1.2 Stepwise guide on the Creation of an Apache SSL Certificate on Ubuntu The following steps outline the process of creating an Apache SSL certificate on Ubuntu. Important to Note: 1. Users must note that it is essential to have access to root privileges on the VPS before executing the task (as explained in steps 3 and 4). Sudo apt-get install. How to create pfx file from private public key? Ask Question Asked 2 years, 1 month ago. You do not have a certificate? – Patrick Mevzek Feb 13 '18 at 14:04. Ubuntu 14.04LTS How to generate an a Windows Azure Compatible.cer key.
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And now you'll create the CSR from the key. With the CSR and the key a self-signed certificate can be generated: openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt The last step consists of installing the certificate and the key, in Debian/Ubuntu usually in /etc/ssl. Apr 21, 2016 How To Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate for Apache in Ubuntu 16.04 Step 1: Create the SSL Certificate. TLS/SSL works by using a combination. Step 2: Configure Apache to Use SSL. We have created our key and certificate.
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Introduction
TLS, or transport layer security, and its predecessor SSL, secure sockets layer, are secure protocols created in order to place normal traffic in a protected, encrypted wrapper.
These protocols allow traffic to be sent safely between remote parties without the possibility of the traffic being intercepted and read by someone in the middle. They are also instrumental in validating the identity of domains and servers throughout the internet by establishing a server as trusted and genuine by a certificate authority.
In this guide, we’ll cover how to create a self-signed SSL certificate for Apache on an Ubuntu 14.04 server, which will allow you to encrypt traffic to your server. While this does not provide the benefit of third party validation of your server’s identity, it fulfills the requirements of those simply wanting to transfer information securely.
Note: You may want to consider using Let’s Encrypt instead of a self-signed certificate. Let’s Encrypt is a new certificate authority that issues free SSL/TLS certificates that are trusted in most web browsers. Check out the tutorial to get started: How To Secure Apache with Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu 14.04
Prerequisites
Before you begin, you should have some configuration already taken care of.
We will be operating as a non-root user with sudo privileges in this guide. You can set one up by following steps 1-4 in our Ubuntu 14.04 initial server setup guide.
You are also going to need to have Apache installed. If you don’t already have that up and running, you can quickly fix that by typing:
Step One — Activate the SSL Module
SSL support actually comes standard in the Ubuntu 14.04 Apache package. We simply need to enable it to take advantage of SSL on our system.
Enable the module by typing:
After you have enabled SSL, you’ll have to restart the web server for the change to be recognized:
With that, our web server is now able to handle SSL if we configure it to do so.
Step Two — Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate
Let’s start off by creating a subdirectory within Apache’s configuration hierarchy to place the certificate files that we will be making:
Now that we have a location to place our key and certificate, we can create them both in one step by typing:
Let’s go over exactly what this means.
When you hit “ENTER”, you will be asked a number of questions.
The most important item that is requested is the line that reads “Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name)”. You should enter the domain name you want to associate with the certificate, or the server’s public IP address if you do not have a domain name.
The questions portion looks something like this:
The key and certificate will be created and placed in your
/etc/apache2/ssl directory.
Step Three — Configure Apache to Use SSL
Now that we have our certificate and key available, we can configure Apache to use these files in a virtual host file. You can learn more about how to set up Apache virtual hosts here.
Instead of basing our configuration file off of the
000-default.conf file in the sites-available subdirectory, we’re going to base this configuration on the default-ssl.conf file that contains some default SSL configuration.
Open the file with root privileges now:
With the comments removed, the file looks something like this:
This may look a bit complicated, but luckily, we don’t need to worry about most of the options here.
We want to set the normal things we’d configure for a virtual host (ServerAdmin, ServerName, ServerAlias, DocumentRoot, etc.) as well as change the location where Apache looks for the SSL certificate and key.
In the end, it will look something like this. The entries in red were modified from the original file:
Save and exit the file when you are finished.
Step Four — Activate the SSL Virtual Host
Now that we have configured our SSL-enabled virtual host, we need to enable it.
We can do this by typing:
We then need to restart Apache to load our new virtual host file:
This should enable your new virtual host, which will serve encrypted content using the SSL certificate you created.
Step Five — Test your Setup
Now that you have everything prepared, you can test your configuration by visiting your server’s domain name or public IP address after specifying the
https:// protocol, like this:
You will get a warning that your browser cannot verify the identity of your server because it has not been signed by one of the certificate authorities that it trusts.
This is expected since we have self-signed our certificate. While our certificate will not validate our server for our users because it has had no interaction with a trusted certificate authority, it will still be able to encrypt communication.
Since this is expected, you can hit the “Proceed anyway” button or whatever similar option you have in your browser.
You will now be taken to content in the
DocumentRoot that you configured for your SSL virtual host. This time your traffic is encrypted. You can check this by clicking on the lock icon in the menu bar:
You can see in the middle green section that the connection is encrypted.
