Installing an SSL Certificate under Apache (XAMPP)

Daniel Opitz

29 Oct 2017

Requirements

• XAMPP for Windows

Installation

Download and install the 32-Bit version of OpenSSL

• OpenSSL 32-Bit: Win32OpenSSL-1_1_0L.exe

Configuration

• OpenSSL requires a configuration file: openssl.cnf
• Enter this command:

set OPENSSL_CONF=C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\openssl.cfg

Create a certificate request file

Run

cd C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin
openssl req -new -nodes -keyout www_example_com.key -out www_example_com.csr -newkey rsa:2048

• Reade more: https://www.psw-group.de/support/?p=20/

To create a self-signed certificate with OpenSSL run:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout server.key -out server.crt -days 365 -nodes

Enter the certificate request data:

Country: UK
State: XX
Locality name (City): London
Organisation Name: Acme AG
Organisation Unit: HeadOffice
Common-Name: www.example.com
E-Mail: info@example.com
Password: secret123
Optional company name: keep empty, press enter

• OpenSSl creates at least two files:
  • www_example_com.csr
  • www_example_com.key

• Order a real SSL certificate, e.g. from https://letsencrypt.org/, psw.net, GlobalSign, Sectigo, Thawte with the certificate request file: www_example_com.csr

• Important: Don’t upload or share the private key file: www_example_com.key

• If you created a self-signed certificate, then you don’t have to order a certificate, just copy these files:
  • From C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\server.key to C:\xampp\apache\conf\ssl.key\server.key
  • From C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\server.crt to C:\xampp\apache\conf\ssl.crt\server.crt
  • Restart apache
  • Open: https://localhost/

Installing the SSL Certificate

• Open the file C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.conf with Notepad++
• Add these lines and adjust the path and filenames.:

SSLCertificateFile "conf/ssl.crt/certificate.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "conf/ssl.key/www_example_com.key"
SSLCertificateChainFile "conf/ssl.crt/intermediate1.crt"
SSLCACertificateFile "conf/ssl.crt/root.crt"

• Restart apache

Testing the SSL certificate

This SSL Checker will help you diagnose problems with your SSL certificate installation. You can verify the SSL certificate on your web server to make sure it is correctly installed, valid, trusted and doesn’t give any errors to any of your users. To use the SSL Checker, simply enter your server’s hostname (must be public) in the box below and click the Check SSL button.