User manual

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5 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Use Secure Sockets Layer to provide secure transactions
and encrypted communication to users of the websites
on your server.
If you want to provide secure transactions on your server, such as allowing users to
purchase items from a website, you should set up Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
protection. SSL lets you send encrypted, authenticated information across the Internet.
If you want to allow credit card transactions through a website, for example, you can
protect the information that’s passed to and from that site.
Setting Up SSL
When you generate a certificate signing request (CSR), the certificate authority sends
you a certificate that you install on your server. They may also send you a CA certificate
(ca.crt). Installing this file is optional. Normally, CA certificates reside in client
applications such as Internet Explorer and allow those applications to verify that the
server certificate originated from the right authority. However, CA certificates expire or
evolve, so some client applications may not be up to date.
Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for Your Server
The CSR is a file that provides information needed to set up your server certificate.
To generate a CSR for your server:
1 Log in to your server using the root password and open the Terminal application.
2 At the prompt, type these commands and press Return at the end of each one:
cd
dd if=/dev/randon of=rand.dat bs=1m count=1
openssl genrsa -rand rand.dat -des 1024 > key.pem
3 At the next prompt, type a passphrase, then press Return.
The passphrase you create unlocks the server’s certificate key. You will use this
passphrase when you enable SSL on your web server.
LL2350.book Page 45 Friday, August 22, 2003 2:32 PM