The Internet has become the number one resources for news, information, events, and all things social. As most people know there are many ways to create a website of your own and capture your own piece of the internet to share your stories, ideas, or even things you like with others. When doing so it is important to make sure you stay protected on the internet the same way you would in the real world. There are many steps to take in the real world to stay safe, however, in this article we will be talking about staying secure on the web with an SSL certificate.
OpenSSL is a command line tool we can use as a type of "bodyguard" for our webservers and applications. It can be used for a variety of things related to HTTPS, generating private keys and CSRs (certificate signing requests), and other examples. This article will break down what OpenSSL is, what it does, and examples on how to use it to keep your website secure. Most online web/domain platforms provide SSL certificates for a fixed yearly price. This method, although it takes a bit of technical knowledge, can save you some money and keep you secure on the web.
* For example purposes we will use testmastersite.com for commands and examples
How this guide may help you:
- Using OpenSSL to generate and configure CSRs
- Understanding SSL certificates and their importance
- Learn about certificate signing requests (CSRs)
- Learn how to create your own CSR and private key
- Learn about OpenSSL and its common use cases
Requirements
- A Linux-based OS
- Comfort with command line tools
OpenSSL
The first thing to do would be to generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair on your machine. This pair i'm referring to is both your private and public key. You can use a list of tools online to do so, but for this example we will be working with OpenSSL.
What are SSL certificates and who cares?
According to GlobalSign.com an SSL certificate is a small data file that digitally binds a cryptographic key to an organizations details. When installed on a webserver, it activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser. Let me break that down for you. An SSL certificate is like a bodyguard for your website. To confirm that a site is using an SSL you can typically check that the site has an https in the url rather than an http string in the name. the "s" stands for Secure.
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Example SECURE Site: https://ift.tt/3nU5tsx
from Linux Journal - The Original Magazine of the Linux Community https://ift.tt/2FzIbXo
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