Re: make a ssl .pem cert

[Scott Taggart]

Here's the commands I am doing to create a self-signed cert and generate a .h file that Ican include in my application (replace $(SSL_EXE) with ./openssl, as appropriate):

$(SSL_EXE) req -config $(CONF_FILE) -new $(RAND_KEY_FILE) -keyout \
        $(CERT_PRIV_KEY_FILE) -out $(CERT_REQ_FILE)

$(SSL_EXE) x509 -req \
        -in $(CERT_REQ_FILE) \
        -out $(CERT_FILE) \
        -signkey $(CERT_PRIV_KEY_FILE) \
        -C \
        -days $(CERT_EXPIRATION_DAYS) \
         > $(CERT_H_FILE)

$(SSL_EXE) rsa -in $(CERT_PRIV_KEY_FILE) -out $(KEY_TMP_FILE)

Here' commands (from first www reference below) I use to create a self-signed cert (to be VERY honest with you, I am new to this stuff too.  It is horribly documented and way too complicated.  As far as I can figure, the above example and below example pretty much do the same things, but the geeks who understand all this stuff seem to not be very forthcoming with helping out):

$(SSL_EXE) req -new -keyout newkey.pem -out newreq.pem -config $(CONF_FILE) \

cat newreq.pem newkey.pem > newCAReq.pem

$(SSL_EXE) ca  -verbose -keyfile CAkey.pem -key secret -cert CAcert.pem -policy \
        policy_anything -out newcert.pem -outdir ./ -config $(CONF_FILE) \
        -infiles newCAReq.pem


Here's some references I found useful:

http://www.ultranet.com/~fhirsch/Papers/wwwj/article.html -- search for "The SSLeay Certificate Environment" -- I found this extremely useful.

http://www.modssl.org/docs/2.8/ssl_faq.html -- search for "About Certificates"




At 06:21 PM 3/5/2001, Scott Grayban wrote:

Ok I have Openssl compiled on my windows machine.
And i want to make a ssl cert for my webserver's
what is the process i need to go through make a self-signed cert in the .pem format?
I have tried the examples but i didnt understand them so maybe someone can explain the steps i need to go through.
 
any help would be thankfull.