use to see a list of files, use to determine the full path to the files. To show the contents of the certificate and key use . Your application will require the full path to the certificates, you can move them with or you can link to their current position editing your applications config file. ls pwd cat SSL mv <code style= > la-usa-webserver:~# ls ryanserver1.crt ryanserver1.key usa-webserver:~# pwd /root la-usa-webserver:~# cat /root/ryanserver1.crt -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIGBTCCA+ gAwIBAgIUEL4WY5mKGO5P0b0HQmiI/UjZdZ0wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEL BQAwgZExCzAJBgNVBAYTAkNBMQswCQYDVQQIDAJPTjEQMA4GA1UEBwwHVG9yb250 bzEXMBUGA1UECgwOcnlhbmdlZGRlcy5jb20xDTALBgNVBAsMBFRlY2gxFzAVBgNV BAMMDnJ5YW5nZWRkZXMuY29tMSIwIAYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFhNyeWFuQHJ5YW5nZWRk ZXMuY29tMB4XDTIwMDQxNzIwMDUwN1oXDTIxMDQxNzIwMDUwN1owgZExCzAJBgNV BAYTAkNBMQswCQYDVQQIDAJPTjEQMA4GA1UEBwwHVG9yb250bzEXMBUGA1UECgwO cnlhbmdlZGRlcy5jb20xDTALBgNVBAsMBFRlY2gxFzAVBgNVBAMMDnJ5YW5nZWRk ZXMuY29tMSIwIAYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFhNyeWFuQHJ5YW5nZWRkZXMuY29tMIICIjAN BgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAg8AMIICCgKCAgEAobfsWzwPJkouhX3uuB+OVkhVfvVi RfuiRzrFcd1Ttlb9d6IETRbGSYDVr47pBS9lw5HeVCvx8UVGH7R7+GFajiNrCf HuF5tHW6ZV6OiOWMPmzvqmHdrs01CUcqGG1ILMMnWFP3PnyRNDoVIddPzh1Kc3CG kRZ4/dglALy+ NiVaVHmWTgJWR/GqQmu/BGGhO4P6uPmj5lFFwAxNK27NXcDoKWd nClgfDnmDDZTq8dL8RbwRxHa/iij0+c7pBPtDTZUbSDVrqguCCPrix0zVezZnvef GZUr+Dki0Xgc90VVmiN7hzRkLspzYZGnQ+BIC6t6VQ9xK2MaXDwdjzwFt9d3BQI lTWzngCzBTmgPaAyKZcE9idqmhSRDM91RgsVaZvD4psegkr4O2OmeAcekxocajUw CiRc1pblHmHkNqrC0G6xfXv8JDBEFTdwUIGaE579JmdgkkwoqGeWZjlv0Cn3is2P pNyk+IkJ3jLJEOkO7Sq9votFhSDcug+GvyVQ9KuTKZDeOqgAj5SWIdywfGlH99M JueZREbKoF2icVquMSuJQNMAQNKyrlMnIMm0ABpS3AI7iRztJYlxfxIrjHrcHCI/ VzX+BBHQASDMRklXiveYoa3ITROoYjpEkaWJlHUz9eF3ixYisLISG9PI3SZVwF15 l4Bjni7cRLOB70UCAwEAAaNTMFEwHQYDVR0OBBYEFHszuFT6x6sdtmnFdFynj19M 1QMB8GA1UdIwQYMBaAFHszuFT6x6sdtmnFdFynj19M2f1QMA8GA1UdEwEB/wQF MAMBAf8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQADggIBAJnNc5/slFEtz1TIb4n/jKLwyfAHC2jY fNYq3JYix20ijo82MV8evEE9BoWe59whXJyR8vygn9q5I13+bLtOvfIlFzDGLac3 aYPYHk5NRv6hY5C25EfyLx7eEuPPFlnOt3C7WeesxelJ+l+WXEPnsSskxZrpqGfL EgUyGlO+DWsMovh6FkgJPYJx2Jfvs2hLf0Wsdo7TGSdQJBBky7iP1RpHtYM+zH5p FYyEUcbgTbnwB0/ TGBRWcWA0iSh3UIaBJoe2M5U0mMJ8f879B0DieJEt5HGkNs QtYUr8AjFUDeki09k1/PA2OtQFf1tgo8NSzHWXhUjREacWpM4ikQUnhOkcNneIBK jq8vssPeHyTfcnsMsK3DRENi3ey/HKqVrasvL8CjlQudYPVHdji0xzH+vWImp7pT yFdKgczVarigjikfhG3I35CkWeu3UPv05esaauaawPHTzgtgGvBCuu/ qkTghCme eTW3RCqpJW3V2BwksN/ENTnvq6gdKbOL4LT6cy8skDZTeFa77Mnwmi+oNz6c8ru9 qpS1wXn11V2wTX/M+M4vrrD7zet0NsPrpWpiomws3f80EYHBDUGNfgSI8f+bshcL engLobG9BkUKRs1EBSVpUhqEKk/DWyPCWVE2+oXytWlNkEMAI0gKBItmk/KEBC6 pJLSgd66+ZT5 -----END CERTIFICATE----- usa-webserver:~# cat /root/ryanserver1.key -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- MIIJQQIBADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAASCCSswggknAgEAAoICAQCht+xbPA8mSi6F fe64H45WSFV+ WLThF+ JHOsVx3VO2Vv13ogRNFsZJgNWvjukFL2XDkd5UK/HxRU YftHv4YVqOI2sJ8e4Xm0dbplXo6I5Yw+bO+qYd2uzTUJRyoYbUgswydYU/c+fJE0 OhUh10/OHUpzcIaRFnj92CUAvL7g2JVpUeZZOAlZH8apCa78EYaE7g/q4+aPmUUX ADE0rbs1dwOgpZ2cKWB8OeYMNlOrx0vxFvBHEdr+KKPT5zukE+ NNlRtINWuqC4I 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-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; border: none; font-size: 0.9em; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; font-family: monospace; background: transparent; border-radius: 0.2rem; direction: ltr;" root@ root@ root@ 2 04 4 1 0 2f 11 9 2 root@ 9 6 0 6 7 3 9 68 3 50 5 508 0 3 0 7 0 7f 229 6 7 2 7 You now have a working self-signed key and certificate without a passphrase. To learn more about generating certificates and theadvanced options available using , be sure to visit the and read through the . SSL OpenSSL OpenSSL git repo OpenSSL docs
