I created ssl certificate using IIS 5.1 and generated a file certreq.txt. Now what is the next step to use this file. I am a developer and working on a site that is host on my local machine. Is is necessary to get license from any CA?
Please guide me ASAP.
You can create a self-signed cert, but that will not be very elegant for end users if this is a public website as there is the prompt about cert validity. Otherwise, yes you need to obtain a cert from a CA. I find the best is Verisign, although DEFINITELY not the cheapest. Others are Godaddy, CheapDomain, and pretty much any registrar can help with it.
The link is for 5.1, but you can find tutorials on all versions. For testing I would go the self signed route.
The certificate generated from IIS, is a self-signed certificate, which can be used to test your website. However, if you run a public website from a self-signed certificate, every user will get a warning that the site is not safe. You will eventually need to get a license from a CA when you are ready to publish your site. Your domain host should provide an SSL certificate service, for something like $50-150/yr.
You can either self sign the certificate or send it to the CA to avoid the do-not-trust this site prompt. SSLTools Manager is a nifty app that can send your csr to a CA. Not sure about the self-signing feature though.
Related
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.
I'm having an issue with my development where I am trying to implement OAuth authentication in my app. In order to get this to work I have to set up my .net core app to run with SSL certificates. These certificates are generated automatically and trusted, so far so good.
The issue arises where I try to use a phone client on these sites. Obviously the device doesn't have the certificate installed, and installing the certificate on the device makes little difference (the certificate provided by the dotnet tool doesn't have a CA attribute or something? So I can't physically trust the certificate on an iOS device).
From where I'm standing, it would make more sense to just use a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate on IIS Express, have the certificate provided by a recognised authority, but it seems that I can't do that for localhost. I think this is because the Let's Encrypt ACME bot can't connect to my local development instance which makes sense.
Is there any way to have a recognised development certificate (when I say recognised, I mean something like Let's Encrypt) in use for IIS express or local development? Or do I have to use a self signed certificate and find some way to install them on my testing devices?
Thanks.
I think you need 2 steps to achieve it.
Configure your IIS Express to use a custom domain name rather than localhost. This custom domain name is the one that you have SSL certificate for. Check here for how to do it.
Bind the Let's Encrypt certificate to IIS Express. This blog post uses a self signed cert, but in theory it should also work for Let's Encrypt cert.
we have a website on a dedicated server with iweb.com. Our SSL certificate is purchased through Godaddy and expiring soon, so it’s time to get it updated. Iweb has a general article on how to install ssl certificates (https://kb.iweb.com/entries/21117106-Installing-SSL-certificates) but it’s not detailed so there are still some questions about that.
GENERATING A CSR AND INSTALLING A SSL CERTIFICATE:
“In order to get a SSL certificate, you need to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and send it to the Certificate Authority.”
- Does it mean I can create a certificate myself for free, and don’t have to purchase it through godaddy or any other service? If yes what is the difference? And if I already have a certificate should I skip the certificate generating step and start with the installation?
FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE TO INSTALL THE SSL CERTIFICATE:
Under the installation steps it asks to enter the domain name for which the SSL certificate was created, will it include the ftp, email, cpanel servers as well?
And lastly, what’s going to happen with my old certificate, will it be deleted or I have to remove it manually?
Thank you!
Does it mean I can create a certificate myself for free, and don’t
have to purchase it through godaddy or any other service?
Well, you can get a self-signed one for free, But, if people are visiting your website, there will be a HUGE alert on their browser, and try to stop them from browsing.
And the Certificate Signing Request is not actually a Cert! (well, it does contain your public key, and some other information)
The difference between a self-signed and public-CA-signed one is just like your school ID and your passport, the school ID only valid in a small community, and the passport is recognized by the general public as a personal ID.
See: How to create a self-signed cert in Ubuntu with Apache Using OpenSSL
If your think the price for Godaddy is too high, you may try something cheaper like PositiveSSL or RapidSSL, which is only around 10 USD/year/domain
And there is also a free one: StartSSL
Under the installation steps it asks to enter the domain name for which the SSL certificate was created, will it include the ftp, email, cpanel servers as well?
No, just the web server you wish the general public to be able to visit.
if there is a web interface for the email (like Gmail) or CPanel, you may have to create a ssl for them as well.
And lastly, what’s going to happen with my old certificate, will it be deleted or I have to remove it manually?
You should update it. if you haven't renew and update it, the browser will try to block your visitors with a HUGE alert again after the expiration date.
I had installed SSL certs one one of my cloud server by following this:
http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/installing-an-ssl-certificate-on-apache
I am running jetpack plugin on my wordpress blog. The jetpack plugin is not getting connected to wordpress. I have talked with the Jetpack support guys and they say this:
Support Reply
"The problem is that OpenSSL doesn't recognize your certificate's Certificate Authority's certificate. The that URL works in browsers is because most modern browsers allow for certificate discovery by reading the "Authority Information Access" metadata from the certificate, which contains a URL from which the browser can download the CA's certificate. OpenSSL does not.
The best solution is if you can configure your webserver to supply the entire SSL certificate chain, rather than just your own certificate. That's what we do on WordPress.com. Sending the entire chain will also make your sites more compatible with older (and I believe some mobile) browsers."
Can any one describe me how can I install or provide entire certificate chain???
Thanks
These pages might help with setting up a CA and then creating a certificate: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenSSL#SSL_Certificates
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/certificates-and-security.html
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.