As I don't know the openssl command's arguments by heart, I am used to referring to the same SO answer whenever I need to create self-signed certificates (for testing environments). The command looks like:
openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout mysite.key -out mysite.crt -days 365
And it usually works, for instance on my current Ubuntu 15.10. Today I'm on a fresh install of Debian Jessie and it doesn't. Apache warns at startup that:
[ssl:warn] [pid 1040] AH01906: www.mysite.com:443:0 server certificate is a CA certificate (BasicConstraints: CA == TRUE !?)
I looked for a solution to the problem and found an answer in a linux forum stating that the following should be used instead:
openssl genrsa -des3 -passout pass:x -out mysite.pass.key 2048
openssl rsa -passin pass:x -in mysite.pass.key -out mysite.key
openssl req -new -key mysite.key -out mysite.csr
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in mysite.csr -signkey mysite.key -out mysite.crt
And it's true, this way the Apache warning disappears.
As far as I understand, this creates a passphrase-protected key, then removes the passphrase, then creates a CSR, then generates the certificate with both the CSR and the key.
So the question is: what does this longer version do that the shorter doesn't, and why is it necessary in some cases (like today for me)?
Short way (e.g. with OpenSSL 1.1.0f and Apache 2.4.37):
openssl genrsa -out notEncodedPk.key 3072
openssl req -new -out website.csr -sha256 -key notEncodedPk.key
openssl x509 -req -in website.csr -days 365 -signkey notEncodedPk.key -out website.cert -outform PEM
genrsa generates a 3072 bit RSA-Key. (The system should be online for some time to have good data in /dev/(u)random for seeding.) There is no need to generate an encrypted PK (1) and then use rsa to remove the password afterwards. (Maybe earlier versions of the tools required a password?)
req creates the certificate signing request and uses the PK for the signature. Providing something like -sha256 for the digest is optional. (3) Provide your infos in the interactive questionare. Ensure to put your site domain in "Common name:", otherwise the Apache will throw a warning (AH01909) and browsers will throw an "invalid certificate" message because the URL/domain does not match the certificate data (2). Leave "A challange password:" empty.
Use x509 to create a self-signed certificate with -signkey (the subject is copied to issuer). Normally the command works on certificates but with -req it accepts a CSR as an input. Then use your PK for signing the certificate. (-outform and -days are optional, with 30 days as the default value for the latter.)
Problem source:
As user207421 already stated: req creates a CSR OR it creates a self-signed root-CA-like certificate, therefore the typical tutorial tip
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:3072 -sha256 -keyout website.key -out website.cert
is short but normally not what you want. You can also compare created certificates with
openssl x509 -text -noout -in website.cert
In the certificate, created with the single-line command, you see a section "X509v3 extensions:" with "X509v3 Basic Constraints: critical CA:TRUE". This is exactly the Apache warning message.
Instead, if you create the certificate with the three steps, the "X509v3 extensions:" section is not included into the certificate.
Appendix:
(1) Securing the PK with a password is a good idea in most cases. If the PK is stored without encryption, make sure to restrict access to root. If you use a password, you have to use the -passout/-passin options, but be aware that a simple "x" does not work anymore because some OpenSSL tools require at least 4 characters (otherwise: "result too small/bad password read"). Additionally in Apache you have to use something like SSLPassPhraseDialog buildin to manually enter the required password for the PK (or even for all PKs/certs) during Apache startup.
(2) Anyway, browsers will display a warning for self-signed certificates.
(3) Using SHA-1 would be inadequate for such a large RSA-key. In general, it is a good idea to review your openssl.conf, e.g. in Debian 9 in /etc/ssl/openssl.conf, which contains various defaults, for example signer_digest = sha256.
In the Debian 9 file, you also find in the [req] section a line x509_extensions=v3_ca and this is the reason, why the req command in combination with the -x509 option adds the CA-related extension (basicContraints=critical,CA:true), if used in the single-line style to create a self-signed certificate.
Addidionally you might notice a comment-line # req_extensions=v3_req. Because this line is commented out (in Debian 9 default openssl.cnf), the simple usage of the req command does not include any extensions.
Note that you might use this line in a modified file to add Subject Alternative Name's to the certificate, e.g. so it can handle multiple (sub-)domains (normally a much better choice than using e wildcard in CN, e.g. *.example.com).
complete CA and SSL creation / setup help:
I created my own CA cert and used it to load into browser (as CA authority) and sign my self-created SSL cert for my Apache_on_ubuntu website.
steps:
generate my CA private key:
# openssl genrsa -des3 -out /etc/ssl/private/myCA.key 2048
generate root certificate: *****send myCA.pem to all desktop/client browsers.
