Create Root CA (Done once)

Create Root Key

Attention: this is the key used to sign the certificate requests, anyone holding this can sign certificates on your behalf. So keep it in a safe place!

openssl genrsa -des3 -out rootCA.key 2048

If you want a non password protected key just remove the -des3 option

Create and self sign the Root Certificate

openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key rootCA.key -sha256 -days 1024 -out rootCA.crt

Here we used our root key to create the root certificate that needs to be distributed in all the computers that have to trust us.

Create a certificate (Done for each server)

This procedure needs to be followed for each server/appliance that needs a trusted certificate from our CA

Create the certificate key

openssl genrsa -out mydomain.com.key 2048

Create the signing (csr)

The certificate signing request is where you specify the details for the certificate you want to generate. This request will be processed by the owner of the Root key (you in this case since you create it earlier) to generate the certificate.

Important: Please mind that while creating the signign request is important to specify the Common Name providing the IP address or domain name for the service, otherwise the certificate cannot be verified.

I will describe here two ways to gener

Method A (Interactive)

If you generate the csr in this way, openssl will ask you questions about the certificate to generate like the organization details and the Common Name (CN) that is the web address you are creating the certificate for, e.g mydomain.com.

openssl req -new -key mydomain.com.key -out mydomain.com.csr

Method B (One Liner)

This method generates the same output as Method A but it's suitable for use in your automation :) .

openssl req -new -sha256 -key mydomain.com.key -subj "/C=US/ST=CA/O=MyOrg, Inc./CN=mydomain.com" -out mydomain.com.csr

If you need to pass additional config you can use the -config parameter, here for example I want to add alternative names to my certificate.

openssl req -new -sha256 \
    -key mydomain.com.key \
    -subj "/C=US/ST=CA/O=MyOrg, Inc./CN=mydomain.com" \
    -reqexts SAN \
    -config <(cat /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf \
        <(printf "\n[SAN]\nsubjectAltName=DNS:mydomain.com,DNS:www.mydomain.com")) \
    -out mydomain.com.csr

Method C (config file)

Recommend way, solve ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID by chrome.

Create csr config file csr.cnf

[req]
default_bits = 2048
default_keyfile = self.key
encrypt_key = no
utf8 = yes
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
x509_extensions = req_ext
prompt = no

[req_distinguished_name]
C = CN
ST = Beijing
L = Beijing
O  = company
CN = certName(best fqdn)

[req_ext]
keyUsage = critical, digitalSignature, keyAgreement
extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[alt_names]
DNS.1 = mydomain.com

Then create csr, pay attention to -reqexts req_ext espcially.

openssl req -new -key mydomain.com.key -out mydomain.com.csr -config csr.cnf -reqexts req_ext

Verify the csr's content

openssl req -in mydomain.com.csr -noout -text

Generate the certificate using the `mydomain` csr and key along with the CA Root key

openssl x509 -req -in mydomain.com.csr -CA rootCA.crt -CAkey rootCA.key -CAcreateserial -out mydomain.com.crt -days 500 -sha256

If you create csr by method 3, you should specify req_ext here.

openssl x509 -req -in mydomain.com.csr -extfile csr.cnf -extensions req_ext -CA rootCA.crt -CAkey rootCA.key -CAcreateserial -out mydomain.com.crt -days 500 -sha256

Verify the certificate's content

openssl x509 -in mydomain.com.crt -text -noout

Mopip77/self-signed-certificate-with-custom-ca.md