> From: owner-openssl-us...@openssl.org On Behalf Of Jamrock > Sent: Sunday, 30 May, 2010 06:35
> In the past I have created my certificates as follows: > /etc/pki/tls/misc/CA -newca > > openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout newreq.pem -out newreq.pem > > /etc/pki/tls/misc/CA -sign > > The /etc/pki/tls/misc/CA script has a -newreq option. $REQ > -new -keyout > newkey.pem -out newreq.pem $DAYS. > > This appears to put the key and the certificate in different > files. The > command I use appears to put the key and the certificate in a > single file. > What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? > I guess/hope /etc/pki/tls/misc/CA is a copy (possibly modified) of or link to openssl's apps/CA.sh; assuming so: Your method puts the Certificate Signing *Request* aka CSR and (unencrypted!) privatekey in one file. CA.sh -sign does openssl ca -policy policy_anything -out newcert.pem -infiles newreq.pem so the *certificate* is in newcert.pem, and that's the (other) file you must give your application to use for this identity. In a real CA situation, where you send the CSR off somewhere to get a cert, you absolutely must not send your unencrypted private key, and having it in the same file risks that mistake. Even post-editing might not work; while no CA I've heard of uses MSWord files or PDF, if for example you paste your key+req into a vanilla HTML <form> and delete the key and then POST you're okay, but if that HTML used some 'helpful, convenient' scripting to 'make things better for the customer', or just to 'keep advertising annoyingly at every opportunity', it could easily have stored your key somewhere that later gets exposed. If you're careful pasting and your finger doesn't slip you can avoid this, but with separate files you don't have to worry. If you encrypted your privatekey, as is better practice, then there would be somewhat less security risk in sending it out, but still some since it's only protected by a human-memorable passphrase which almost never contains the 80ish bits of entropy needed nowadays (and likely more in the future). Plus it could confuse the CA, depending on the CA. But for your own CA like this there's no security issue, and 'openssl ca' in particular isn't confused by this format. Also, it is technically possible to create multiple CSRs and thus obtain multiple certs for the same key(pair), although I have never seen a desirable use-case. If you did do this, putting the CSRs in separate files would allow you to give them descriptive, necessarily different, filenames, which be a good idea in dealing with a situation that could easily be(come) confusing. (And the same for the certs.) ______________________________________________________________________ OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org User Support Mailing List openssl-users@openssl.org Automated List Manager majord...@openssl.org
