- Creating a.pem with the Private Key and Entire Trust Chain. Log into your DigiCert Management Console and download your Intermediate (DigiCertCA.crt) and Primary Certificates (yourdomainname.crt). Open a text editor (such as wordpad) and paste the entire body of each certificate into one text file in the following order.
- To open it in plain text, you will need to click on the name of the entry and scroll down until the key code appears on the screen. Alternatively, you can click on the green arrow sign on the right and download the.pem file containing the key, the CSR and the certificate along with the CA bundle, if they were imported already.
- Generate Key File From Certificate Free
- Generate Key File From Certificate Template
- Generate Private Key File From Certificate
Jul 09, 2019 The private key gets generated along with your Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The CSR is submitted to the certificate authority right after you activate your certificate, while the private key must be kept safe and secret on your server or device. Later on, this key is used for installation of your certificate. Create a root CA certificate. Create your root CA certificate using OpenSSL. Create the root key. Sign in to your computer where OpenSSL is installed and run the following command. This creates a password protected key. Openssl ecparam -out contoso.key -name prime256v1 -genkey At the prompt, type a strong password.
-->The Application Gateway v2 SKU introduces the use of Trusted Root Certificates to allow backend servers. This removes authentication certificates that were required in the v1 SKU. The root certificate is a Base-64 encoded X.509(.CER) format root certificate from the backend certificate server. It identifies the root certificate authority (CA) that issued the server certificate and the server certificate is then used for the TLS/SSL communication.
Application Gateway trusts your website's certificate by default if it's signed by a well-known CA (for example, GoDaddy or DigiCert). You don't need to explicitly upload the root certificate in that case. For more information, see Overview of TLS termination and end to end TLS with Application Gateway. However, if you have a dev/test environment and don't want to purchase a verified CA signed certificate, you can create your own custom CA and create a self-signed certificate with it.
Note
Self-signed certificates are not trusted by default and they can be difficult to maintain. Also, they may use outdated hash and cipher suites that may not be strong. For better security, purchase a certificate signed by a well-known certificate authority.
In this article, you will learn how to:
- Create your own custom Certificate Authority
- Create a self-signed certificate signed by your custom CA
- Upload a self-signed root certificate to an Application Gateway to authenticate the backend server
Prerequisites
- OpenSSL on a computer running Windows or LinuxWhile there could be other tools available for certificate management, this tutorial uses OpenSSL. You can find OpenSSL bundled with many Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu.
- A web serverFor example, Apache, IIS, or NGINX to test the certificates.
- An Application Gateway v2 SKUIf you don't have an existing application gateway, see Quickstart: Direct web traffic with Azure Application Gateway - Azure portal.
Create a root CA certificate
Create your root CA certificate using OpenSSL.
Create the root key
- Sign in to your computer where OpenSSL is installed and run the following command. This creates a password protected key.
- At the prompt, type a strong password. For example, at least nine characters, using upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols.
Create a Root Certificate and self-sign it
- Use the following commands to generate the csr and the certificate.The previous commands create the root certificate. You'll use this to sign your server certificate.
- When prompted, type the password for the root key, and the organizational information for the custom CA such as Country, State, Org, OU, and the fully qualified domain name (this is the domain of the issuer).
Create a server certificate
Next, you'll create a server certificate using OpenSSL.
Create the certificate's key
Use the following command to generate the key for the server certificate.
Create the CSR (Certificate Signing Request)
The CSR is a public key that is given to a CA when requesting a certificate. The CA issues the certificate for this specific request.
Note
The CN (Common Name) for the server certificate must be different from the issuer's domain. For example, in this case, the CN for the issuer is
www.contoso.com
and the server certificate's CN is www.fabrikam.com
.- Use the following command to generate the CSR:
- When prompted, type the password for the root key, and the organizational information for the custom CA: Country, State, Org, OU, and the fully qualified domain name. This is the domain of the website and it should be different from the issuer.
Generate the certificate with the CSR and the key and sign it with the CA's root key
- Use the following command to create the certificate:
Verify the newly created certificate
- Use the following command to print the output of the CRT file and verify its content:
- Verify the files in your directory, and ensure you have the following files:
- contoso.crt
- contoso.key
- fabrikam.crt
- fabrikam.key
Configure the certificate in your web server's TLS settings
In your web server, configure TLS using the fabrikam.crt and fabrikam.key files. If your web server can't take two files, you can combine them to a single .pem or .pfx file using OpenSSL commands.
IIS
For instructions on how to import certificate and upload them as server certificate on IIS, see HOW TO: Install Imported Certificates on a Web Server in Windows Server 2003.
For TLS binding instructions, see How to Set Up SSL on IIS 7.
Apache
The following configuration is an example virtual host configured for SSL in Apache:
NGINX
The following configuration is an example NGINX server block with TLS configuration:
Access the server to verify the configuration
- Add the root certificate to your machine's trusted root store. When you access the website, ensure the entire certificate chain is seen in the browser.NoteIt's assumed that DNS has been configured to point the web server name (in this example, www.fabrikam.com) to your web server's IP address. If not, you can edit the hosts file to resolve the name.
