>       From: owner-openssl-us...@openssl.org On Behalf Of Ariel
>       Sent: Thursday, 21 October, 2010 16:34

>       On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 12:44 AM, sandeep kiran p
<sandeepkir...@gmail.com> wrote:
>               mydomain.com.crt is an End-Entity certificate and not a CA
cert. <snip>

>       So basically you mean that I can't use "mydomain.com.crt" to sign
and issue 
> new certificates for my clients? I thought I can using the bundle or
intermediate 
> one they provided to me. Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know too much 
> how does it work and this is annoying to me :S
>       I only want to generate and issue new certificates that my clients
can install 
> in their browsers and then provide it to me (SSL Client certificate) when
they come 
> to my site. Is this possible without having to create a self-sign CA cert
that causes 
> browsers to not recognize it as a valid CA? Can I provide a trusted
chained root 
> with the certificates I'm trying to issue?

> [sandeep?] So you either need to get a CA cert from GoDaddy or setup a
test CA 
> on your own using OpenSSL. GoDaddy, I am sure would not provide you with a
CA 
> certificate as that would then empower you to <snip rest>

Do as sandeep said. Create your own private CA with OpenSSL. You issue 
certs to clients (who request them) and set your server(s) to trust your 
private root and thus the certs presented by the clients. Your server 
presents the cert issued to it under a real CA which the clients trust.

The only tricky bit is if your clients need to authenticate themselves 
to some *other* server(s) besides yours. Then they need to be able to 
select 'key/cert for Ariel' versus other, perhaps public, key/cert(s).
Your server should do SSL_[CTX_]set_client_CA_list to your private root; 
this will send a 'hint' to the client which cert to present -- although 
it's up to the client to actually obey this hint, it's not required to.

Plus of course you need to ensure that the people/machines you issue 
certs to are in fact the ones you want as clients. Although if you 
make a mistake, you can issue your own CRL(s) which your server checks.
(And if it's convenient to put your CA on the same machine as your server, 
this greatly simplifies the CRL distribution procedure. <G?>)


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