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OpenSSL One liner to create self signed certificate

Published: 09-10-2013 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article


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This is a one liner for OpenSSL to generate a self signed certificate and private key.

openssl req -nodes -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 356

This is the output. Fill it in as required:

Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
......................+++
....................................+++
writing new private key to 'key.pem'
-----
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) [AU]:NL
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Zuid Holland
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Rotterdam
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Sparkling Network
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:QA
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:example.sparklingnetwork.nl
Email Address []:

If you want a password on the private key, remove the -nodes option.

Tags: certificates , csr , openssl , pki , private-key , public-key , snippets , ssl