I'm having problems understanding the difference between files produced by openssl and how to detect them.
For example I'm trying to generate Self-signed cert with private key and generate JKS file from p12
format. I'm googling like a madman but I still don't know how to generate it correctly to be able to use following commands.
openssl pkcs12 -export -in user.pem -inkey user.key -certfile user.pem -out testkeystore.p12
keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore testkeystore.p12 -srcstoretype pkcs12 -destkeystore wso2carbon.jks -deststoretype JKS
Source: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/how-generate-jks-keystore-existing-private-key
I found a couple of different commands to generate Self-signed cert and private key but I don't know how to map resulting files to the commands above and whats worse I don't understand what those commands do.
I mean I see what files they generate and understand that certificate and private key used to sign it ( or maybe the other way around :| ) but what is the difference between those commands and is cert.pem === certificate.crt - Those file extensions are driving me crazy.
openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout privateKey.key -out certificate.crt
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -new -nodes -x509 -days 3650 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem
This is yet another situation where I'm having similar issues with the openssl command. At this point I'm even ready to read some RFC ( I hope it won't come to this :) )
Thanks in advance for help
Those file names represent different parts of the key generation and verification process. Please note that the names are just convention, you could just as easily call the files pepperoni.pizza and the content will be the same, so do be conscious of how you use the filenames.
A brief primer on PKI - Keys come in two halves, a public key and a private key. The public key can be distributed publicly and widely, and you can use it to verify, but not replicate, information generated using the private key. The private key must be kept secret.
.key files are generally the private key, used by the server to encrypt and package data for verification by clients.
.pem files are generally the public key, used by the client to verify and decrypt data sent by servers. PEM files could also be encoded private keys, so check the content if you're not sure.
.p12 files have both halves of the key embedded, so that administrators can easily manage halves of keys.
.cert or .crt files are the signed certificates -- basically the "magic" that allows certain sites to be marked as trustworthy by a third party.
.csr is a certificate signing request, a challenge used by a trusted third party to verify the ownership of a keypair without having direct access to the private key (this is what allows end users, who have no direct knowledge of your website, confident that the certificate is valid). In the self-signed scenario you will use the certificate signing request with your own private key to verify your private key (thus self-signed). Depending on your specific application, this might not be needed. (needed for web servers or RPC servers, but not much else).
A JKS keystore is a native file format for Java to store and manage some or all of the components above, and keep a database of related capabilities that are allowed or rejected for each key.
The commands you list look fine to me, and I don't see a question beyond asking what the different files are for. If you need more information, please enrich your question.
.key is the private key. This is accessible the key owner and no one else.
.csr is the certificate request. This is a request for a certificate authority to sign the key. (The key itself is not included.)
.crt is the certificate produced by the certificate authority that verifies the authenticity of the key. (The key itself is not included.) This is given to other parties, e.g. HTTPS client.
.pem is a text-based container using base-64 encoding. It could be any of the above files.
-----BEGIN EXAMPLE-----
...
-----END EXAMPLE-----
.p12 is a PKCS12 file, which is a container format usually used to combine the private key and certificate.
There isn't only one extension. For example you may see certificates with either the .crt or a .pem extension.
Just to add more info: .der, another (binary) encoding (either public or private key, or csr)
Related
I have a question about TLS/SSL (self-signed certificates)
I am trying to open a connection using several tools (ncat, socat) by using TLS/SSL.
Of course first i need to generate certificate. (Key is a KEY, and Cert is a CERT, PEM is an encoded format). I have found 2 different ways.
1) openssl req -new -x509 -keyout test-key.pem -out test-cert.pem.
2) openssl req -newkey rsa:2848 -nodes -keyout test.key -x589 -out test-cert.crt
cat test-key.key test-cert.crt > test-pem.pem
My questions:
Why at the end of the day we combine CERT with KEY? Should not CERT already have KEY inside?
Why on most tutorials, we send(by listener on socat/ncat) key with cert, if cert already have a key?
(Assume we do not verify cert)
Thanks for support.
SOLVED.
Should not CERT already have KEY inside?
The certificate has the public key inside. The key file is the private key. The public key can be visible to others (as does the rest of the certificate), the private key should be kept secret.
I need to upload a qualified certificate in .pfx file, I have .req and .pfx with private key files from requesting the certificate, and I got the qualified .crt certificate from the company that do these. How can I join the password and the certificate with qualified roots?
I already tried openssl Openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey KEYFILENAME -in CERTFILEFILENAME -out final.pfx
output was: error in pkcs12, expecting: any private key
Thank you, this is very important for me.
You say you have '.pfx with private key' but do not say anything about a PEM-format private key. The input for pkcs12 -export -inkey must be a PEM-format private key.
Extract the privatekey from the existing/original pfx with openssl pkcs12 -in oldpfx -nocerts without -export and either store it in a file and feed that to -inkey, or just concatenate with your cert and pipe the combination to openssl pkcs12 -export without -in -inkey.
Note this 'joins' the privatekey and the certificate, but there is no permanent linkage to any password(s); each privatekey file (PEM format or pfx/p12) can be encrypted with any password you choose (except openssl will usually reject very short passwords) and they don't need to be the same, and each can be changed without changing the privatekey (and cert) -- although you may well choose to make them and keep them the same for your own convenience.
Also note that certificates issued by public CAs like Verisign and GoDaddy etc usually depend on intermediate aka chain certificates, and in many perhaps most cases software that uses a pfx/pf12 needs it to contain those intermediate/chain certs. However, you didn't give any clues about this in your Q and there are so many possible variations of how to select, get, convert and use chain certs I couldn't fit them all in one SO answer.
