Scratchpad: Certificate renewal on Unix box

What are web site certificates?

If an organization wants to have a secure web site that uses encryption, it needs to obtain a site, or host, certificate. There are two elements that indicate that a site uses encryption:

a closed padlock, which, depending on your browser, may be located in the status bar at the bottom of your browser window or at the top of the browser window between the address and search fields
a URL that begins with "https:" rather than "http:"

By making sure a web site encrypts your information and has a valid certificate, you can help protect yourself against attackers who create malicious sites to gather your information.

RAISING A CERTIFICATE REQUEST

1. Run the command for extracting server key (server.key)

/home/u2/neha>openssl genrsa -out server.key 2048

Generating RSA private key, 2048 bit long modulus

.........+++

..................+++

e is 65537 (0x10001)

this will give a file named 'server.key'

2. generate .csr file

home/u2/neha>openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

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) [AU]:

State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:

Locality Name (eg, city) []:

Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:

Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Global

Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []:

Email Address []:

Please enter the following 'extra' attributes

to be sent with your certificate request

A challenge password []:

An optional company name []:

/home/u2/neha>ls -lrt

-r-xr-x--x 1 neha staff 990930 Aug 21 11:54 openssl

-rw-r----- 1 neha staff 1675 Aug 21 11:54 server.key

-rw-r----- 1 neha staff 1074 Aug 21 11:58 server.csr

/home/u2/neha>cat server.csr

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

MIIC3zCCAccCAQAwgZkxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMREwDwYDVQQIEwhEZWxhd2FyZTEP

MA0GA1UEBxMGTmV3YXJrMSwwKgYDVQQKEyNFLkkuIERVIFBvbnQgREUgTmVtb3Vy

cyBhbmQgQ29tcGFueTEPMA0GA1UECxMGR2xvYmFsMScwJQYDVQQDEx5pYm0tbmV0

Y29vbC1kZXYubHZzLmR1cG9udC5jb20wggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAw

ggEKAoIBAQC/pvRekxQ1pio1ZY4u7Id4hBe7uc9C1p/7dIC705tu2iZpLcEj9W8M

UKdwwD/cNHgYpK1JLynaCC3Fl9M6C6MDU9JAH5FzO8vwB4HUi//vkuszzMZoF+R3

V7urYOihXbreASVURu5PZfHfARhdnq+5J355798lkj2fANjnhWbK+QlzoWIieWdy

3roaw6fHixEXC8FZ9+I8GD9gkx/KFRTnBmpw6lGslPhAmM3lUuU+I3qLKetWCvDQ

IeIebm989hFKiCx2RjAfz5jJbmtqPfeTbJRZihzVxM+SW+TZJHM6RHwL7huVyMWZ

dQmWfeML7VAYkmdWdu9myAtJ0kgk998fAgMBAAGgADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOC

AQEArcAW4NjNIZRW5NF/aLdZn+KELWt39dzz5mvNSkifAc2d5f4T/KZaaoP+3blZ

NtwqlWOQnG5cUy37pQm0Lq4GV+65VmnGYp/jmmEMkTntyp4tiKK84/JZe/FIQrIg

sgFTZoEB9oO3HhHWyhjnTq8hCSt8HLrziXMSBtAgVntBAOKpJbio9OdhWGCwo8cG

hzsh2C2uT+mg/ssun7x9trljkASCuE9AwGawO9/cLZ1CkQrIIjPmwOth59UxS6ni

eVphJGoo2gA+gUtPZyW91tc0jHasHZU1OBR2X2Dy03kEt3QducbzP0JgI2rezYCj

T/Zg9eDa5bXNgLK4JnQEh7v0lg==

-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

3. get these files on Desktop by FTP from path of server to Desktop. The mode of FTP should be ASCII while doing get

4. Send server.crt file to personnel in a organisation who can get this certified

5. Person sends back the crt file in this form

Web Server CERTIFICATE

-----------------

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----

MIIEfzCCA2egAwIBAgIDA35GMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMGExCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT

blablablablavlablablablablablablablablablablablablavlablablablablablablablabla

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