- Browse to your website, and click the lock icon on your browser's address box to verify the site and certificate information.
Verify the configuration with OpenSSL
Or, you can use OpenSSL to verify the certificate.
Upload the root certificate to Application Gateway's HTTP Settings
To upload the certificate in Application Gateway, you must export the .crt certificate into a .cer format Base-64 encoded. Since .crt already contains the public key in the base-64 encoded format, just rename the file extension from .crt to .cer.
Azure portal
To upload the trusted root certificate from the portal, select the HTTP Settings and choose the HTTPS protocol.
Azure PowerShell
Or, you can use Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell to upload the root certificate. The following code is an Azure PowerShell sample.
Note
The following sample adds a trusted root certificate to the application gateway, creates a new HTTP setting and adds a new rule, assuming the backend pool and the listener exist already.
Verify the application gateway backend health
- Click the Backend Health view of your application gateway to check if the probe is healthy.
- You should see that the Status is Healthy for the HTTPS probe.
Next steps
To learn more about SSLTLS in Application Gateway, see Overview of TLS termination and end to end TLS with Application Gateway.
-->Adds a certificate to a database in SQL Server.
This feature is incompatible with database export using Data Tier Application Framework (DACFx). You must drop all certificates before exporting.
Syntax
Arguments
certificate_name
Is the name for the certificate in the database.
Is the name for the certificate in the database.
AUTHORIZATION user_name
Is the name of the user that owns this certificate.
Is the name of the user that owns this certificate.
ASSEMBLY assembly_name
Specifies a signed assembly that has already been loaded into the database.
Specifies a signed assembly that has already been loaded into the database.
[ EXECUTABLE ] FILE = 'path_to_file'
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to a DER-encoded file that contains the certificate. If the EXECUTABLE option is used, the file is a DLL that has been signed by the certificate. path_to_file can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the required file-system permissions.
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to a DER-encoded file that contains the certificate. If the EXECUTABLE option is used, the file is a DLL that has been signed by the certificate. path_to_file can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the required file-system permissions.
Important
Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file or using private key files.
BINARY = asn_encoded_certificate
ASN encoded certificate bytes specified as a binary constant.
Applies to: SQL Server 2012 (11.x) and later.
ASN encoded certificate bytes specified as a binary constant.
Applies to: SQL Server 2012 (11.x) and later.
WITH PRIVATE KEY
Specifies that the private key of the certificate is loaded into SQL Server. This clause is invalid when the certificate is being created from an assembly. To load the private key of a certificate created from an assembly, use ALTER CERTIFICATE.
Specifies that the private key of the certificate is loaded into SQL Server. This clause is invalid when the certificate is being created from an assembly. To load the private key of a certificate created from an assembly, use ALTER CERTIFICATE.
FILE ='path_to_private_key'
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to the private key. path_to_private_key can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the necessary file-system permissions.
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to the private key. path_to_private_key can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the necessary file-system permissions.
Important
This option is not available in a contained database or in Azure SQL Database.
BINARY = private_key_bits
Applies to: SQL Server (Starting with SQL Server 2012 (11.x)) and Azure SQL Database.
Applies to: SQL Server (Starting with SQL Server 2012 (11.x)) and Azure SQL Database.
Private key bits specified as binary constant. These bits can be in encrypted form. If encrypted, the user must provide a decryption password. Password policy checks are not performed on this password. The private key bits should be in a PVK file format.
DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'key_password'
Specifies the password required to decrypt a private key that is retrieved from a file. This clause is optional if the private key is protected by a null password. Saving a private key to a file without password protection is not recommended. If a password is required but no password is specified, the statement fails.
Specifies the password required to decrypt a private key that is retrieved from a file. This clause is optional if the private key is protected by a null password. Saving a private key to a file without password protection is not recommended. If a password is required but no password is specified, the statement fails.
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password'
Specifies the password used to encrypt the private key. Use this option only if you want to encrypt the certificate with a password. If this clause is omitted, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. password must meet the Windows password policy requirements of the computer that is running the instance of SQL Server. For more information, see Password Policy.
Specifies the password used to encrypt the private key. Use this option only if you want to encrypt the certificate with a password. If this clause is omitted, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. password must meet the Windows password policy requirements of the computer that is running the instance of SQL Server. For more information, see Password Policy.
SUBJECT = 'certificate_subject_name'
The term subject refers to a field in the metadata of the certificate as defined in the X.509 standard. The subject should be no more than 64 characters long, and this limit is enforced for SQL Server on Linux. For SQL Server on Windows, the subject can be up to 128 characters long. Subjects that exceed 128 characters are truncated when they are stored in the catalog, but the binary large object (BLOB) that contains the certificate retains the full subject name.
The term subject refers to a field in the metadata of the certificate as defined in the X.509 standard. The subject should be no more than 64 characters long, and this limit is enforced for SQL Server on Linux. For SQL Server on Windows, the subject can be up to 128 characters long. Subjects that exceed 128 characters are truncated when they are stored in the catalog, but the binary large object (BLOB) that contains the certificate retains the full subject name.
