25.8. Creating a Self-Signed Certificate
You can create your own self-signed certificate. Note that a self-signed certificate does not provide the security guarantees of a CA-signed certificate. Refer to Section 25.5, “Types of Certificates” for more details about certificates.
To make your own self-signed certificate, first create a random key using the instructions provided in Section 25.6, “Generating a Key”. Once you have a key, make sure you are in the
/usr/share/ssl/certs/ directory, and type the following command:
make testcert
The following output is shown and you are prompted for your passphrase (unless you generated a key without a passphrase):
umask 77 ; \ /usr/bin/openssl req -new -key -set_serial num /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key -x509 -days 365 -out /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt Using configuration from /usr/share/ssl/openssl.cnf Enter pass phrase:
Next, you are asked for more information. The computer's output and a set of inputs looks like the following (provide the correct information for your organization and host):
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter '.', the field will be left blank. ----- Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:USState or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:North CarolinaLocality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:RaleighOrganization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:My Company, Inc.Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:DocumentationCommon Name (your name or server's hostname) []:myhost.example.comEmail Address []:myemail@example.com
After you provide the correct information, a self-signed certificate is created in
/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt. Restart the secure server after generating the certificate with following the command:
/sbin/service httpd restart