SSL cert & key generation on an appliance

[Rob Patrick]

Hello,   We're looking to deploy Linux-based security appliances that only provide the end-user with a web front-end.   We want the end-user to have the ability to generate new (self-signed) certificates and SSL keys to be used on the appliance under Apache mod_ssl once installed.     I'm betting somebody else has already solved this...  how do you generate certs and keys without access to the interactive command line?   Essentially, I'm looking for a shell script, some Perl, or another method to perform cert and key generation in an automated fashion, driven by input submitted by a user via the web.   From what I can gather with the cmd-line utilities provided by OpenSSL, interactive command-line access is required.   If there's an easier way than wrapping the OpenSSL cmd-line utilities with Net::Telnet and IO::Pty, please tell me!     Thanks,   -Rob Patrick