Re: OT, self-signed ssl certificate generation

On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 11:00:23AM +0200, Ronald Klop wrote:
> > 
> > In trying to get ssl working for apache24 I tried to follow the
> > instructions for self-signed certificate generation at
> > https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/security/index.html
> > in section 16.8.1, Generating Certificates.
> > 
> > The first example for generating a key and signing request
> > behaved as expected, generating a cert.key and req.pem file.
> > 
> > The second example, for a self-signed certificate, adjusted to:
> > openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -sha3-512 -keyout host.key -out host.crt
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> This command works for me. So I think you should look further what fails.
> That it does not prompt for user input sounds like openssl does not execute properly. What is the exit code of running the command?
> Does it give any output?
> 

The first thing it prompted for was a pass phrase. There being no reason
to have one, I simply hit Enter. Eventually I accidentally discovered
that providing a passphrase allows certificate and key generation to
proceed. But, I don't see any reason for a passphrase on a self-signed 
certificate key. If I were sending the certificate elsewhere for signing 
it might make sense. Am I missing something?

In the meantime I learned of security/xca and started reading the docs at
https://hohnstaedt.de/xca/index.php/documentation/manual
which has proved a large bite to swallow. In particular, the relationship
between a host certificate and a CA certificate eludes me.

Perhaps putting a plaintext password in the apache config file isn't so 
bad in comparison if it works!

> Mine gives:
> $ openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -sha3-512 -keyout host.key -out host.crt
[big snip]
> ..........+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++*...+...+...+.+......+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++*..+.........+...+.+............+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Enter PEM pass phrase:
> Verifying - Enter PEM pass phrase:
> -----
> 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]:NH
> Locality Name (eg, city) []:Amsterdam
> Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Henk
> Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
> Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:henk.example.org
> Email Address []:[email protected]
> 

If I enter a non-null passphrase I see functionally what you see.

Probably I should just accept the necessity of a passphrase and
resume trying to get apache working with https; getting chromium
to accept a self-signed certificate is proving difficult.

Then the original goal of getting sendmail to use tls will be a 
little bit closer. That's what started the whole fire drill.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska