Generate Certificate Request With Private Key

Introduction

Jun 04, 2017 How to create CSR and private key from IIS. A CSR or Certificate Signing request is a block of encoded text that is given. Depending on how you generate your certificate you might need to. I need to create a public/private key pair for a certificate request. I would like to use IIS. Once the certificate is signed I will be distributing it to multiple servers and therefor will need the private key.

Sep 11, 2018 Just because some web servers allow using old CSRs for certificate renewal doesn’t mean you should use them. As a security precaution, always generate a new CSR and private key when you are renewing a certificate. Clinging to the same private key is a road paved with security vulnerabilities.

A Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is the first step in setting up an SSL Certificate on your website. SSL certificates are provided by Certificate Authorities (CA), which require a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).

This guide will instruct you on how to generate a Certificate Signing Request using OpenSSL.

• Access to a user account with root or sudo privileges
• A command line/terminal window
• If you’re working on a remote server, an established SSH connection to the server
• OpenSSL needs to be installed on your system to generate the key
• A text editor, such as nano, to view your key

Open a terminal window. Use your SSH connection to log into your remote server.

Note: If you are working locally, you don’t need an SSH connection. Also, most Linux systems will launch a terminal window by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T or Ctrl-Alt-F1.

It is advised to issue a new private key each time you generate a CSR. Hence, the steps below instruct on how to generate both the private key and the CSR.

Make sure to replace your_domain with the actual domain you’re generating a CSR for.

The commands are broken out as follows:

• openssl – activates the OpenSSL software
• req – indicates that we want a CSR
• –new –newkey – generate a new key
• rsa:2048 – generate a 2048-bit RSA mathematical key
• –nodes – no DES, meaning do not encrypt the private key in a PKCS#12 file
• –keyout – indicates the domain you’re generating a key for
• –out – specifies the name of the file your CSR will be saved as

Note: Use 2048-bit key pairs. The 4096-bit key pairs are more secure, however, they require a lot more server resources.

Your system should launch a text-based questionnaire for you to fill out.

Enter your information in the fields as follows:

• Country Name – use a 2-letter country code (US for the United States)
• State – the state in which the domain owner is incorporated
• Locality – the city in which the domain owner is incorporated
• Organization name – the legal entity that owns the domain
• Organizational unit name – the name of the department or group in your organization that deals with certificates
• Common name – typically the fully qualified domain name (FQDN), i.e. what the users type in a web browser to navigate to your website
• Email address – the webmaster’s email address
• Challenge password – an optional password for your key pair

Please take into account that Organization Name and Unit Name must not contain the following characters:

< > ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / ( ) ?.,&

Once the software finishes, you should be able to find the CSR file in your working directory.

Certificate With Private Key

You can also enter the following:

The system should list out all certificate signing requests on the system. The one that matches the domain name you provided in Step 2 appended with the .csr extension is the one you need to look into.

You can open the .csr file in a text editor to find the alphanumeric code that was generated.

Enter the following command:

This text can be copied and pasted into a submittal form to request your SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority.

Generate Certificate Request With Private Key Search

Make sure you copy the entire text. Some CAs may allow you to simply upload the .csr file you generated. Below is an example of a CSR.

Private Key Certificate Export

You needn’t send the private key to the CA. Once you get your SSL certificate, the private key on the server will bind with it to encrypt communication.

Now you know how to generate an OpenSSL certificate signing request. Before submitting the CSR to a certificate authority, we recommend verifying the information it holds. Use one of the widely available online CSR decoders.

Generate Certificate Request With Private Key Program

SSL is a crucial protocol for securing traffic between a website and its visitors. It helps to protect sensitive information online, such as credit card data.

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