PKI

Below you will find instructions on how to request certificates with popular web browsers as well as instructions for the use of this certificates. The instructions for certification shall relate to e-mail (S / MIME) certificates. However, the requirement of other types of certificates is designed largely similar. If you have suggestions for further instructions or additional questions, you can send an e-mail to support@gwdg.de or use the GWDG support form.

In the future, you will receive new certificates via the GÉANT TCS service. For information on specific application procedures, please contact your local participant service of your institution by choosing the Registration Authority (RA). For user certificates for signing and/or optional encryption of e-mails, the application method is the GÉANT TCS PKI in the vast majority of cases the right way. In cooperation with your local participant service employee of your institution or RA, you create a user certificate. Further information can also be found in the information provided under “Detailed description of email encryption with X.509 certificates” GWDG news articles available to you.

According to the following, as described in GN 04-05|20 (currently only in German) in the paragraph “Der neue Beantragungsweg”, the path to the new application pages is described, this will change from Fig. 2 there as described in the following.

There are now two larger buttons. To apply, click the “Apply for a new user certificate” button.

Enter the required data for the user certificate and click on the “Next” button.

A summary of the information is displayed. If everything is fine, click on the “Save request file” button.

A password for the application file must be entered and confirmed by clicking on “Ok”.

The application file is stored in the download directory of the web browser used.

With the application you signed, please go to the responsible RA operator in your institute.

For personal identification, please have your valid ID.

After personal identification and verification of the certificate application, the responsible RA operator will issue your certificate application.

You will receive an e-mail with your certificate attached after your personal e-mail certificate has been issued.

After clicking on the URL in the mail or by copying and pasting into the address line of the browser with which the certificate was requested, click on “Pick up a requested certificate”.

To specify or select the application file, click Browse and select the associated application file for the certificate to be obtained. The browsers store this file in the Downloads folder of the user.

The information in the application file is displayed. If everything fits click “Next”.

If an attempt is made to retrieve the certificate and the confirmation email has not yet been received, you will receive the following error message.

If the pickup worked, the data of the currently collected certificate is displayed in an overview. Clicking on “Save Certificate File” initiates the completion of the pickup.

To secure the certificate file to be saved, it is now imperative to enter a certificate password. Clicking OK completes the process.

At the end of the collection, an information page with important information that should be considered will be displayed.

For further steps and detailed instructions on how to install and use the certificate in different e-mail clients, please read the following documents.

Call OpenSSL with the following Parameters

Simple Bash script…

createcsr.sh

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -keyout priv-key.pem -out certreq.pem

• Download createscr.sh script.
• Change flags with

  chmod 744 createcsr.sh

• Run script as follows

  ./createcsr.sh

  .

Simple PowerShell script…

createcsr.ps1

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -keyout priv-key.pem -out certreq.pem

Simple Batch script…

createcsr.bat

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -keyout priv-key.pem -out certreq.pem

After that, proceed with the Select a Registration Authority (RA) and upload the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file in the offered web form of your institution, that you can reach by clicking on “upload for Servers”.

Call OpenSSL with the following Parameters

Simple Bash script…

createcsr.sh

openssl req -config example.cnf -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -nodes -keyout example.key -out example-csr.pem

• Download createscr.sh script.
• Change flags with

  chmod 744 createcsr.sh

• Run script as follows

  ./createcsr.sh

  .

Simple PowerShell script…

createcsr.ps1

openssl req -config example.cnf -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -nodes -keyout example.key -out example-csr.pem

Simple Batch script…

createcsr.bat

openssl req -config example.cnf -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -nodes -keyout example.key -out example-csr.pem

After that, proceed with the Select a Registration Authority (RA) and upload the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file in the offered web form of your institution, that you can reach by clicking on “upload for Servers”.

Please replace the word example with the server name and the email address noreplay@{MPG | uni-goettingen | gwdg}.de with a valid.

example.cnf

HOME            = .
RANDFILE        = $ENV::HOME/.rnd
 
####################################################################
[ req ]
default_bits        = 4096
default_keyfile     = example.key
distinguished_name  = server_distinguished_name
req_extensions      = server_req_extensions
string_mask         = utf8only
 
####################################################################
[ server_distinguished_name ]
countryName         = Country Name (2 letter code)
countryName_default     = DE
 
stateOrProvinceName     = State or Province Name (full name)
stateOrProvinceName_default = Niedersachsen
 
localityName            = Locality Name (eg, city)
localityName_default        = Goettingen
 
organizationName            = Organization Name (eg, company)
organizationName_default    = Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
 
