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How to generate certificate signing requests

📘 If you're unsure about creating certificates or don't want to manage them, use Aptible's Managed TLS option!

A Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file contains information about an SSL / TLS certificate you'd like a Certification Authority (CA) to issue. If you'd like to use a Custom Certificate with your Endpoints, you will need to generate a CSR:

Step 1: You can generate a new CSR using OpenSSL's openssl req command:

openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes \
        -keyout "$DOMAIN.key" -out "$DOMAIN.csr"

Step 2: Store the private key (the $DOMAIN.key file) and CSR (the $DOMAIN.csr file) in a secure location, then request a certificate from the CA of your choice.

Step 3: Once your CSR is approved, request an "NGiNX / other" format if the CA asks what certificate format you prefer.

Matching Certificates, Private Keys and CSRs

If you are unsure which certificates, private keys, and CSRs match each other, you can compare the hashes of the modulus of each:

openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in certificate.crt | openssl md5
openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in "$DOMAIN.key" | openssl md5
openssl req -noout -modulus -in "$DOMAIN.csr" | openssl md5

The certificate, private key and CSR are compatible if all three hashes match. You can use diff3 to compare the moduli from all three files at once:

openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in certificate.crt > certificate-mod.txt
openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in "$DOMAIN.key" > private-key-mod.txt
openssl req -noout -modulus -in "$DOMAIN.csr" > csr-mod.txt
diff3 cert-mod.txt privkey-mod.txt csr-mod.txt

If all three files are identical, diff3 will produce no output.

📘 You can reuse a private key and CSR when renewing an SSL / TLS certificate, but from a security perspective, it's often a better idea to generate a new key and CSR when renewing.
How to generate certificate signing requests