Generating self-signed SSL certificate for apache on Windows Vista

Question

I do not have any idea how to generate self-signed SSL certificate for Apache on Windows Vista, but I have to do that.

How I can do that?

Solution

You can install OpenSSL for Windows, which is free.

After installation, open command line (cmd.exe), go to installation directory and run appropriate openssl commands.

openssl.exe req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout server.key -out server.crt -days 1000 -nodes

This generates server.key (private key for your Apache) and server.crt (self-signed certificate). Remember to protect your private key.

For installation to Apache2 (in Linux):

sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo a2ensite default-ssl
nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default-ssl

Change correct paths to following lines (paths to your new key and certificate):

SSLCertificateFile    /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key

Save and run /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (or if your distribution uses some different way, not that command).

Comments

[afrazier]

@Lokesh: No, you don't need to install OpenSSL separately. The openssl.exe tool (and required libraries) should be included with an SSL-enabled Apache distribution. Just go into Apache's conf\extra folder and edit the httpd-ssl.conf file, then make sure it's being Include'd from your main httpd.conf file.

[Admin]

Hi... I am using Xampp on windows 10 and I got my certificate and key... By following another site this is my virtural host at httpd-vhosts.conf: <VirtualHost *:443> DocumentRoot "C:\Users\talin\Documents\Code\Web\Bugs!" ServerName alphatest.cf SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile "C:\xampp\apache\cert\server.crt" SSLCertificateKeyFile "C:\xampp\apache\cert\server.key" </VirtualHost>

[Admin]

My apache server doesn't start and i could find any errors in the log...