Golyahoo

SSL certificates are cool. They will be used more and more. This tutorial should be used only on development and/or test environments!

1. . Generate a new unencrypted rsa private key in PEM format: openssl genrsa -out privkey.pem 2048. You can create an encrypted key by adding the -des3 option. # To make a self-signed certificate:. Create a certificate signing request (CSR) using your rsa private key: openssl req -new -key privkey.pem -out certreq.csr ( This is also the type of.
2. How do I do that with openssl? If my question doesn't make sense, then how is openssl passwd useful? 3- If I encrypt my password with a hash using openssl passwd, and every time there's a random salt added to it, how does openssl decrypt it (or.
3. While Encrypting a File with a Password from the Command Line using OpenSSL is very useful in its own right, the real power of the OpenSSL library is its ability to support the use of public key cryptograph for encrypting or validating data in an unattended manner (where the password is not required to encrypt) is done with public keys. The Commands to Run Generate a 2048 bit RSA Key.
4. In this article you’ll find how to generate CSR (Certificate Signing Request) using OpenSSL from the Linux command line, without being prompted for values which go in the certificate’s subject field. Below you’ll find two examples of creating CSR using OpenSSL. In the first example, i’ll show how to create both CSR and the new private key in one command.

For a production environment please use the already trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs).

This key & certificate will be used to sign other self signed certificates. That will be covered in another tutorial.

But since it is hard to memorize a 256 bit cryptographic key, we commonly use something called a Key Derivation Function (KDF). These are used to generate a key using the password as an input, and are computationally difficult in order to slow down brute force attacks.

here's a video:

Generate the CA key

You'll be prompted to enter a password.

openssl genrsa -des3 -out myCA.key 2048

Generate the Certificate

openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key myCA.key -sha256 -days 3650 -out myCA.pem

3650 means that it will be valid for 10 years. Yes!

You can optionally remove the password from the key. For development purposes it would most likely be OK.

Openssl Generate Key Pair No Password

Make a backup of the original key

Linux/Mac: cp myCA.key myCA.key.with_pwd
Windows: copy myCA.key myCA.key.with_pwd

Export the CA key without a password

This is useful so you don't have to keep track of the password and/or use a script to sign self-signed SSL certificates.

openssl rsa -in myCA.key.with_pwd -out myCA.key

Convert the CA certificate from .PEM to .CRT format

openssl x509 -outform der -in myCA.pem -out myCA.crt

You may get the following errors:

How to fix OpenSSL error unable to write random state.

To fix this use this in the command line.

Windows

set RANDFILE=.rnd

Linux/Mac

export RANDFILE=.rnd

Another OpenSSL WARNING: can't open config file: /apache24/conf/openssl.cnf

This is fixable by setting an ENV variable that points to this file. I have copied this from my current Apache installation.

If you don't have it download it from this gist: https://gist.github.com/lordspace/c2edd30b793e2ee32e5b751e8f977b41

Windows: set OPENSSL_CONF=openssl.cnf

Linux: export OPENSSL_CONF=openssl.cnf

Related

While Encrypting a File with a Password from the Command Line using OpenSSLis very useful in its own right, the real power of the OpenSSL library is itsability to support the use of public key cryptograph for encrypting orvalidating data in an unattended manner (where the password is not required toencrypt) is done with public keys.

The Commands to Run

Generate a 2048 bit RSA Key

You can generate a public and private RSA key pair like this:

openssl genrsa -des3 -out private.pem 2048

That generates a 2048-bit RSA key pair, encrypts them with a password you provideand writes them to a file. You need to next extract the public key file. You willuse this, for instance, on your web server to encrypt content so that it canonly be read with the private key.

Export the RSA Public Key to a File

This is a command that is

openssl rsa -in private.pem -outform PEM -pubout -out public.pem

The -pubout flag is really important. Be sure to include it.

Next open the public.pem and ensure that it starts with-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----. This is how you know that this file is thepublic key of the pair and not a private key.

To check the file from the command line you can use the less command, like this:

less public.pem

Do Not Run This, it Exports the Private Key

A previous version of the post gave this example in error.

openssl rsa -in private.pem -out private_unencrypted.pem -outform PEM

The error is that the -pubout was dropped from the end of the command.That changes the meaning of the command from that of exporting the public keyto exporting the private key outside of its encrypted wrapper. Inspecting theoutput file, in this case private_unencrypted.pem clearly shows that the keyis a RSA private key as it starts with -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----.

Generate Openssl Key Without Password List

Visually Inspect Your Key Files

It is important to visually inspect you private and public key files to makesure that they are what you expect. OpenSSL will clearly explain the nature ofthe key block with a -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- or -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----.

You can use less to inspect each of your two files in turn:

• less private.pem to verify that it starts with a -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
• less public.pem to verify that it starts with a -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----

The next section shows a full example of what each key file should look like.

The Generated Key Files

The generated files are base64-encoded encryption keys in plain text format.If you select a password for your private key, its file will be encrypted withyour password. Be sure to remember this password or the key pair becomes useless.

The private.pem file looks something like this:

The public key, public.pem, file looks like:

Protecting Your Keys

Depending on the nature of the information you will protect, it’s important tokeep the private key backed up and secret. The public key can be distributedanywhere or embedded in your web application scripts, such as in your PHP,Ruby, or other scripts. Again, backup your keys!

Remember, if the key goes away the data encrypted to it is gone. Keeping aprinted copy of the key material in a sealed envelope in a bank safety depositbox is a good way to protect important keys against loss due to fire or harddrive failure.

Oh, and one last thing.

If you, dear reader, were planning any funny business with the private key that I have just published here. Know that they were made especially for this series of blog posts. I do not use them for anything else.

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