Problem Creating Apache SSL Certificate

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

The SSL certificate on one of our Apache 1.3.33 servers expired, so I went to the source directory and ran the make certificate command to create a new one. I encountered the following error message:

error 10 at 1 depth lookup:certificate has expired
-bash: error: command not found

The result was even though it appeared the certificate had been created, in reality it had not been. What do I need to do to correct this? Thanks.

[Ivan Ferreira · Accepted solution]

You need to delete the current certificate file. Are you creating a self signed certificate? Normally I use make testcert.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Sorry for sounding like a complete idiot...but are you referring to the file located in the ../conf/ssl.crt, ssl.key, and other directories, or is there another location I need to go to?

I am using the self-signed certificate, but I don't normally use make testcert. Is that the better way of doing it? Thanks.

[Ivan Ferreira]

Don't worry, and yes, the file normally is:

/etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt

I use to use make testcert, also, you can edit the MAKEFILE to configure the ammount of days for the certificate validity. You will find something like this:

/usr/bin/openssl req -new -key /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key/server.key
-x509 -days 365 -out /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt

Simply, change the number of days.

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there --

I went back to the apache directory under my home directory and discovered the newly created server.crt file in the appropriate locations.

Once I copied the file to the active web server's directories, I restarted the server, was prompted for the password, and was able to get the secure connection back.

Thanks for the help.