Tag Archives: certificates

Generate a Self-Signed p12 (pfx) certificate File (Automated / Scripted)

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Here is a brief script to generate a self-signed p12 (pfx) certificate file with no interactive input.

You can parameterize the three inputs and use them to run this from a CI pipeline/etc as required.

#! /bin/bash

# Set some variables for ease/re-use (can be parameterized).
NAME_PREFIX="mycertname"
PASSPHRASE="some-password"
DNS_NAME="*.some.domain.net"

# Generate cacert.pem and cakey.pem.  The private key is encrypted.
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -x509 -keyout ${NAME_PREFIX}-cakey.pem -out ${NAME_PREFIX}-cacert.pem -days 3650 -subj "/C=US/ST=New York/L=New York/CN=${DNS_NAME}" -passout pass:${PASSPHRASE}

# Get a decrypted copy of the private key.
openssl rsa -in ${NAME_PREFIX}-cakey.pem -out ${NAME_PREFIX}-cakey-decrypted.pem -passin pass:${PASSPHRASE}

# Generate the p12 file from the private key and certificate.
openssl pkcs12 -export -out ${NAME_PREFIX}.p12 -inkey ${NAME_PREFIX}-cakey-decrypted.pem -in ${NAME_PREFIX}-cacert.pem -passout pass:${PASSPHRASE}

# Remove the decrypted private key.
rm ${NAME_PREFIX}-cakey-decrypted.pem

Convert CA Certificate to JKS File (e.g. For Presto)

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Many applications require JKS files to enable TLS (Transport Layer Security).  In case you are not sure what a JKS file is, you can read about what a JKS file is and see how to make a self-signed one right here.

Converting a CA Certificate to a JKS File

To convert the files a CA provides you into a JKS file you can do the following, which is lightly modified from this other article I followed.

cat /etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt IntermediateCA.crt > ca-certs.pem

openssl pkcs12 -export -in ssl_certificate.crt -inkey app.key -chain -CAfile ca-certs.pem -name "*.app.company.com" -out app.p12

keytool -importkeystore -deststorepass Password123! -destkeystore app.jks -srckeystore app.p12 -srcstoretype PKCS12

Note that the domain must match the one specified in the certificate.  Assuming these 3 commands work, you should have a proper JKS file when done.

Given the certificate is from a CA, clients should not need a copy of the JKS file to talk to servers that are using it.   For example, if my Presto server uses this JKS file, JDBC clients on other hosts can talk to it over SSL even though they do not have a copy of the file themselves.

NOTE: The JKS file will only work properly when used against the correct domain.  E.g. if you have a load balancer at https://load-balancer.app2.company.com pointing at your server running your JKS file which is for https://server1.app.company.com, it will not work.  You have to make a CNAME so your load balancer actually looks like it is also under app.company.com (what’s in the cert) and not app2.company.com.

Creating Java Key Stores (JKS), Setting Validity Periods, and Analyzing JKS for Expiry Dates

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What is a JKS File?

Taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_KeyStore

A Java KeyStore (JKS) is a repository of security certificates – either authorization certificates or public key certificates – plus corresponding private keys, used for instance in SSL encryption.

Basically, applications like Presto use JKS files to enable them to do Transport Layer Security (TLS).

How Do You Create One?

As an example, Presto, a common big-data query tool, uses JKS for both secure internal and external communication.  At this link https://prestosql.io/docs/current/security/internal-communication.html they show you how to create one.

Here is an excerpt.  Note that you must make sure you replace *.example.com with the domain you will host the service using the JKS file on or it will not work.  Certificates are domain specific.

keytool -genkeypair -alias example.com -keyalg RSA \
    -keystore keystore.jks
Enter keystore password:
Re-enter new password:
What is your first and last name?
  [Unknown]:  *.example.com
What is the name of your organizational unit?
  [Unknown]:
What is the name of your organization?
  [Unknown]:
What is the name of your City or Locality?
  [Unknown]:
What is the name of your State or Province?
  [Unknown]:
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
  [Unknown]:
Is CN=*.example.com, OU=Unknown, O=Unknown, L=Unknown, ST=Unknown, C=Unknown correct?
  [no]:  yes

Enter key password for <presto>
        (RETURN if same as keystore password):

Pit Fall! – 90 Day Expiry Date – Change It?

Now… here’s a fun pitfall.  Certificates are made with an expiry date and have to be reissued periodically (for security reasons).  The default expiry date for JKS is 90 days.

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/security/toolsign/step3.html

This certificate will be valid for 90 days, the default validity period if you don’t specify a –validity option.

This is fine on a big managed service with lots of attention.  But if you’re just TLS securing an internal app not many people see, you will probably forget to rotate it or neglect to set up appropriate automation.  Then, when it expires, things will break.

Now… for security reasons you generally shouldn’t set too high a value for certificate expiry time.  But for example purposes, here is how you would set it to 10 years.

keytool -genkeypair -alias example.com -keyalg RSA \
    -keystore keystore.jks -validity 3650

Determine Expiry Date

If you have a JKS file that you are using for your application and you are not sure when it expires, here’s a command that you can use:

keytool -list -v -keystore keystore.jks

This will output different things based on where your key store came from.  E.g. you will probably see more interesting output from a real SSL cert than you will from a self-signed one created like we did above.

In any case, you will clearly see a line in the large output from this command that says something like this:

Valid from: Fri Jul 12 01:27:21 UTC 2019 until: Thu Oct 10 01:27:21 UTC 2019

Note that in this case, it is just valid for 3 months.  Be careful when looking at this output because you may find multiple expiry dates in the output for different components of the JKS file.  You need to make sure you read the right one.  Though, chances are that the one on your domain will be the one that expires earliest anyway.