- For information on creating self-signed CA certificates and using them
- to sign user certificates, see the \*General implementation overview*\
- chapter of the Open-source PKI book, available online at
- \?http://ospkibook.sourceforge.net/?\. Here is a quick overview. First,
- read this message:
-
- \?http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?id=3C3F3A93.C1ECF9B0%40mindspring.com?\
-
- Then, follow the instructions found on these two (consecutive) pages:
-
- \?http://ospkibook.sourceforge.net/docs/OSPKI-2.4.6/OSPKI/initialisation.htm?\
- \?http://ospkibook.sourceforge.net/docs/OSPKI-2.4.6/OSPKI/keygensign.htm?\
-
- Two points on the PKI Book literature:
-
- (1) It's assumed that it's okay to use a passphrase-protected key to
- encrypt the user/site/leaf certificate. If this isn't acceptable,
- you seem to be able to strip out the passphrase as follows:
-
-==> openssl rsa -in user.key -our user.key.new
- mv user.key.new
-
- This should be done immediately after \(user.key)\ is created.
-
- (2) The \*sign.sh*\ script is available in the \*mod_ssl*\ distribution,
- available at \?http://www.modssl.org/source/?\.
-
- Having followed the instructions, you end up with the following files:
-
- (a) \(ca.crt)\
-
- This file should be installed into the client software as a trusted
- root certification authority. In Windows XP, this can be done as follows:
-
- \#\#Call the file \(ca_cert.cer)\
- [[br]]
- \#\#Double-click on the file
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Install Certificate";
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Next"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Place all certificates in the following store"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Browse..."
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Trusted Root Certification Authorities"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"OK"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Next"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Finish"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"Yes"
- [[br]]
- \#\#"OK"
-
- (b) \(user.crt)\ and \(user.key)\
-
- These files should be installed into the server software. In Exim, this
- can be done by adding these lines to the configuration file:
-
-==> tls_certificate = /usr/local/etc/exim/tls_cert
- tls_privatekey = /usr/local/etc/exim/tls_key
-
- Then install \(user.crt)\ and \(user.key)\ under the names \(tls_cert)\
- and \(tls_key)\ in the appropriate directory.