Free SSL Certificate

mrpc_cambodia · 12-24-2004, 10:40 PM

I already have a webserver (IIS) and want to host a web site in secure mode, https.

As i know to do that i have to configure my webserver to support https and buy a certificate from Certificate of Authority (I don't know whether this is the correct term or not).

I don't want to buy this. So Is there any site, vendor, or private organization who provide free Certificate?

The reason for this is: i want to increase the security of my site but not to the point that i need to spend money for that.

Thanks,

brettcave · 12-25-2004, 11:03 AM

You can generate your own certificate on a Linux system by issuing the following command:

openssl req -config /etc/openssl.conf -new -x509 -keyout \
private/cakey.pem -out cacert.pem -days 3650

This will create a certificate with you as the CA, and obviously, noone out there will have you as a trusted CA. You can then have instructions on your site on how to add your CA as a trusted source. (until then, all data will be encrypted, but a warning will pop up in your browser, stating that the autority is not trusted).

mrpc_cambodia · 12-26-2004, 07:30 PM

So i just need to configure my web server to support https and then whenever user request web page from my web server using htttps port, all communication will be encrypted.

is that right?

brettcave · 12-26-2004, 11:41 PM

Yes. Configuring your webserver to use https will require a certificate though.

mrpc_cambodia · 12-27-2004, 07:25 PM

Thanks,.

duliano · 01-13-2005, 06:02 PM

Just one thing to add here -- You yourself are not a trusted CA (Certificate Authority) like Verisign, etc. So even though you will be issuing a certificate, only you can be sure that it is from a trusted source. This may not matter if all the people connecting to your website are say from an intranet but if you are doing any kind of ecommerce, etc you may have to go another route

I believe it you do a search on Free CA's or open source CA you may be ablel to find someone

Hope this helps

brettcave · 01-13-2005, 10:20 PM

www.freessl.com used to offer free certificates, but i see they now only offer 30 day trials.

TomaCzar · 03-04-2005, 04:56 PM

I beleive the following does free certificates:

http://www.cacert.org/