Implementing LDAPS: Can I buy the same kind of SSL certificate as I would use to secure a web domain? - ssl

I'm looking at hardening LDAP on my domain controller (DC). To do this I need to import a security certificate to the DC.
I don't want to self sign as I've been told it is not best practice and the service I wish to integrate with LDAPS (Mimecast) does not recommend self signing.
I've created my certificate request, based upon the domain's fqdn. e.g. mydomain.local
What I'm not sure about now is where I can get a certificate based on that request.
I'm familiar with SSL for HTTPS. That process makes sense to me, the certification authority checks that I own the domain and provides a certificate that I can then install on my web server.
Will 3rd party SSL providers let me configure a certificate with the common name "mydomain.local"?
Or am I looking in completely the wrong area?
Many thanks in advance for any help that provided.

The type of certificate is exactly the same type of certificate as you would get for securing a website, yes. However, the domain name must be a valid internet domain (not .local)
There is a good walk-through here for Using Let's Encrtypt for Active Directory Domain Controller Certificates, including all the caveats you need to be aware of.

Related

How to sign an application and a site with SSL

I have a question regarding signing with SSL. I need to sign an application (.exe) written in Delphi. At the same time I also want to sign an Internet Portal with which the application communicate. My question is: does signing services generally provide also the certificate for the application either the certificate for the site? Can you sign the application with the same certificate or do you need another certificate? Can you sign multiple applications with the same certificate?
Thanks in advance.
Alberto
You need 2 certificates: One for code signing (that is, signing the .exe) and one for SSL (for the website).
You can not sign the application using the same cert as your are using for SSL.
You can sign as many applications with your code signing certificate as you like.
You may or may not use the SSL cert for multiple hosts (e.g.: blog.domain.com, www.domain.com, chat.domina.com, static.domain.com...), this depends on the type of certificate you are using.
Also: Please note that you can get free SSL certificates (e.g.: LetsEncrypt provides them, and azure website can use free "managed" certs from microsoft.). However, to my knowledge, there are no free code signing certificates.

Where to put SSL

I'm getting crazy with SSL certificates. After trying from lots of different providers I finally got one using SSL for free.
But there's one thing that I haven't understood yet.
Do I have to upload my certificate on my Domain provider (such as Register.it) or on my Host service (such as 000webhost or InfinityFree)?
The problem is that 000webhost offers a better service but not the possibility to upload an SSL certificate on a free plan, while InfinityFree (which offers a worse service) does.
I have the possibility to upload my certificate on the Domain provider (Register.it), but I can't understand if it works or it is overridden by InfinityFree one, and I have difficulties in trying switching from Host to Host because of the really slow DNS propagation.
Sorry if I made confusion, but it was to explain better my situation... My question remains one: Do I have to upload my certificate on my Domain provider or on my Host service?
You need to upload ssl certificate to your hosting. SSL for free is a Let's Encrypt certificate.
You can check which provider ssl running on your domain.
Step:
Tab your browser green lock icon then details

Securing my Azure Web App with HTTPS

Say, for example, I have an Azure web app named MyApp and is hosted on Azure as MyApp.azurewebsites.net. It's my understanding that there is nothing I need to do to secure the URL with SSL, as it's done, by default, with a single certificate. So I can already have my users access the app via https://MyApp.azurewebsites.net, and it will be secure right out of the box.
However, say I have another URL named www.MyApp.com that I want to point (redirect) to https://MyApp.azurewebsite.net. Do I have to secure www.MyApp.com with a certificate?
Do I have to secure www.MyApp.com with a certificate?
Yes, we could get more detail info from the official document .
To secure your custom domain name with HTTPS, you bind a custom SSL certificate to that custom domain in Azure.
Before binding a custom certificate, we need to do the following:
Configure the custom domain - App Service only allows adding a certificate for a domain name that's already configured in your app. For instructions, see Map a custom domain name to an Azure app.
Scale up to Basic tier or higher App Service plans in lower pricing tiers don't support custom SSL certificates. For instructions, see Scale up an app in Azure.
Get an SSL certificate - If you do not already have one, you need to get one from a trusted certificate authority (CA).
Yes, if you use a custom host name, then you will need to have a certificate for it. There is really no way around this, based on how SSL works.

Does enabling SSL require more than just turning it on?

I run an nginx-powered application and I recently turned my attention to using it over https. This is the module in nginx that does this: http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpSslModule
However, I'm somewhat unclear about what is actually required to run a site over https.
What else is there to do to serve my site over ssl? What is the role of the certificate, and is it a requirement that I purchase it from somewhere?
You need a certificate to prove to your user that the server they're connected to is indeed the one intended (and not a MITM attacker).
If your server is to be used by a limited number of users to whom you could give a certificate explicitly, you could use a self-signed certificate or create your own certification authority (CA).
Otherwise, if you want your certificate to be recognised by most browsers, you'll need to get one from a commercial CA.
You should find more details in this answer. You may also be interested in this.

SSL certificate config and testing

I need to implement a SSL certificate for a website, I've got three questions after some research.
1) I believe i need to buy a SSL certificate and ask my host to install it. My question is do you need to alter any code for the website for the certificate?
2) Before I buy the certificate, the website is going to be built for a couple of month at least. I'm just wondering is there a developing SSL certificate I can use for the developing environment?
3) Or do I have to use self assigned certificate? If so are there any good tutorials on how to create a SSL self assigned certificate on a local machine (wamp) and a developing url site?
Thank you very much.
Sam :)
1) No, you do not need to alter any code on your website at all in order to use an installed SSL certificate. It is as simple as prefixing your desired destination link with the HTTPS: protocol specification instead of the typical HTTP: protocol. However, if you want to determine if your site visitor is using an encrypted page before they do something, such as submit a web form with potentially sensitive data, then depending on what you are developing your site in, you will need to detect if the current page request has been sent over HTTP or HTTPS, then if it is an HTTP requested page, you probably want to redirect the page request to the HTTPS version before proceeding.
2) Other than creating your own "self signed" certificate (more on this in #3), no your only option for a publicly valid SSL certificate is to obtain one from a publicly recognized Certificate Authority (CA). Long story short, a certificate of the same key length using the same encryption standard supported by your server and visitor's web browser, is no stronger or weaker regardless of vendor for purposes of encryption. So you can simply shop by price for your SSL certs. I have no affiliation with GoDaddy, but have been using them for years for public SSL certificates.
3) You certainly can create your own self signed certificate. The methods for doing this vary based on your host server and version. The limitation to a self signed certificate, is that if you go to share this with anyone, you get that warning message from your browser that the certificate is not published from a verifiable source. In most current browsers, it looks like a big scary message that something is wrong and they attempt to warn your user away from doing this. However, of course, there is certainly nothing wrong with using a self signed certificate. This is obviously true for your own development uses. Even a self signed certificate of the same key length and encryption method is as cryptographically secure as a commercially provided certificate. If you want to use a self signed certificate, just search for instruction for doing that for your server OS and version for details. Once it is installed, you will get the warning from your browser when you try to browse to a page over HTTPS. Your browser should show you an option to permanently remember and accept your self signed certificate, after which you will no longer see that warning while that certificate remains installed and valid.