How to create a self-signed certificate with OpenS

Question

I'm adding HTTPS support to an embedded Linux device. I have tried to generate a self-signed certificate with these steps:

openssl req -new > cert.csr
openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out key.pem
openssl x509 -in cert.csr -out cert.pem -req -signkey key.pem -days 1001
cat key.pem>>cert.pem

This works, but I get some errors with, for example, Google Chrome:

This is probably not the site you are looking for!
The site's security certificate is not trusted!

Am I missing something? Is this the correct way to build a self-signed certificate?

Answer 1

This is the script I use on local boxes to set the SAN (subjectAltName) in self-signed certificates.

This script takes the domain name (example.com) and generates the SAN for *.example.com and example.com in the same certificate. The sections below are commented. Name the script (e.g. generate-ssl.sh) and give it executable permissions. The files will be written to the same directory as the script.

Chrome 58 an onward requires SAN to be set in self-signed certificates.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Set the TLD domain we want to use
BASE_DOMAIN="example.com"

# Days for the cert to live
DAYS=1095

# A blank passphrase
PASSPHRASE=""

# Generated configuration file
CONFIG_FILE="config.txt"

cat > $CONFIG_FILE <<-EOF
[req]
default_bits = 2048
prompt = no
default_md = sha256
x509_extensions = v3_req
distinguished_name = dn

[dn]
C = CA
ST = BC
L = Vancouver
O = Example Corp
OU = Testing Domain
emailAddress = webmaster@$BASE_DOMAIN
CN = $BASE_DOMAIN

[v3_req]
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[alt_names]
DNS.1 = *.$BASE_DOMAIN
DNS.2 = $BASE_DOMAIN
EOF

# The file name can be anything
FILE_NAME="$BASE_DOMAIN"

# Remove previous keys
echo "Removing existing certs like $FILE_NAME.*"
chmod 770 $FILE_NAME.*
rm $FILE_NAME.*

echo "Generating certs for $BASE_DOMAIN"

# Generate our Private Key, CSR and Certificate
# Use SHA-2 as SHA-1 is unsupported from Jan 1, 2017

openssl req -new -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -sha256 -nodes -keyout "$FILE_NAME.key" -days $DAYS -out "$FILE_NAME.crt" -passin pass:$PASSPHRASE -config "$CONFIG_FILE"

# OPTIONAL - write an info to see the details of the generated crt
openssl x509 -noout -fingerprint -text < "$FILE_NAME.crt" > "$FILE_NAME.info"

# Protect the key
chmod 400 "$FILE_NAME.key"

This script also writes an information file, so you can inspect the new certificate and verify the SAN is set properly.

                ...
                28:dd:b8:1e:34:b5:b1:44:1a:60:6d:e3:3c:5a:c4:
                da:3d
            Exponent: 65537 (0x10001)
    X509v3 extensions:
        X509v3 Subject Alternative Name: 
            DNS:*.example.com, DNS:example.com
Signature Algorithm: sha256WithRSAEncryption
     3b:35:5a:d6:9e:92:4f:fc:f4:f4:87:78:cd:c7:8d:cd:8c:cc:
     ...

If you are using Apache, then you can reference the above certificate in your configuration file like so:

<VirtualHost _default_:443>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/htdocs

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile path/to/your/example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile path/to/your/example.com.key
</VirtualHost>

Remember to restart your Apache (or Nginx, or IIS) server for the new certificate to take effect.