I believe a Verisign certificate alone is $600 for a year. You can get certificates much cheaper, but there are issues with some older broswers not recognizing the CA (so your users would get a message stating that the certificate may not be legit).
openssl is not an alternative to VeriSign. openssl is software, Verisign is a company that provides certificates (though apparently, you can use openssl to create certificates yourself if you don't care at all about them being legit (for an intranet, for example?)). There are (much) cheapers alternatives to VeriSign. Check out freessl.com, for example (not free, but $35.00 isn't bad). Also, see http://www.whichssl.org for more good info on the subject. -dave -----Original Message----- From: Adam Hardy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 3:43 AM To: Tomcat Users List Subject: Re: SSL/Verisign Confusion Hi Dave, how much does it cost at Verisign, and how long is it valid for? And is this 'openssl' you mentioned a free alternative? Adam On 09/06/2003 03:21 PM Dave Wood wrote: > FINALLY! > > I still don't know what I did wrong in the first place, but after starting > over with VeriSign, all is well now. I thought I'd share the (simple!) > steps I took to get SSL running using keytool/tomcat in case anyone else > might find this useful: > > # keytool -genkey -alias tomcat -keyalg RSA > [enter a password and all necessary information, then just <enter> at next > password prompt] > # cp ~/.keystore ~/.keystore-backup > # keytool -certreq -keyalg RSA -alias tomcat -file certreq.csr > [enter same password] > [give contents of certreq.csr to VeriSign and wait for response...] > [NOTE: when asked to select my server software, I chose "apache" since they > didn't have Tomcat in their list...I don't know if this matters, but it > worked] > # keytool -import -trustcacerts -file intermediate.crt -alias root > [enter same password] > [NOTE: intermediate.crt is the file found here: > http://www.verisign.com/support/install/intermediate.html] > # keytool -import trustcacerts -file public.crt -alias tomcat > [enter same password] > [where public.crt is the certificate sent from VeriSign after they complete > their approval process] > [finally, edit ...tomcat/conf/server.xml and enable the SSL connector > section, adding keystorePass="[password]" > as an attribute to the Factory tag] > > Hope this helps. > > Thanks to all who provided suggestions along the way. > > Dave > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave Wood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 11:40 AM > To: Tomcat Users List > Subject: RE: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > > Well, after all this, I just discovered that VeriSign will basically let you > start over if it's within 30 days (which it is). So, for now, I'm going > down this path. Just talked to someone at V/S who said it would take just a > couple hours. > > Oh, and I made a BACKUP of my new keystore file this time that now contains > a single "keyEntry" with the alias "tomcat". I try to avoid being stupid in > the same way more than once! :) > > As for the programmatic approach, FWIW, I started down that path as well, > but somehow I had no private key entry in the keystore (best I can tell). > Still not sure how I got in that messed up state. > > Thanks, > Dave > > -----Original Message----- > From: Christopher Williams [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 9:43 AM > To: Tomcat Users List > Subject: Re: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > > Have you thought of manipulating the keystore programmatically? Here's what > you'd do: > > 1. Open your existing keystore > 2. Find the entry with your private key and (presumably) a temporary > self-signed certificate. > 3. Open the certificate you got from Versign. > 4. Change the certificate in your key entry to your Verisign certificate. > 5. Save and close the keystore. > > OpenSSL doesn't understand most of the Java keystore formats, although it > can manipulate PKCS#12 files which Keytool can handle. If you download the > BouncyCastle crypto provider, then you can use keytool to write PKCS#12 > files as well. > > Also, if the person who originally posted the question doesn't feel up to > monkeying around with the Keystore classes, I have some code that I can > adapt to stick your Verisign certificate in your keystore. Get in touch > with me personally and I'll see what I can do. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jay Garala" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "'Tomcat Users List'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 3:36 PM > Subject: RE: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > > NOTE: You cannot export private key from keystore. