From time to time I have to generate my own SSL certificates for development purposes in Apache, and I keep on forgetting on how to do it without apache prompting me for a password everytime I boot and/or run apachectl. Here is a down and dirty quick how-to.

Step 1: Generate Private Key

openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024

Step 2: Generate CSR

openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

Step 3: Remove Passphrase

cp server.key server.key.org
openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key

Step 4: Sign the Certificate

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

After that, copy your newly generated keys to wherever your server stores your keys (in my case /etc/apache2/ssl/)

I hope this reference saves some time for some people

Brennan