Introduction
A Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is the first step in setting up an SSL Certificate on your website. SSL certificates are provided by Certificate Authorities (CA), which require a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
This guide will instruct you on how to generate a Certificate Signing Request using OpenSSL.
Open a terminal window. Use your SSH connection to log into your remote server.
SSL.com’s public CSR and Key Generator is currently down for maintenance as part of our website’s redesign and update. We will be back soon with a new and updated version. In the mean time, we encourage our customers to learn about generating CSRs and keys in our customer portal’s CSR Manager. Online CSR Generator. You have to generate a certificate signing request (CSR) and a private key to purchase an SSL Certificate. You can easily generate both by using the form below.
Generate Certificate Signing Request. The Appliance provides the ability to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The options for generating the request are displayed in the screen capture below: All fields are optional and the information entered is dependent upon the Certificate Authority (CA) being used for certificate generation. You can use this CSR Generator tool for free. It will automatically generate your CSR (Certificate Signing Request) and your Private Key, based on the information which you will introduce in the CSR form below. You will need the CSR code when applying for an SSL Certificate under your SSL Dragon account. Click on Generate, view, or delete SSL certificate signing requests under the Certificate Signing Requests (CSR) menu: On the next page, locate the option titled Generate a New Certificate Signing Request (CSR). If you select “Generate a New 2048-bit key”, a completely new Private Key will be generated.
Note: If you are working locally, you don’t need an SSH connection. Also, most Linux systems will launch a terminal window by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T or Ctrl-Alt-F1.
It is advised to issue a new private key each time you generate a CSR. Hence, the steps below instruct on how to generate both the private key and the CSR.
Make sure to replace your_domain with the actual domain you’re generating a CSR for.
The commands are broken out as follows:
Note: Use 2048-bit key pairs. The 4096-bit key pairs are more secure, however, they require a lot more server resources.
Your system should launch a text-based questionnaire for you to fill out.
Enter your information in the fields as follows:
Please take into account that Organization Name and Unit Name must not contain the following characters:
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Once the software finishes, you should be able to find the CSR file in your working directory.
You can also enter the following:
The system should list out all certificate signing requests on the system. The one that matches the domain name you provided in Step 2 appended with the .csr extension is the one you need to look into.
You can open the .csr file in a text editor to find the alphanumeric code that was generated.
Enter the following command:
This text can be copied and pasted into a submittal form to request your SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority.
Make sure you copy the entire text. Some CAs may allow you to simply upload the .csr file you generated. Below is an example of a CSR.
You needn’t send the private key to the CA. Once you get your SSL certificate, the private key on the server will bind with it to encrypt communication.
Now you know how to generate an OpenSSL certificate signing request. Before submitting the CSR to a certificate authority, we recommend verifying the information it holds. Use one of the widely available online CSR decoders.
SSL is a crucial protocol for securing traffic between a website and its visitors. It helps to protect sensitive information online, such as credit card data.
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