Creating a Self-Signed SSL Certificate¶
When using the app ssl feature for non-production applications or when installing SSL for the platform, you can avoid the costs associated with the SSL certificate by using a self-signed SSL certificate. Though the certificate implements full encryption, visitors to your site will see a browser warning indicating that the certificate should not be trusted.
Prerequisites¶
The openssl library is required to generate your own certificate. Run the following command in your local environment to see if you already have openssl installed.
$ which openssl
/usr/bin/openssl
If the which command does not return a path then you will need to install openssl yourself:
| If you have... | Install with... |
|---|---|
| Mac OS X | Homebrew: brew install openssl |
| Windows | complete package .exe installed |
| Ubuntu Linux | apt-get install openssl |
Generate Private Key and Certificate Signing Request¶
A private key and certificate signing request are required to create an SSL certificate. These can be generated with a few simple commands. When the openssl req command asks for a “challenge password”, just press return, leaving the password empty.
$ openssl genrsa -des3 -passout pass:x -out server.pass.key 2048
...
$ openssl rsa -passin pass:x -in server.pass.key -out server.key
writing RSA key
$ rm server.pass.key
$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
...
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:California
...
A challenge password []:
...
Generate SSL Certificate¶
The self-signed SSL certificate is generated from the server.key private key and server.csr files.
$ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
The server.crt file is your site certificate suitable for use with Deis’s SSL endpoint along with the server.key private key.