Generate a self-signed SSL certificate for local development on a Mac
Generate a host key
First, make a home for the new SSL files—I use /etc/apache2/ssl. Open up a terminal window, cd to the new directory and issue the following command to create a host key file.
sudo ssh-keygen -f host.key
Generate a certificate request file
This command will create a certificate request file. A certificate request file contains information about your organization that will be used in the SSL certificate. The command will ask you a bunch of questions; because this is for local development, nonsense will suffice.
sudo openssl req -new -key host.key -out reqeust.csr
Create the SSL certificate
Create a self-signed SSL certificate using the request file.
sudo openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in request.csr -signkey host.key -out server.crt
Apache
Add the following to your Apache configuration to use the new certificate:
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key
Restart Apache with sudo apachectl restart and try our your new certificate.
1 comment
Christian, many thanks for this. It is exactly what I need to do. I’m surprised that there aren’t a thousand thank yous here already. Simple solutions to seemingly difficult tasks. May your questions in life be just as quickly and easily answered.
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