# openssl req -x509 -days 5475 -new -nodes -key /etc/ssl/private/myCA.key -sha256 -out /etc/ssl/certs/myCA.pem
Install the root CA in firefox. (cp myCA.pem to windows box)
in firefox: options -> privacy_&_security -> view_certificates -> certificate_manager -> Authorities -> import
Creating CA-Signed Certificates for Your Sites
4.1: create website private key:
# openssl genrsa -out /etc/ssl/private/www.mywebsite.com.key 2048
4.2: create website CSR: Note: answers don’t need to match the CA cert ans.
# openssl req -new -key /etc/ssl/private/www.mywebsite.com.key -out /etc/ssl/private/www.mywebsite.com.csr
4.3: Create config file: config file is needed to define the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension. "method to match a domain name against a certificate – using the available names within the subjectAlternativeName extension"
# vi /etc/ssl/private/www.mywebsite.com.ext
...............I have not used the ext file option.....(for hosting multiple SSL sites and certs on same host)
4.4: Create the certificate:
# openssl x509 -req -in /etc/ssl/private/www.mywebsite.com.csr -CA /etc/ssl/certs/myCA.pem -CAkey /etc/ssl/private/myCA.key -CAcreateserial -out /etc/ssl/certs/www.mywebsite.com.crt -days 5475 -sha256
create ssl-conf file:
# cat /etc/apache2/conf-available/ssl-params.conf
# modern configuration, tweak to your needs
SSLProtocol -all +TLSv1.2 +TLSv1.3
SSLCipherSuite ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256
SSLHonorCipherOrder on
SSLCompression off
SSLSessionTickets off
restart apache:
# systemctl restart apache2
Figure out which openssl.cnf you are using.
Select the correct section name that is doing your request.
Take out the CA:TRUE part (or change it to CA:FALSE) from the basicConstraint in the openssl.cnf that you are using.
Recreate the certificate the exact same way you did.
Your Apache webserver will no longer see a CA, much less a self-signed CA but just an ordinary self-signed certificate.
I had the same problem just today on Debian 9 stretch and I tried your solution to generate a new certificate using your method and it did not work. The warning in Apache was exactly the same.
I found out that the problem was that in my browser were stored other 6 certificates with the same FQDN. I erased the certificates and the problem has gone.
EDIT: Well, there's still the warning actually but at least everything is working.
openssl req creates a CSR or a CA root certificate. See the man page. It is not what you want. The second set of steps is correct.
Related
I used openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -out cert.pem -keyout key.pem -days 365 to generate a cert.pem and key.pem and it has executed correctly. Now what I want is how can I add the openssl generated certificate to trusted certificates so that I don't get greeted with Your connection isn't private page before loading my flask https site. Any help is appreciated.
EDIT: OS - Windows. I am trying to add the OpenSSL generated certificate to Trusted Root Certification Authorities inside the Microsoft Management console (MMC)
depending on the browser you need to run certutil with a specific db location:
chromium-based (most) -d sql:$HOME/.pki/nssdb
firefox -d %userprofile%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\%randomalphanum%.default\cert8.db
Sometimes I test an SSL website on my local machine. I was tired to use a self-signed certificate and add them to my KeyChain on Mac (Browser or other OS). Moreover, Chrome always complains about them. Moreover, this approach was a bit different from the one used in production.
I found this article very useful where you create once your own CA root certificate, add it once to your keychain and then you use the CA private key to sign thousands of SSL test certificate for my local websites.
https://deliciousbrains.com/ssl-certificate-authority-for-local-https-development/
The tutorial works great but I would like to automate it. For the CA root certificate it was easy, I simply used the option -subj like this:
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key /certs/myCA.key -sha256 -days 1825 -subj "/C=$CA_COUNTRY/ST=$CA_STATE/L=$CA_CITY/O=$CA_ORGANIZATION/CN=$CA_COMMON_NAME" -out /certs/myCA2.pem
where the environment variable (CA_COUNTRY, CA_STATE, CA_CITY, CA_ORGANIZATION, CA_COMMON_NAME) are read from an external file.
However, when I tried to replicate the same thing for the website certificate I wasn't able to get the same result. The command is this:
openssl x509 -req -in dev.deliciousbrains.com.csr -CA myCA.pem -CAkey myCA.key -CAcreateserial -out dev.deliciousbrains.com.crt -days 825 -sha256 -extfile dev.deliciousbrains.com.ext
It seems that the -subj option doesn't work. Is there a way to pass the info above to this command and avoid interactive questions?
