How to implement Openssl for apache in linux

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.

#penssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 2048

Step 2: Generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) 

Once the private key is generated a Certificate Signing Request can be generated. The CSR is then used in one of two ways. Ideally, the CSR will be sent to a Certificate Authority, such as Thawte or Verisign who will verify the identity of the requestor and issue a signed certificate. The second option is to self-sign the CSR, which will be demonstrated in the next section.

#openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:CH
State or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:Bern
Locality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:Oberdiessbach
Organization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:Akadia AG
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Information Technology
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:public.akadia.com
Email Address []:martin dot zahn at akadia dot ch
Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []:
An optional company name []:

Step 3: Remove Passphrase from Key 

One unfortunate side-effect of the pass-phrased private key is that Apache will ask for the pass-phrase each time the web server is started. Obviously this is not necessarily convenient as someone will not always be around to type in the pass-phrase, such as after a reboot or crash. mod_ssl includes the ability to use an external program in place of the built-in pass-phrase dialog, however, this is not necessarily the most secure option either. It is possible to remove the Triple-DES encryption from the key, thereby no longer needing to type in a pass-phrase. If the private key is no longer encrypted, it is critical that this file only be readable by the root user! If your system is ever compromised and a third party obtains your unencrypted private key, the corresponding certificate will need to be revoked. With that being said, use the following command to remove the pass-phrase from the key:

#cp server.key server.key.org
#openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key

Step 4: Generating a Self-Signed Certificate  

At this point you will need to generate a self-signed certificate because you either don't plan on having your certificate signed by a CA, or you wish to test your new SSL implementation while the CA is signing your certificate. This temporary certificate will generate an error in the client browser to the effect that the signing certificate authority is unknown and not trusted.
To generate a temporary certificate which is good for 365 days, issue the following command:

#openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

 Step 5: Installing the Private Key and Certificate

When Apache with mod_ssl is installed, it creates several directories in the Apache config directory. The location of this directory will differ depending on how Apache was compiled. 

cp server.crt /etc/httpd/ssl/server.csr
cp server.key /usr/httpd/ssl/server.key

Step 6: Configuring SSL Enabled Virtual Hosts

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/ssl/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/ssl/server.key
SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown
CustomLog logs/ssl_request_log \
   "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"

 or if there is ssl.conf under /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf then change the below 2 entry


SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/ssl/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/ssl/server.key

Step 7: Restart Apache and Test

 

/etc/init.d/httpd stop
/etc/init.d/httpd stop