Assignment 3: Using OpenSSL to Generate Digital Certificates

Assignment 3
Using OpenSSL to generate Digital Certificates
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Basis of Digital Certificate............................................................................................................................5
Use of Asymmetric Cryptography............................................................................................................5
Digital Certificate Format.........................................................................................................................7
Generation of Digital Certificate..............................................................................................................8
Validation of Digital Certificate................................................................................................................9
OpenSSL Fundamentals.............................................................................................................................10
OpenSSL Architecture............................................................................................................................10
SSL and TLS protocols in OpenSSL.........................................................................................................11
OpenSSL applications for implementing SSL/TLS...................................................................................13
Generation of Digital Certificates..............................................................................................................14
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References.................................................................................................................................................17
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Public key and Private Key Concept...............................................................................................6
Figure 2 Digital certificate Format...............................................................................................................7
Figure 3 Generation of Digital Certificate....................................................................................................8
Figure 4 OpenSSL Architecture..................................................................................................................10
Figure 5 SSL and TLS protocol layer in OpenSSL........................................................................................11
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Executive Summary
Digital Certificates have become an important part of Internet Security. Digital certificates have
provided the authentication for private key in networking entities. It is an electronic document that
has been used to verify that a user has been assigned a public key and a corresponding private key
which he can use for transmitting data under his name. This digital certificate is being signed by a
Certification Authority. This paper deals with the creation of digital certificates and how these
certificates are issued and what all it contains.
This paper also deals with the problems associated with the management of certificates and a
different approach has been adopted in this to create digital certificates by using a command line
script. OpenSSL tool has been used for building a governmental certification authority that can be
used to sign digital certificates that can be used by an individual for internal communications inside
an organization. It has also discussed the challenges faced in adopting this new approach and
writing scripts as per command line scripting language for the creation of X 509 certificates.
The process and methodologies involved in the process of creation of an individual’s very own
certification authority and digital certificates have been reviewed in this paper. The need to create
own certificates using OpenSSL tool has also been reviewed and its necessity been discussed and
understood, the solution has been adopted and new solutions and approaches are also been
discovered to get the better results. Configuring a website with SSL layer also allows it to work more
securely over the internet and can adopt the protocol HTTPS over HTTP (Cross, 2015).
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Introduction
The increasing number of people and businesses over the internet has made access faster and
cheaper which makes people communicate more over the internet to provide a bigger and better
platform for their businesses to grow and get a new boost in its economy. The Internet has always
been an open platform for communication without any security protocols which criminals thought as
a great opportunity to exploit this era changing technology to get fraudulent gains. Only after this
increasing rate of crimes, it became a necessity to include security protocols so that communication
over the Internet becomes secure and resistant to the threats and security attacks that were
booming by the criminals. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is one of the architectures by which all
security properties can be achieved within a communication. A digital certificate is a means to use all
the applications of PKI. OpenSSL and Digital certificate concept has also been discussed here along
with the results of some research papers. OpenSSL helps in creating our own Digital certificate
signed by own certification authority.
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