I am generating two CSRs ( Certificate signing request )
1 . using java keytool i get a .csr format file.
using IBM key management tool i get .arm file.
Though both the files contains the same kind of data ( ie . base64 encoded public key details)
My question "can i rename .csr file to .arm" will it be the same ...
Thanks.
The most common syntax for a CSR is PKCS#10, which can be represented in binary or text formats. A CSR contains a number of pieces of information including: a public key, the subject distinguished name, a signature, and optional attributes. If you can view the files in a text editor and they look similar to this:
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
MIIBnTCCAQYCAQAwXTELMAkGA1UEBhMCU0cxETAPBgNVBAoTCE0yQ3J5cHRvMRIw
EAYDVQQDEwlsb2NhbGhvc3QxJzAlBgkqhkiG9w0BCQEWGGFkbWluQHNlcnZlci5l
eGFtcGxlLmRvbTCBnzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOBjQAwgYkCgYEAr1nYY1Qrll1r
uB/FqlCRrr5nvupdIN+3wF7q915tvEQoc74bnu6b8IbbGRMhzdzmvQ4SzFfVEAuM
MuTHeybPq5th7YDrTNizKKxOBnqE2KYuX9X22A1Kh49soJJFg6kPb9MUgiZBiMlv
tb7K3CHfgw5WagWnLl8Lb+ccvKZZl+8CAwEAAaAAMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBAUAA4GB
AHpoRp5YS55CZpy+wdigQEwjL/wSluvo+WjtpvP0YoBMJu4VMKeZi405R7o8oEwi
PdlrrliKNknFmHKIaCKTLRcU59ScA6ADEIWUzqmUzP5Cs6jrSRo3NKfg1bd09D1K
9rsQkRc9Urv9mRBIsredGnYECNeRaK5R1yzpOowninXC
-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
then they are text (aka PEM) encoded CSRs. These text encoded CSRs can be decoded and viewed using the following openssl command:
openssl req -in your-csr-filename -noout -text
Renaming the file will not affect openssl's ability to decode them. However, some applications that process CSRs may expect a particular filename extension.
You can inspect your certificate signing request (csr) using OpenSSL with a command such as:
openssl x509 -req -in yourfile.csr -text -noout
I'm assuming that IBM's thingy is a wrapper around openssl so I would expect your .arm to be an x509 certificate going by a different name. Be interested to hear what you get back ...
The answer is yes. The .arm file is the same format as .csr. As you stated, they both contain the same type of data and therefore can simply be renamed. Furthermore, the common types of CSR requests are PKCS#10 and PKCS#12.
#snow60y: You won't see anything with 'openssl x509 -req -in yourfile.csr -text -noout' because there is no private key contained within the CSR and it is not signed, so it is not an x509 yet. A CSR should NEVER contain a private key and therefore, analyzing with that command should fail. You can use that command with a SIGNED cert, but not the request. For the request, use:
openssl req -in your-csr-filename -noout -text
We need to provide a secure SSL on our intranet website. Could anyone please help me query below:
Is it possible to get Internal CA signed cert without a CSR?
If above is Yes, how do it generate a Internal CA signed Cert without a CSR.
What am I trying to achieve?
We don't have Production IIS setup. And production IIS will only be setup during the change window. During this change window no resource available to generate CA signed Cert. for a given CSR. Hence, we are trying to create CA signed certs before hand without having to setup the Prod IIS.
The Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is a tool for including a third party in the certificate creation process without divulging your private key. Its essentially a packet of encoded information (including the public key) which can be sent to the third party for signing. The third party receives the CSR, signs it with their intermediate or root certificate, and send back the certificate to you. Your new and shiny certificate file is now a keypair with your private key file. Even better, the third party never had access to your private key through the entire process.
Now to answer your question, yes it is possible. There is no requirement that a third party be involved. Its more a question of how to accomplish this with the cryptographic library of your choice. Check out my post here for a way to get OpenSSL running on windows without admin privileges.
Create a new key and certificate
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout [filepath to key] -x509 -out [filepath to cert]
Create a certificate from an existing key
openssl req -key [filepath to key] -x509 -out [filepath to cert]
You should be able to use OpenSSL to create a CSR independently of IIS (see its req command).
I'm am trying to create a very simple WCF client application which will send SOAP messages to a 3rd party service. All the messages must be digitally signed. It's really a proof of concept before I add the code to a larger application.
I have a .cer file containing the certificate and a .pem file containing the private key. What I have been trying to do is load the certificate using the .cer file then fire off a message. But I get the following error "The private key is not present in the X.509 certificate".
The problem, well one of the problems, is that I really know almost nothing about WCF, digital certificates, private keys and all that guff. I've done some reading, I've Googled till I'm blue in the face and I've not got anywhere.
If I open the .cert file there is a section labelled "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY" which suggests that the private key is included in the certificate. So, why am I getting a message saying that it is not present? Also, if the private key does need to be added to the certificate how do I do it?
Here basically what I'm doing. It's not my actual code, but it includes all the relevant stuff:
MyWSClient c = new MyWSClient();
c.ClientCredentials.ClientCertificate.Certificate = new X509Certificate2(#"pathToFile.cer");
c.SomeValidCall();
How are you creating this cert / key pair? You can combine them into a PKCS#12 certificate using openssl:
openssl pkcs12 -export -in yourcert.crt -inkey yourprivkey.key -out newcert.p12
You may need to play with the input format to get it to work with a .pem private key.
My colleague has found a solution. I don't know why but using a .der file rather than a .cer file solves the problem. This is the command he used to generate the .der file using a certificate, private key and root certificate as.pem files:
openssl pkcs12 -export -in cert.pem -inkey private_key.pem -certfile root_cert.cer -out pkcs12.der