mod_ssl_ca¶
The mod_ssl_ca module adds support for using SSL certificates bought from a Certificate Authority.
A free alternative to CA provided tickets is Let’s Encrypt, see mod_ssl_letsencrypt.
Certificate and key files¶
The certificate and key files are placed into the site sub-directory of the security
directory. Default is: ~/.zotonic/security/sitename/ca/
Where sitename must be replaced with the name of your site.
The security directory can be in one of the following directories:
/etc/zotonic/security/
~/.zotonic/security/
priv/security/
If there is a directory priv/security/ca
inside your site’s OTP application folder then
that directory will be used.
The files all have the name of the site in them (sitename in the filenames below). This is to prevent mixing them up with other sites:
sitename.pem
- This holds the private key for the encryption. The key must be unlocked and in PKCS#1 format (see below).
sitename.crt
- This is the certificate. Usually it is supplied by the certificate authority where you bought it. It can also be a self signed certificate, see below.
sitename.ca.crt
This is the (optional) CA bundle that contains root and intermediate certificates for the certificate authority that issued the
sitename.crt
certificate.The certificate authority will supply these. All supplied certificates are concatenated, with the root certificate last.
The concatenation is a literal command, like:
cat intermediate.crt root.crt > sitename.ca.crt
Due to caching, it can take up to a minute before the new certificates are used.
Format of the private key¶
The Erlang SSL implementation uses PKCS#1 format keys. OpenSSL generates (since 2010) PKCS#8 format keys. The difference can be seen when inspecting the key file. A PKCS#1 key starts with:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
Where a PKCS#8 key starts with:
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
If mod_ssl sees that the key file is a PKCS#8 file then it will stop and log the following error:
Need RSA private key file. Use: `openssl rsa -in ssl/ca/sitename.key -out ssl/ca/sitename.pem`
The given command is the command needed to convert the key to a PKCS#1 key. The
PKCS#8 key should be renamed to sitename.key
from sitename.pem
, before running the
above command.
Note that the resulting key file must be named sitename.pem
where sitename is the name of
the site the key is placed in.
Using SSL certificates¶
If you order a SSL certificate, the signing authority will ask you which kind of web server you are using and a CSR file.
For the web server, select other. For the CSR, use the following command (replace sitename
with
the name of your site):
openssl req -out sitename.csr -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout sitename.key
When OpenSSL asks for the Common Name then fill in the site’s hostname (e.g. www.example.com).
The resulting .key
file can be converted to a .pem
file:
openssl rsa -in sitename.key -out sitename.pem
From the SSL certificate authority you will receive a signed .crt
file.
See the section Certificate and key files above for instructions how to use the .crt
and .pem
files.
Generating a self signed certificate¶
If you want to use a self signed certificate, then run the following commmands (where sitename
should
be replaced with the name of the site):
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -subj '/CN=www.example.com' -newkey rsa:2048 \
-keyout sitename.key -out sitename.crt
This generates a private key of 2048 bits and a certificate that is valid for 10 years.
If the key is in PKCS#8 format (it starts with -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
),
then run the following command as well:
openssl rsa -in sitename.key -out sitename.pem
If the key is already in PKCS#1 format (it starts with -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
)
then just rename the file sitename.key
to sitename.pem
.
See also