Create a CA and sign a CSR

Every now and then I have to create a CA to sign a CSR that I need to test with and end up googling the steps several times over. To save future me some time, I’ll just write down the commands here.

This assumes I already have a CSR. Maybe I’ll add a section on how to make a CSR later.

Making a CA

1. Make the key for the Certificate Authority

   openssl genrsa -out MyRootCA.key 2048
   

2. Create certificate using the new key we just made

   openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key MyRootCA.key -sha256 -days 1024 -out MyRootCA.pem
   

3. Sign CSR with the new Certificate Authority

   openssl x509 -req -in MyClient1.csr -CA MyRootCA.pem -CAkey MyRootCA.key -CAcreateserial -out MyClient1.pem -days 1024 -sha256
   

4. Done!