Generating an internal SSL Certificate (for tomcat)

How to Generate an internal SSL certificate

Create the self-signed keystore

$ su -
$ URL="your.url.here";export URL
$ cd /opt/tomcat/conf
$ keytool -genkey -alias ${URL} -keyalg RSA -keystore ${URL}.keystore
Enter keystore password:  changeit
What is your first and last name?
  [Unknown]:  your.url.here
What is the name of your organizational unit?
  [Unknown]:  IT
What is the name of your organization?
  [Unknown]:  your.url.here
What is the name of your City or Locality?
  [Unknown]:  Brisbane
What is the name of your State or Province?
  [Unknown]:  QLD
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
  [Unknown]:  AU
Is CN=your.url.here, OU=IT, O=your.url.here, L=Brisbane, ST=QLD, C=AU correct?
  [no]:  yes

Enter key password for <your.url.here>
        (RETURN if same as keystore password):

Turn the keystore into a X.509 certificate

$ keytool -export -alias ${URL} -keystore ${URL}.keystore -rfc -file ${URL}.cert
Enter keystore password:  changeit
Certificate stored in file <your.url.here.cert>

Delete existing trusted certificate

$ keytool -delete -alias ${URL} -file ${URL}.cert  -keystore /opt/java/jre/lib/security/cacerts  -storepass changeit

Import the certificate into cacerts – JRE trusted certificates

$ keytool -import -alias ${URL} -file ${URL}.cert  -keystore /opt/java/jre/lib/security/cacerts  -storepass changeit
Owner: CN=your.url.here, OU=IT, O=your.url.here, L=Brisbane, ST=QLD, C=AU
Issuer: CN=your.url.here, OU=IT, O=your.url.here, L=Brisbane, ST=QLD, C=AU
Serial number: 44ab628c
Valid from: Wed Jul 05 01:56:12 CDT 2006 until: Tue Oct 03 01:56:12 CDT 2006
Certificate fingerprints:
         MD5:  EC:76:01:04:7F:FC:21:CC:A8:41:AD:86:C8:B2:D5:6D
         SHA1: 2D:FD:7C:56:65:70:36:1B:1D:71:09:41:84:98:E6:8E:89:18:BC:18
Trust this certificate? [no]:  yes
Certificate was added to keystore


If you replaced an existing certificate you will need to restart Tomcat.

Tagged with: General Java Tomcat Web Development

Related Posts

Why Being Proactive Is Always a Winning Approach

Many companies manage production infrastructure using a reactive model rather than a proactive one. Organizations typically react to warnings and alerts, then implement corrective actions in response. While some companies have well-designed architectural patterns—such as feature flags and rate limiting—that can quickly mitigate the impact of issues, these are merely temporary solutions, not resolutions.

Read more

AWS CLI support for Aurora DSQL and S3 Tables

If you were following the AWS Re:invent keynote yesterday there were several data specific announcements including Aurora DSQL and S3 Tables . Wanting to check them out, I downloaded the latest AWS CLI 2.

Read more

Migrating off of WordPress - A Simplified Stack

The ongoing drama between Wordpress v WP Engine continues to cross my reading list, but I have permanently removed WordPress from my website. I have finally transitioned away from the complex Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (LAMP) stack required for self-hosting WordPress on my professional website.

Read more