How To Create a SSL Certificate on Apache for Debian 7 |htttps

hwl198212

　　Nov 11, 2013  Security, Apache Debian
Background Information
　　A SSL certificate is a way to encrypt a site's information and createa more secure connection. While Certificate authorities can issue SSL
certificates that verify the server's details, a self-signed certificatehas no third party corroboration. This tutorial explains how to create aself-signed SSL certificate, add it to your VPS, and configure the SSL
file to display the certificate to the world.
1) Install Apache
　　If Apache is not already running on your server, these is an Apache httpd package readily available for aptitude under the name apache2.
　　Run the following command to install:
sudo apt-get install apache2　　To test that the package was properly installed, enter your VPS IP
address into your browser. If the installation was successful, the
browser shall display the following:
It works!　　

　　
This is the default web page for this server.
　　
The web server software is running but no content
　　
has been added, yet.
2) Configure httpd
　　We need to configure httpd in order to support SSL. It is available
in the httpd installation as a part of the apache2-common package.
　　Use the following commands to enable SSL:
sudo a2ensite default-ssl　　
sudo a2enmod ssl
　　This time, as stated, let’s restart Apache2:
sudo service apache2 restart　　To test that the module was properly installed, we are going to type
our IP address into the browser as before; however, this time we will
use https://. Follow this with your IP address in your browser.
　　The first time you access the page, the browser will warn you that
the certificate of the site is not trusted. You can proceed and you willget to the same page as before:
It works!　　

　　
This is the default web page for this server.
　　
The web server software is running but no content has been added,
　　
yet.
3) Generate a Self-Signed Certificate
　　To use a self-signed certificate, the package ssl-cert must be installed.
　　I wanted to configure my own self-signed certificate for the server
and to store it in /etc/apache2/ssl. To do so, run the following
commands:
sudo mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl　　When we request a new certificate,  we can specify how long the
certificate should remain valid by changing the 365 to the number of
days we prefer. As it stands this certificate will expire after one
year.
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt　　With this command, we will be both creating the self-signed SSL
certificate and the server key that protects it, and placing both of
them into the new directory.
　　This command will prompt terminal to display a lists of fields that need to be filled in.
　　The most important line is "Common Name". Enter your official domain
name here or, if you don't have one yet, your site's IP address.
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) [AU]:US
　　
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:New York
　　
Locality Name (eg, city) []:NYC
　　
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Awesome Inc
　　
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Dept of Merriment
　　
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:example.com      
　　
Email Address []:webmaster@awesomeinc.com
4) Set Up the Certificate
　　Now we have all of the required components of the finished
certificate.The next thing to do is to set up the virtual hosts to
display the new certificate.
　　Open up the SSL config file:
nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default-ssl　　Within the section that begins with &ltVirtualHost default:443>, quickly make the following changes.
　　Add a line with your server name right below the Server Admin email:
ServerName example.com:443　　Replace example.com with your DNS approved domain name or server IP
address (it should be the same as the common name on the certificate).
　　Find the following three lines, and make sure that they match the extensions below:
SSLEngine on　　
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt
　　
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key
　　Save and Exit out of the file.
5) Activate the New Virtual Host
　　Before the website that will come on the 443 port can be activated, we need to enable that Virtual Host:
sudo a2ensite default
　　You are all set. Restarting your Apache server will>sudo service apache2 reload　　In your browser, type https://youraddress, and you will be able to see the new certificate.
See More
　　Once you have setup your SSL certificate on the site, you can Install an FTP server if you haven't done so yet.
　　By Adam LaGreca