August 14, 2011 — Just read an excellent guide about how to create self-signed certificates.
Here's what it boils down to:
# The cool thing about SSL is it's just 2 text files. A public key and a private key.
# They have a "pem" and a "crt" extension, but they are just plain text. Neat.
# Okay, first step is to create a private key "pem" file.
# every time you run this the random output pem file will be different:
openssl genrsa -des3 -out private_key.pem 1024
# (enter passphrase)
# Next, generate a "signing request".
openssl req -new -key private_key.pem -out private_key_certificate_signing_request.csr
# (for common name enter the full domain name:
# (the extra options aren't necessary--just hit enter)
# Next remove the password from the private_key. Otherwise you'd have to enter
# that password at all sorts of inconvenient times.....be careful because
# if someone gets this unencrypted ket, you'll need to get a new cert..so make your pem readable
# only by root!
cp private_key.pem private_key.pem.original
openssl rsa -in private_key.pem.original -out private_key.pem
# now you can generate your public self signed certificate:
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in private_key_certificate_signing_request.csr -signkey private_key.pem -out self_signed_public_certificate.crt
# now copy the private key (pem file) and the public key ( crt file ) to your web server.
mkdir /etc/httpd/certs
cp self_signed_public_certificate.cert /etc/httpd/certs
cp private_key.pem /etc/httpd/certs
# you can delete the CRT file. you don't need that crap anymore. you got the cert/public key and the pem/private key. thats all you need
rm private_key_certificate_signing_request.csr
# if you don't have mod_ssl installed you need to install it. on fedora:
yum install mod_ssl
#now edit the apache config to let apache with mod_ssl know where the keys are:
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/certs/self_signed_public_certificate.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/httpd/certs/private_key.pem