Self-Signed IIS SSL Certificates using OpenSSL

Self-Signed IIS SSL Certificates using OpenSSL

This tutorial assumes that you have a Linux box with OpenSSL installed,and that you want to create a self-signed certificate for IIS5.0 / 6.0

Set up your CA (you only have to do this once)
ON THE LINUX BOX…

Create a private key

openssl genrsa -des3 -out CA.key 1024

(You’ll need to supply a passphrase. DON’T FORGET THIS!!)

Set this to read-only for root for security

chmod 400 CA.key

Create the CA certificate

openssl req -new -key CA.key -x509 -days 1095 -out CA.crt

(Provide appropriate responses to the prompts…for Common Name, you might want to use something like “OurCompany CA”)

Set the certificate to read-only for root for security

chmod 400 CA.crt

Obtain a CSR
ON THE IIS BOX…

Open the Internet Manager
Select the site for which you want to create a key
Right-click and choose Properties
Select the “Directory Security” tab
Click the “Server Certificate” button
Follow the prompts to create a CSR
Save
your CSR, then transfer it to the Linux box for further processing.
(For the following steps, we’ll refer to your CSR as “new.csr”)
Sign the CSR
ON THE LINUX BOX…

Sign the CSR (all of this on one line)

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in new.csr -CA CA.crt
-CAkey CA.key -CAcreateserial -out new.crt

Transfer the new.crt file back to the IIS box
Install self-signed certificate
ON THE IIS BOX…

Open the Internet Manager
Select the site to install the key
Right-click and choose properties
Select the “Directory Security” tab
Click the “Server Certificate” button
Specify that you want to complete the pending request
Select the .crt file that you just transferred
That’s it!



PS: If you have problems with the certification path (”does not chain up to a
trusted root certificate” in System Log), the following seems to fix it:

1. Internet Information Services -> select the site -> right click -> Properties
2. Directory Security -tab -> Secure communications -frame -> Edit…
3. Select “Enable certificate trust list”, click New… -> Next
4. Add from file -> use CA.crt -> Next
5. Write something to the Name and Description, if you like. -> Next -> Finish