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