The command you show openssl x509 -req -CA/-CAkey ... does not ask any questions except the key password if there is one (which if you followed the instructions at the linked page there is). It is the preceding command to create the CSR openssl req -new that prompts for the subject name, and for that (like the command for creating the CA cert which is also req but with -x509 -- note -x509 is not the same as x509) you can use -subj. The statement on that page that "your answers don’t matter" isn't quite correct; it is true that when you use SubjectAlternativeName in the leaf cert, as that page advises/directs, the value of Subject is ignored for (at least) HTTPS server identification, but it must (still) be different from the name used for the CA to allow certificate validation to work. Standards allow the Subject name in a leaf cert to be empty when SAN is used (and empty is always different from nonempty and a nonempty name is required in the CA cert) but OpenSSL doesn't handle that case.
I apologize if this is a silly rookie question, I'm not really experience in dealing with SSL / https so please help me out.
I have docker swarm setup and using Traefik to handle all the HTTPS services. when I first load the page (take grafana page for example), there is a warning page and I click "Advanced" and "Proceed (accept risk)", then the page display and working just fine, the only problem is the "Not Secure" sign showing on browser.
A few things could be contributing to this:
Self-created CA and self-signed cert: I'm at development stage so I created my own CA and signed the cert using openssl, and use this cert in Traefik dynamic configuration.
Command to generate CA:
openssl genrsa 2048 > ca-key.pem
openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -key ca-key.pem -out ca.pem
Command to generate self-signed cert:
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -days 365 -nodes -keyout key.pem -out req.pem
openssl x509 -req -in req.pem -days 365 -CA ca.pem -CAkey ca-key.pem -set_serial 01 -out cert.pem
See attached screenshot for the errors of the certs: "Subject Alternative Name missing" & "This site is missing a valid, trusted certificate (net::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID)."
Chrome Dev Tool Certificate Error
Traefik configuration: Not using Let's Encrypt since I don't have an account, so using my own self-signed cert. I don't think this is the issue because I can see the page is using the cert I provided. But if anyone has similar experience with Traefik v2 maybe can give me some pointer if there is anything I set wrong?
Dynamic configuration file that declares the certs:
tls:
stores:
default:
defaultCertificate:
certFile: configuration/cert.pem
keyFile: configuration/key.pem
Question:
Is missing SAN a really important factor that will causes my page to be not secure? If yes, how can I add SAN while creating cert with openssl?
I understand that 2nd error "ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID" means browser doesn't recognize the cert's validity. Does that mean I have to install my CA? Where and how to install it? Is it on docker swarm's manager node (this is where Traefik service and the certs at), or is it on any client's machine that trying to access the page?
Hello I am trying to create root certificate authority for my own MITM proxy. Based on other tutorial I have used following command.
Generate a private key
openssl genrsa -out cert.key 2048
Generate a certificate
openssl req -new -nodes -x509 -key cert.key -days 365 -out cert.crt
Now the problem is when i try to add to keychain it shows Self Signed Root CA. What i have found is other MITM proxy like proxyman generates cert that shows Root Certificate Authority. Here is screenshot which illustrate my point.
I know i can make certificate that shows Root Certificate Authority from Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Create a Certificate Authority.
However my goal is to create certificate programmatically so I can generate certificate for other user easily.
Thanks
After several searching i found following command works. I don't know why it works it would be helpful.
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key cert.key -subj "/CN=HELLO" -days 3650 -reqexts v3_req -extensions v3_ca -out ca.crt -config /usr/local/etc/openssl/openssl.cnf
It seem adding something related to v3_req fixes the issue.
Be sure to use latest version of openssl. I used homebrew to install openssl
I want to generate the CSR file for requesting SSL (wildcard) certificate. This certificate and private key will be used on multiple machines with both Apache and Nginx.
RapitSSL states the following commands for the different setups:
Nginx
$ openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout server.key -out server.csr
Apache Mod SSL
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out <private key file name>.key 2048
Apache-SSL
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out www.yourdomain-example.com.key 2048
Is there a way to generate a CSR that works with both Apache and Nginx?
Apache Mod SSL
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out < private key file name>.key 2048
Apache-SSL
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out www.yourdomain-example.com.key 2048
These two are obviously the exact same command, with a different way of writing the example name. They just generate the key pair, you'd need an additional req command to generate a CSR too.
genrsa generates a key pair, and req generates a CSR. However, req can perform both operations at once when using -newkey.
See OpenSSL req example documentation:
Create a private key and then generate a certificate request from it:
openssl genrsa -out key.pem 1024
openssl req -new -key key.pem -out req.pem
The same but just using req:
openssl req -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout key.pem -out req.pem
How to generate CSR for SSL that works with Nginx & Apache ...
Is there a way to generate a CSR that works with both Apache and Nginx?
A quick answer to the questions to clarify things... Nginx and Apache don't consume CSRs. They use certificates and private keys.
Perhaps you meant to say something about a self-signed certificate? If so, add the -x509 option to the openssl req command. That creates a self signed certificate rather than a signing request.
There's a lot more to self-signed certificates (and server certificates in general). See, for example, How to create a self-signed certificate with openssl?