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ca_signed_certificates ca_signed_certificates

Creating CA-signed Certificates

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signing_ca_certificate signing_ca_certificate

Creating the

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CA Certificate

Steps include to create the signing-ca.key Private Key file and signing-ca.crt self-signed Certificate file for the Signing CA both in PEM format.

# Step 1: Generate Signing Certificate Authority (CA) Private Key
openssl ecparam -genkey -name secp256k1 -noout -out signing-ca.key
 
# Step 2: Generate Signing CA Certificate
openssl req -new -x509 -sha256 -days 5475 -key signing-ca.key -out signing-ca.crt

# 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) [XX]:DE
# State or Province Name (full name) []:Berlin
# Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]:Berlin
# Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]:SOS
# Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:JS7
# Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:JS7 Deployment CA
# Email Address []:

# Step 1: Generate Signing Certificate Authority (CA) Private Key using passphrase
openssl ecparam -genkey -name secp256k1 | openssl ec -aes256 -passout pass:"jobscheduler" -out signing-ca.key

 # Step 2: Generate Signing CA Certificate
openssl req -new -x509 -sha256 -days 5475 -key signing-ca.key -passin pass:"jobscheduler" -out signing-ca.crt

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• Step 1: The Private Key is created.
  
  • Choice of algorithm such as secp256k1 is up to the user.
  • The signing-ca.key file will hold the Private Key.
• Step 2: The Signing CA Certificate is created
  
  • As a response to the command the OpenSSL utility prompts for a number of specifications for the Distinguished Name, i.e. the unique name of the Signing CA Certificate: 
    • Country Name: a 2 letter country code is expected as stated for example with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2
    • State or Province Name: the name of a state is expected
    • Locality Name:  the name of a city is expected
    • Organization Name: arbitrary input is allowed
    • Organizational Unit Name: arbitrary input is allowed
    • Common Name: an arbitrary name can be chosen as the name of the Signing CA
    • Email Address: empty input is allowed
  • The signing-ca.crt file will hold the Signing Certificate..

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signing_certificate signing_certificate

Creating a Signing Certificate

For a new signing certificate Signing Certificate the steps include to create the Private Key and Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The resulting Signing Certificate will be signed by the Signing CA.

Users can run the following commands from a bash shell and replace the value of the key_name environment variable with a name of their choice that is used when creating related files:

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• Step 1: Create Private Key and Certificate Signing Request
  • The Certificate Signing Request is created for the Key Usage and Extended Key Usage as indicated.
  • The following files will be created for the given server:
    • <key_name>.key: the Private Key
    • <key_name>.csr: the Certificate Signing Request
• Step 2: The Signing Certificate is created.
  • The following files will be created:
    • <key_name>.crt: the Signing Certificate

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