KB ID 0001206
Problem
If you want to use digital certificates on your CentOS server, then you will need to generate a CSR. It does not matter if you want to purchase a publicly signed certificate, or even if you are going to sign your own. Below is how to generate a CSR for a single web host.
Note: Most cert vendors now require a minimum key length of 2048 so thats what I’m going to use. And I’m assuming you have openSSL installed (type ‘openssl version‘ to find out).
Solution
Execute the following command
[root@WebHost ~]# openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout www.YourSite.com.key -out www.YourSite.com.csr
The CSR Generation process will begin and you will have to answer some questions;
Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key .........................................+++ ........................+++ writing new private key to 'www.YourSite.com.key' ----- 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) [XX]:GB State or Province Name (full name) []:Teesside Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]:Middlesbrough Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]:YourSite Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:YourSite Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:www.YourSite.com Email Address []:administrator@YourSite.com Please enter the following 'extra' attributes to be sent with your certificate request A challenge password []:password123 An optional company name []:YourSite
This will actually create the CSR, now you need to get the text from the CSR, and sent it to your certificate vendor ,or sign it with your own CA.
[root@WebHost ~]# cat www.YourSite.com.csr
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
NIIDKTCCAhECAQAwga4xCzAJBgNVBAYTAkdCMREwDwYDVQQIDAhUZWVzc2lkZTEW
MBQGA1UEBwwNTWlkZGxlc2Jyb3VnaDEUMBIGA1UECgwLUGV0ZU5ldExpdmUxFDAS
BgNVBAsMC1BldGVOZXRMaXZlMRwwGgYDVQQDDBN3d3cucGV0ZW5ldGxpdmUuY29t
MSowKAYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFhtpbmZvcm1hdGlvbkBwZXRlbmV0bGl2ZS5jb20wggEi
MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQCudW2OhXUnEIpiN2oQnREoZVAn
Cvvb07+7gZb5NgxSSc8pYab3ic6mmEabM3c/m9mLtO3m4ZSTJrU9QC91Vn6PF90K
iqApOfizUnNFEOSJptpcoLxlUWUJF8PZUn9fYZyNhp30QQ3B5ajxc4ML0BB+4Wp2
1sjJzfAvtSsFmUSCEXlJTrWnYkGpZz4dYYRlQgTniY4++M/AG9gL99XuSKcSD5K0
4qr07J9a6AYA0tXJq+yN3EzcLSBkIVDuNv84e+CyXc8RV+BkaRTr/gYGwQU4C+IG
87Lw8GC6P1adUi2mR4GMMbZLPYa14Psao4ZA/Ihk9EFS2xqXQH2AZ2nUGPM7AgMB
AAGgNTAXBgkqhkiG9w0BCQcxCgwIcGFzc3dvcmQwGgYJKoZIhvcNAQkCMQ0MC1Bl
dGVOZXRMaXZlMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAA4IBAQAPUo4AVBajrflZQRI8MrRyndpD
s6MqZQwYlrceZVZrut+htS14ZC/GbaPC7gOvxYyS52RSW4UiG3egi6H7NnhqHjR+
Dz859bLKIut3YeCo3sK5+aCxvcGEjA1uduqKg5WFwPj5BvnsIYezq3O5Q4FvfQAy
FElb9snk0sJ6GFYifjeza8+w6CIabUpyl0kyDoAbnjnnyhR0s5/h4L7X3zqaQ0J+
OZVRyj54nLXoFDw1n8pGRb31khlEwDzXvVe9+wreCZ6lLqhDki94Uq5LenqofUlw
MPucqVIA9lgvQ8vjyTWVQYYffMRlAx7g/SdVTIhFBqq7rsh9/XHn7qfXlc4c
-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
[root@WebHost ~]#
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
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