So, I'm trying to set up a self-signed certificate so people can't sniff my password.

Guess what? Apparently you -CANNOT- create SSL keys without passwords any more:

[root@ks383350 private]# openssl genrsa -aes256 -out selfsign.key 4096
Generating RSA private key, 4096 bit long modulus
................................................++
.................................................................................................... ........................................................................................++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
Enter pass phrase for selfsign.key:
140569281062728:error:28069065:lib(40):UI_set_result:result too small:ui_lib.c:869:You must type in 4 to 8191 characters

What the heck? How is this supposed to work? Are we all supposed to manually start apache these days?

Please tell me there's a fix or workaround for this bug (Clearly, it's a bug that needs judicious patching)

To create a new Private Key without a passphrase.
# openssl genrsa -out www.example.com.key 4096

To create a new password protected Private Key (Remember the passphrase)
# openssl genrsa -des3 -out www.example.com.key.password 4096

To remove the passphrase from the password protected Private Key
# openssl rsa -in www.example.com.key.password -out www.example.com.key