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How to Self-Sign an SSL Certificate

To self-sign SSL certificates using openssl, you will need to set up your own certificate authority using the following steps.

  • Generate a key for your certificate authority
    openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 2048
  • Remove the password from your server's key. This step is optional, but is required to get the below Perl script to work. Obviously you wouldn't do this to a real key that you had signed by a real certificate authority.
    cp server.key server.key.org
openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key
  • Generate a CSR for your certificate authority.
    openssl req -new -nodes -key server.key -out server.csr
  • Sign your certificate request
    openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
  • Now you can sign certificate requests. Here is an example for a CSR named test.csr
    openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in test.csr -out test.crt -CA server.crt -CAkey server.key -set_serial 01
  • Optional: Add your certificate authority to your browser so you don't get a certificate warning when visiting your test site.

Here is a Perl CGI script that will sign certificates from a browser.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI qw(:standard);

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

unless (param('REST')) {

print <<HTML;

<html>
<body>

<form action="index.cgi" method=post>
Put your Certificate Request here:
<br/>
<textarea name="csr" cols="65" rows="22">
</textarea>
<br/>
How long you want it for? <input type="text" name="days" value="365"> (days)
<br/>
<input type="submit" value="Sign It!"/>

</form>

HTML

}

if (param()) {
    my $csr = param('csr');
    my $days = param('days');
    $days =~ s/[^\d]//g;

    my $csr_file = "/full/path/to/a/directory/where/you/can/write/csr/files/" . $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'} . "." . $$ . "." . time() . ".csr";
    my $crt_file = $csr_file;
    $crt_file =~ s/\.csr/\.crt/g;

    open CSR, ">", $csr_file or die $!;
    print CSR $csr;
    close CSR;

    `openssl x509 -req -days $days -in $csr_file -out $crt_file -CA /full/path/to/your/servers/crt/file/server.crt -CAkey /full/path/to/your/servers/key/file/server.key -set_serial 01`;

    print "<pre>\n" unless param('REST');

    open CRT, "<", $crt_file or die $!;
    while (<CRT>) {
      print $_;
    }
    close CRT;

    print "\n\n</pre>\n" unless param('REST');
}

print " </body> </html> " unless param('REST');
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