Archive for the tag 'Signing'

Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

Whether you are getting a certificate from a CA or generating your own self-signed certificate, the first step is to generate a key.

To generate the keys for the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) run the following command from a terminal prompt:

# openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024

Generating RSA private key, 1024 bit long modulus
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Enter pass phrase for server.key:

You can now enter your passphrase. For best security, it should at least contain eight characters. The minimum length when specifying -des3 is four characters. It should include numbers and/or punctuation and not be a word in a dictionary. Also remember that your passphrase is case-sensitive. Re-type the passphrase to verify. Once you have re-typed it correctly, the server key is generated and stored in the server.key file.