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 for mod_ssl_ca can be one of the following directories:

/etc/zotonic/security/sitename/ca

~/.zotonic/security/sitename/ca

priv/security/sitename/ca

If there is a directory priv/security/ca inside your site’s OTP application folder then that directory will be used.

The filenames are checked against their extension. When you copy your files to the ca directory then you need to ensure that they have the right extensions.

The following file extensions are expected:

*.pem or *.key

This holds the private key for the encryption. The key must be unlocked and in PKCS#1 format (see below).

*.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.

*.ca.crt, cabundle.crt or bundle.crt

This is the (optional) CA bundle that contains root and intermediate certificates for the certificate authority that issued the .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 > cabundle.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 accepts PKCS#1 and PKCS#8 format keys. OpenSSL generates (since 2010) PKCS#8 format keys.

A PKCS#1 key starts with:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

A PKCS#8 key starts with:

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----

If there are problems then check if the .key or .pem file starts with one of the above strings.

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:

openssl req -out certificate.csr -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout certificate.key

When OpenSSL asks for the Common Name then fill in the site’s hostname (e.g. www.example.com).

From the SSL certificate authority you will receive a signed .crt file and maybe a cabundle.crt file.

See the section Certificate and key files above for instructions how to use the .crt and .key files.

Generating a self signed certificate¶

There is no need to make your own self signed certificate as Zotonic will generate one for every site.

Nevertheless, if you want to use your own self signed certificate, then run the following commmands:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -subj '/CN=www.example.com' -newkey rsa:2048 \
     -keyout certificate.key -out certificate.crt

This generates a private key of 2048 bits and a certificate that is valid for 10 years.