This is the page of the MemberManual that describes how to generate a valid SSL cert.

TableOfContents

Introduction

There are several different options available for providing an SSL certificate to use with us.

The first option is to get a signed certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority ("CA" for short). If you want to make it os that visitors to your website never see an annoying nag dialog box, then this is your best option.

Alternatively, you can provide us with a certificate request ("CSR" for short), and we can provide you with a signed certificate. Please be aware that since our CA certificate is not included by default with any web browsers or operating systems, you won't really gain much benefit from having us sign your cert, except for a nebulous "cool factor" . If you want to be sure that the people who browse your website won't be prompted about accepting your SSL certificate, then this is not for you.

The last option is to make a self-signed certificate.

Getting a certificate from a real CA

There are several options available. By far the largest providers are [http://www.verisign.com/ VeriSign] and [http://www.thawte.com/ Thawte]. We make no specific recommendations concerning which CA to choose: just make certain that their root CA certificates are included with the majority of web browsers.

Having HCoop provide you with a certificate

If you are creating an SSL certificate to use for a web virtual host via DomTool, then you need to create both a key file and a csr file. The csr file is called a "certifcate signing request" (sometimes abbreviated "certificate request"), and you will want to specify that on the SSL form in the HCoop Portal. We'll also need access to your key.

To create a cerificate request in file.csr and a private key in file.key, do the following. The certificate should be placed somewhere in your home directory, like "~/certs", for example.

openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout file.key -out file.csr -nodes

Here is an explanation of the parameters that you will be asked to provide. Replace yourdomain.org with your domain name.

• Country/State/Locality: These are self-explanatory.

• Organization Name: This can be anything you want. It is often the full name or description of your organization or website.

• Organizational Unit Name: This can be anything you want. It can be left blank.

• Common Name: This is the domain that goes with the certificate. It can be either a single name (i.e. "yourdomain.org"), or a wildcard domain (like "*.yourdomain.org"). The wildcard domain is used for sharing the same certificate in multiple subdomains of your domain.

• Email Address: A valid email address. People often use ca@yourdomain.org.

• Challenge Password: Leave blank.

• Company Name: This can be anything you want. It can be left blank.

These files should be readable only by you and the HCoop admins, so be sure to set permissions properly on the directory where you store the certificate request and key. Now you're ready to follow the rest of the instructions on [:../:the previous page].

When we process your request, we will:

• Sign the certificate request as a Certificate Authority (CA).
• Place a complimentary copy of the resulting certificate in the same directory as the certificate request, with a ".crt" extension.
• Concatenate the signed request with your key.

• Place the result in /etc/apache2/ssl/user/yourdomain.org.pem.

• Grant you Domtool permissions so that you can use this certificate at location /etc/apache2/ssl/user/yourdomain.org.pem in your Domtool configuration.

This allows you to import a single [http://deleuze.hcoop.net/ca/ca.crt CA certificate] (click on the link if you wish to install it), which avoids the "certificate confirmation" dialog box when you browse one of our websites (or one of our member websites). Be aware that we are not in any way recommending that you do this; it is solely for the sake of convenience that we provide this option.

Making a self-signed .pem file

This is for reference, in case you want to make a self-signed certificate rather than having HCoop sign it. DAYS indicates the number of days that you want the certificate to be valid.

FILE is the filename of the certificate that will be generated: it should end in ".pem". DAYS indicates the number of days that you want the certificate to be valid.

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout FILE -out FILE -days DAYS -nodes