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave Wood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 10:32 AM > To: Tomcat Users List > Subject: RE: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > Thanks. With the exception of the openssl doc, I've been over these quite a > bit. The result is the problem I've mentioned where keytool says it can't > import my certificate because the alias already exists. > > After some help I got last night, I think the question boils down to this: > > * once I have extracted my private key from keytool (haven't done this yet), > how do I take that key, the VeriSign intermediate certificate and my public > key certificate and get them to play together. I'm hoping the openssl stuff > will take care of this, because keytool doesn't really seem to recognize > private keys as things that you can work with directly. > > Thanks again, > Dave > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jay Garala [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 7:12 AM > To: 'Tomcat Users List' > Subject: RE: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > > Try the Java keytool help: > http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/tooldocs/windows/keytool.html > > Tomcat how-to: > http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.1-doc/ssl-howto.html > > If you have OpenSSL: > http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=2&thread=4240 > > Jay > -----Original Message----- > From: Dave Wood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 1:04 AM > To: Tomcat Users List > Subject: RE: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > Thanks Bill. I think this highlights something I'm really not > understanding... > > Didn't I generate an important "private key" somewhere along the line that I > can't just regenerate if I blow away my keystore? I assumed the certificate > I got back from verisign would only work if I still had the original private > key I generated before sending them my request. Is that wrong? > > (I'll take a look at the link you sent...at first glance, it looks a little > hard to follow, but hopefully not). > > Thanks again. > > Dave > > -----Original Message----- > From: news [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Bill Barker > Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 11:06 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: SSL/Verisign Confusion > > > Firstly, it looks like you should wipe you keystore and start again. To use > a VS cert with Tomcat, the two options I know are: > 1) Follow the instructions at http://www.comu.de/docs/tomcat_ssl.htm. > 2) Using openssl or otherwise, convert your cert+key to a pkcs12 file, and > use that as your keystore (remember to set 'keystoreType="pkcs12"' on the > Factory in server.xml). > > > "Dave Wood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >>I'm having a problem getting an SSL certificate from Verisign working >>correctly. I'm going to include everything I can think of that MIGHT be a >>problem. Unfortunately, there are a couple things I can't quite remember >>for certain. Here's the situation: >> >>1. I generated the initial key using an alias other than "tomcat" (we'll >>call it "company") >>2. I generated the CSR and sent it to verisign. I still have this file. >>3. Verisign changed the company name during the verification process (from >>an acronym to the full spelling of the name) >>4. I now have the certificate that they sent back after the validation >>process. >>5. One thing I can't account for is why when I see this: >> >>$ keytool -list >> >>Keystore type: jks >>Keystore provider: SUN >> >>Your keystore contains 4 entries: (...others removed...) >> >>company, Fri Aug 22 08:47:04 MDT 2003, trustedCertEntry, >>Certificate fingerprint (MD5): >>00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 (the numbers aren't really >>0's) >> >>...I think I must have self-signed or something (I was doing a couple of >>these things and don't recall exactly), but I'm surprised to see >>"trustedCertEntry" here. >> >>The problem I'm having is this: >> >>$ keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias company -file public.crt >>Enter keystore password: xxx >>keytool error: java.lang.Exception: Certificate not imported, alias >><company> already exists >> >>(but I'm thinking it should be REPLACING this entry, so the fact that it >>exists shouldn't be a problem???) >> >>So, I have several questions: >> >>1. Am I hosed completely because I didn't use "tomcat" as the alias? >>2. How does the private key get stored exactly? I assume that if I delete >>the current entry for the "company" alias, I'll be losing the private key, >>right? >>3. Can someone provide steps I should take to get this working given what > > I > >>have said above. >> >>Thanks so much in advance. Sorry to be so long-winded. >> >>-Dave >>--- >>Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. >>Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >>Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003 > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- struts 1.1 + tomcat 4.1.27 + java 1.4.2 Linux 2.4.20 RH9 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.515 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 9/1/2003 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.515 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 9/1/2003 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