START_DATE = 'datetime'
Is the date on which the certificate becomes valid. If not specified, START_DATE is set equal to the current date. START_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time.
Is the date on which the certificate becomes valid. If not specified, START_DATE is set equal to the current date. START_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time.
EXPIRY_DATE = 'datetime'
Is the date on which the certificate expires. If not specified, EXPIRY_DATE is set to a date one year after START_DATE. EXPIRY_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time. SQL Server Service Broker checks the expiration date. Backup with Encryption using certificates also checks the expiration date and will not allow a new backup to be created with an expired certificate, but will allow restores with an expired certificate. However, expiration is not enforced when the certificate is used for database encryption or Always Encrypted.
Is the date on which the certificate expires. If not specified, EXPIRY_DATE is set to a date one year after START_DATE. EXPIRY_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time. SQL Server Service Broker checks the expiration date. Backup with Encryption using certificates also checks the expiration date and will not allow a new backup to be created with an expired certificate, but will allow restores with an expired certificate. However, expiration is not enforced when the certificate is used for database encryption or Always Encrypted.
ACTIVE FOR BEGIN_DIALOG = { ON | OFF }
Makes the certificate available to the initiator of a Service Broker dialog conversation. The default value is ON.
Makes the certificate available to the initiator of a Service Broker dialog conversation. The default value is ON.
Remarks
A certificate is a database-level securable that follows the X.509 standard and supports X.509 V1 fields.
CREATE CERTIFICATE
can load a certificate from a file, a binary constant, or an assembly. This statement can also generate a key pair and create a self-signed certificate.The Private Key must be <= 2500 bytes in encrypted format. Private keys generated by SQL Server are 1024 bits long through SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and are 2048 bits long beginning with SQL Server 2016 (13.x). Private keys imported from an external source have a minimum length of 384 bits and a maximum length of 4,096 bits. The length of an imported private key must be an integer multiple of 64 bits. Certificates used for TDE are limited to a private key size of 3456 bits.
The entire Serial Number of the certificate is stored but only the first 16 bytes appear in the sys.certificates catalog view.
The entire Issuer field of the certificate is stored but only the first 884 bytes in the sys.certificates catalog view.
The private key must correspond to the public key specified by certificate_name.
When you create a certificate from a container, loading the private key is optional. But when SQL Server generates a self-signed certificate, the private key is always created. By default, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. If the database master key does not exist and no password is specified, the statement fails.
The
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD
option is not required when the private key is encrypted with the database master key. Use this option only when the private key is encrypted with a password. If no password is specified, the private key of the certificate will be encrypted using the database master key. If the master key of the database cannot be opened, omitting this clause causes an error.You do not have to specify a decryption password when the private key is encrypted with the database master key.
Note
Built-in functions for encryption and signing do not check the expiration dates of certificates. Users of these functions must decide when to check certificate expiration.
A binary description of a certificate can be created by using the CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL) and CERTPRIVATEKEY (Transact-SQL) functions. For an example that uses CERTPRIVATEKEY and CERTENCODED to copy a certificate to another database, see example B in the article CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL).
The MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA, and SHA1 algorithms are deprecated in SQL Server 2016 (13.x). Up to SQL Server 2016 (13.x), a self-signed certificate is created using SHA1. Starting with SQL Server 2017 (14.x), a self-signed certificate is created using SHA2_256.
Permissions
Requires
CREATE CERTIFICATE
permission on the database. Only Windows logins, SQL Server logins, and application roles can own certificates. Groups and roles cannot own certificates.Examples
A. Creating a self-signed certificate
Generate Key File From Certificate Free
The following example creates a certificate called
Shipping04
. The private key of this certificate is protected using a password.B. Creating a certificate from a file
The following example creates a certificate in the database, loading the key pair from files.
Important
Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file.
C. Creating a certificate from a signed executable file
Generate Key File From Certificate Template
Alternatively, you can create an assembly from the
dll
file, and then create a certificate from the assembly.Important
Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file.
Important
Starting with SQL Server 2017 (14.x), the 'CLR strict security' server configuration option prevents loading assemblies without first setting up the security for them. Load the certificate, create a login from it, grant
UNSAFE ASSEMBLY
to that login, and then load the assembly.D. Creating a self-signed certificate
The following example creates a certificate called
Shipping04
without specifying an encryption password. This example can be used with Parallel Data Warehouse.Generate Private Key File From Certificate
See Also
ALTER CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
DROP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
BACKUP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
Encryption Hierarchy
EVENTDATA (Transact-SQL)
CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL)
CERTPRIVATEKEY (Transact-SQL)
CERT_ID (Transact-SQL)
CERTPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)
DROP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
BACKUP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
Encryption Hierarchy
EVENTDATA (Transact-SQL)
CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL)
CERTPRIVATEKEY (Transact-SQL)
CERT_ID (Transact-SQL)
CERTPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)