Openssl Generate Key And Crt

If you want to convert your website from HTTP to HTTPS, you need to get a SSL certificate from a valid organization like Verisign or Thawte. You can also generate self signed SSL certificate for testing purpose.

In this article, let us review how to generate private key file (server.key), certificate signing request file (server.csr) and webserver certificate file (server.crt) that can be used on Apache server with mod_ssl.

  1. Generate Key File From Crt
  2. Openssl Generate Key And Cert
  3. Generate Crt File
  4. Openssl Create Key And Crt

Oct 15, 2012  Stikkord: ca, crt, IMAGENYA ( 2 ), key, openssl, pfx Convert from CRT to PFX with openssl In many cases where you need an SSL certificate for your web servers (or other secure services like Lync, Exchange etc) you need to get a digital certificate from a third party certificate authority.

  1. Steps to create RSA private key, self-signed certificate, keystore, and truststore for a client. Generate a private key. Openssl genrsa -out diagclientCA.key 2048 Create a x509 certificate. Openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key diagclientCA.key -sha256 -days 1024 -out diagclientCA.pem.
  2. Sep 11, 2018  The first thing to do would be to generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair locally. This pair will contain both your private and public key. You can use Java key tool or some other tool, but we will be working with OpenSSL. To generate a public and private key with a certificate signing request (CSR), run the following OpenSSL command.
  3. OpenSSL – How to convert SSL Certificates to various formats – PEM CRT CER PFX P12 & more How to use the OpenSSL tool to convert a SSL certificate and private key on various formats (PEM, CRT, CER, PFX, P12, P7B, P7C extensions & more) on Windows and Linux platforms.

Key, CSR and CRT File Naming Convention

I typically like to name the files with the domain name of the HTTPS URL that will be using this certificate. This makes it easier to identify and maintain.

  • Instead of server.key, I use www.thegeekstuff.com.key
  • Instead of server.csr, I use www.thegeekstuff.com.csr
  • Instead of server.crt, I use www.thegeekstuff.com.crt

1. Generate Private Key on the Server Running Apache + mod_ssl

First, generate a private key on the Linux server that runs Apache webserver using openssl command as shown below.

The generated private key looks like the following.

2. Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

Generate Key File From Crt

Using the key generate above, you should generate a certificate request file (csr) using openssl as shown below.

3. Generate a Self-Signed SSL Certificate

For testing purpose, you can generate a self-signed SSL certificate that is valid for 1 year using openssl command as shown below.


You can use this method to generate Apache SSL Key, CSR and CRT file in most of the Linux, Unix systems including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora and Red Hat.

4. Get a Valid Trial SSL Certificate (Optional)

Generate rsa key with password in argument. Instead of signing it youself, you can also generate a valid trial SSL certificate from thawte. i.e Before spending the money on purchasing a certificate, you can also get a valid fully functional 21 day trial SSL certificates from Thawte. Once this valid certificate works, you can either decide to purchase it from Thawte or any other SSL signing organization.

This step is optional and not really required. For testing purpose, you can always use the self-signed certificate that was generated from the above step.

Go to Thwate trial certificate request page and do the following:

  • Select “SSL Web Server Certificate (All servers)” under the “select your trial certificate”.
  • Do not check the PKCS #7 check-box under the “configure certificate”
  • Copy/Paste the *.csr file that you generate above in the textbox under “certificate signing request (CSR)”
  • Click on next at the bottom, which will give you a 21-day free trial certificate.


Copy/Paste the trial certificate to the www.thegeekstuff.com.crt file as shown below.

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This guide will show you how to convert a .crt certificate file and associated private key, and convert it to a .pfx file using OpenSSL. This can be useful if you need to take a certificate file, and load it onto a Windows server for example.
A PFX file is a way of storing private keys, and certificates in a single encrypted file. It is commonly used to import and export certificates and keys on a Windows PC.
In the example below, the following files will be used:
domain.name.crt – this is the public certificate file.
domain.name.key – This is the private encryption key for the above certificate.
domain.name.pfx – This will be the PFX file outputted from OpenSSL.
Converting the crt certificate and private key to a PFX file

Openssl Generate Key And Cert

This will create a pfx output file called “domain.name.pfx”.
You will be asked for the pass-phrase for the private key if needed, and also to set a pass-phrase for the newly created .pfx file too.
You can now load this .pfx file onto a Windows machine, or wherever needed.

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