Conclusion
You should now have SSL enabled on your website. This will help to secure communication between visitors and your site, but it will warn each user that the browser cannot verify the validity of the certificate.
If you are planning on launching a public site and need SSL, you will be better off purchasing an SSL certificate from a trusted certificate authority.
If you want to learn more about how to configure Apache, click here. Check out this link for more ideas on how to secure your Linux server.
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Introduction
TLS, or transport layer security, and its predecessor SSL, which stands for secure sockets layer, are web protocols used to wrap normal traffic in a protected, encrypted wrapper.
Using this technology, servers can send traffic safely between the server and the client without the concern that the messages will be intercepted and read by an outside party. The certificate system also assists users in verifying the identity of the sites that they are connecting with.
In this guide, we will show you how to set up a self-signed SSL certificate for use with an Nginx web server on an Ubuntu 14.04 server. A self-signed certificate will not validate the identity of your server for your users since it is not signed by one of their web browser’s trusted certificate authorities, but it will allow you to encrypt communications with your web clients.
Note: You may want to consider using Let’s Encrypt instead of a self-signed certificate. Let’s Encrypt is a new certificate authority that issues free SSL/TLS certificates that are trusted in most web browsers. Check out the tutorial to get started: How To Secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu 14.04
Prerequisites
To get started on this guide, you will need to set up some basic things on your server.
You should have a non-root user available who has
sudo privileges. You can learn how to set up such a user account by following steps 1-4 in our initial server setup for Ubuntu 14.04.
After that, you’ll also need to have the Nginx web server installed. If you would like to install an entire LEMP (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP) stack on your server, you can follow our guide on setting up LEMP on Ubuntu 14.04.
Ssl Certificate Key File
If you just want the Nginx web server, you can instead just type:
Step One — Create the SSL Certificate
We can start off by creating a directory that will be used to hold all of our SSL information. We should create this under the Nginx configuration directory:
Now that we have a location to place our files, we can create the SSL key and certificate files in one motion by typing:
You will be asked a series of questions. Before we go over that, let’s take a look at what is happening in the command we are issuing:
As we stated above, these options will create both a key file and a certificate. We will be asked a few questions about our server in order to embed the information correctly in the certificate.
Fill out the prompts appropriately. The most important line is the one that requests the
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) . You need to enter the domain name that you want to be associated with your server. You can enter the public IP address instead if you do not have a domain name.
The entirety of the prompts will look something like this:
Both of the files you created will be placed in the
/etc/nginx/ssl directory.
Step Two — Configure Nginx to Use SSL
We have created our key and certificate files under the Nginx configuration directory. Now we just need to modify our Nginx configuration to take advantage of these by adjusting our server block files. You can learn more about Nginx server blocks in this article.
Nginx versions 0.7.14 and above (Ubuntu 14.04 ships with version 1.4.6) can enable SSL within the same server block as regular HTTP traffic. This allows us to configure access to the same site in a much more succinct manner.
Your server block may look something like this:
The only thing we would need to do to get SSL working on this same server block, while still allowing regular HTTP connections, is add a these lines:
When you are finished, save and close the file.
Now, all you have to do is restart Nginx to use your new settings:
This should reload your site configuration, now allowing it to respond to both HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) requests.
Step Three — Test your Setup
Your site should now have SSL functionality, but we should test it to make sure.
First, let’s test to make sure we can still access the site with using normal HTTP. In your web browser, go to your server’s domain name or IP address:
You should see your normal website. In my example, I’m just serving the default Nginx page:
If you get this page, then your server is still handling HTTP requests correctly.
Now, we can check whether our server can use SSL to communicate. Do this by specifying the
https protocol instead of the http protocol.
You will likely get a warning in your web browser that looks something like this:
This is expected. It is telling you that it cannot verify the identity of the server you are trying to connect to because it isn’t signed by a certificate authority that the browser has been configured to trust. Since we created a self-signed certificate, this makes perfect sense.
Click on “Proceed anyway”, “Continue”, or whatever similar option is available. You should see your site again:
Your browser may show the “https” crossed out in the address bar or a broken or crossed out “lock” icon. If you click on the lock icon, you can see some more information about the connection:
As you can see, the issue is only that the browser cannot verify the identity of the server because it isn’t signed by a certificate authority that it is configured to trust. The middle section shows that the connection is encrypted, however, so we have achieved that goal.
ConclusionGenerate Ssl Certificate Azure
You have configured your Nginx server to handle both HTTP and SSL requests. This will help you communicate with clients securely and avoid outside parties from being able to read your traffic.
Generate Ssl Certificate And Key Ubuntu Free
If you are planning on using SSL for a public website, you should probably purchase an SSL certificate from a trusted certificate authority to prevent the scary warnings from being shown to each of your visitors.
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