# The name of your CA subordinate RA can be found here 
# https://info.gwdg.de/docs/doku.php?id=de:services:it_security:pki:mpgras
# and thus, replace the value PKI
organizationalUnitName	= Organizational Unit Name (eg, your Max-Planck-Institute)
organizationalUnitName_default	= PKI
 
commonName          = Common Name (eg, server FQDN or YOUR name)
commonName_default      = example.mpg.de
 
emailAddress            = Email Address
emailAddress_default        = noreply@mpg.de
 
####################################################################
[ server_req_extensions ]
 
subjectKeyIdentifier        = hash
basicConstraints        = CA:FALSE
keyUsage            = digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
subjectAltName          = @alternate_names
nsComment           = "OpenSSL Generated Certificate"
 
####################################################################
[ alternate_names ]
 
DNS.1       = example-san-1.mpg.de
DNS.2       = example-san-2.mpg.de

Please replace the word example with the server name and the email address noreplay@{MPG | uni-goettingen | gwdg}.de with a valid.

example.cnf

HOME            = .
RANDFILE        = $ENV::HOME/.rnd
 
####################################################################
[ req ]
default_bits        = 4096
default_keyfile     = example.key
distinguished_name  = server_distinguished_name
req_extensions      = server_req_extensions
string_mask         = utf8only
 
####################################################################
[ server_distinguished_name ]
countryName         = Country Name (2 letter code)
countryName_default     = DE
 
stateOrProvinceName     = State or Province Name (full name)
stateOrProvinceName_default = Niedersachsen
 
localityName            = Locality Name (eg, city)
localityName_default        = Goettingen
 
organizationName            = Organization Name (eg, company)
organizationName_default    = Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen
 
# Please remove the comment character for the next two lines. The name of the CA child RA 
# You can see https://info.gwdg.de/docs/doku.php?id=de:services:it_security:pki:uniras here and thus replace the value PKI.
#organizationalUnitName = Organizational Unit Name (eg, your Institute name in the Uni-Goettingen-CA)
#organizationalUnitName_default = PKI
 
commonName          = Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name)
commonName_default      = example.uni-goettingen.de
 
emailAddress            = Email Address
emailAddress_default        = noreply@uni-goettingen.de
 
####################################################################
[ server_req_extensions ]
 
subjectKeyIdentifier        = hash
basicConstraints        = CA:FALSE
keyUsage            = digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
subjectAltName          = @alternate_names
nsComment           = "OpenSSL Generated Certificate"
 
####################################################################
[ alternate_names ]
 
DNS.1       = example-san-1.uni-goettingen.de
DNS.2       = example-san-2.uni-goettingen.de

Please replace the word example with the server name and the email address noreplay@{MPG | uni-goettingen | gwdg}.de with a valid.

example.cnf

HOME            = .
RANDFILE        = $ENV::HOME/.rnd
 
####################################################################
[ req ]
default_bits        = 4096
default_keyfile     = example.key
distinguished_name  = server_distinguished_name
req_extensions      = server_req_extensions
string_mask         = utf8only
 
####################################################################
[ server_distinguished_name ]
countryName         = Country Name (2 letter code)
countryName_default     = DE
 
stateOrProvinceName     = State or Province Name (full name)
stateOrProvinceName_default = NIEDERSACHSEN
 
localityName            = Locality Name (eg, city)
localityName_default        = GOETTINGEN
 
organizationName            = Organization Name (eg, company)
organizationName_default    = Gesellschaft fuer wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung
 
# Please remove the comment character for the next two lines. The name of the CA child RA 
# You can https://info.gwdg.de/docs/doku.php?id=de:services:it_security:pki:gwdgras here and replace the value PKI.
#organizationalUnitName = Organizational Unit Name (eg, your Institute name in the Uni-Goettingen-CA)
#organizationalUnitName_default = PKI
 
commonName          = Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name)
commonName_default      = example.gwdg.de
 
emailAddress            = Email Address
emailAddress_default        = noreply@gwdg.de
 
####################################################################
[ server_req_extensions ]
 
subjectKeyIdentifier        = hash
basicConstraints        = CA:FALSE
keyUsage            = digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
subjectAltName          = @alternate_names
nsComment           = "OpenSSL Generated Certificate"
 
####################################################################
[ alternate_names ]
 
DNS.1       = example-san-1.gwdg.de
DNS.2       = example-san-2.gwdg.de

A collection of important OpenSSL commands for server certificates

openssl rsa -in example.key -out example.np.key

openssl pkcs12 -export -out example.pfx -inkey example.key -in example.pem