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| Question |
| Do you have a procedure to do SSL certification within your IPMI firmware? |
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| Answer |
Step 1: Generate a Private Key
The openssl toolkit is used to generate an RSA Private Key and CSR (Certificate Signing Request). It can also be used to generate self-signed certificates which can be used for testing purposes or internal usage.
The first step is to create your RSA Private Key. This key is a 1024 bit RSA key and stored in a PEM format so that it is readable as ASCII text.
openssl genrsa -out server_private.pem 1024
enerating RSA private key, 1024 bit long modulus
........++++++
.........++++++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
Enter pass phrase for private.pem:
Verifying - Enter pass phrase for private.pem:
Step 2: Generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request)
Once the private key is generated a Certificate Signing Request can be generated. The CSR is then used in one of two ways. Ideally, the CSR will be sent to a Certificate Authority, such as Thawte or Verisign who will verify the identity of the requestor and issue a signed certificate. The second option is to self-sign the CSR, which will be demonstrated in the next section.
During the generation of the CSR, you will be prompted for several pieces of information. These are the X.509 attributes of the certificate. One of the prompts will be for "Common Name (e.g., YOUR name)". It is important that this field be filled in with the fully qualified domain name of the server to be protected by SSL. If the website to be protected will be https://public.akadia.com, then enter public.akadia.com at this prompt. The command to generate the CSR is as follows:
openssl req -new -key server_private.pem -out server_certificate.pem
Enter pass phrase for private.pem:
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]:IN
State or Province Name (full name) []:TamilNadu
Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]:Chennai
Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]:AMI
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:MegaRAC
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:megatrends.com
Email Address []:ami@ami.com
Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []:SMC_SSL
An optional company name []:AMI
Step 3: Remove Passphrase from Key
One unfortunate side-effect of the pass-phrased private key is that Apache will ask for the pass-phrase each time the web server is started. Obviously this is not necessarily convenient as someone will not always be around to type in the pass-phrase, such as after a reboot or crash. mod_ssl includes the ability to use an external program in place of the built-in pass-phrase dialog, however, this is not necessarily the most secure option either. It is possible to remove the Triple-DES encryption from the key, thereby no longer needing to type in a pass-phrase. If the private key is no longer encrypted, it is critical that this file only be readable by the root user! If your system is ever compromised and a third party obtains your unencrypted private key, the corresponding certificate will need to be revoked. With that being said, use the following command to remove the pass-phrase from the key
cp server_private.pem server_private.org
openssl rsa -in server_private.org -out server_private.pem
Enter pass phrase for server_private.org:
writing RSA key
Step 4: Generating a Self-Signed Certificate
At this point you will need to generate a self-signed certificate because you either don't plan on having your certificate signed by a CA, or you wish to test your new SSL implementation while the CA is signing your certificate. This temporary certificate will generate an error in the client browser to the effect that the signing certificate authority is unknown and not trusted.
To generate a temporary certificate which is good for 365 days, issue the following command
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server_certificate.pem -signkey server_private.pem -out server_certificate.pem
Signature ok
subject=/C=IN/ST=TN/L=Chennai/O=Default Company Ltd
Getting Private key |
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| FAQ Stats |
| FAQ ID |
Related Category / Keyword |
Date Posted |
Code |
| 11361 |
N/A
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02/18/11 |
EC |
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