Secure Websites Using SSL And Certificates

This how-to will guide you through the entire process of setting up a secure website using SSL and digital certificates. This guide assumes that you have already a fully functional (and configured) server running Apache, BIND, and OpenSSL. Just as a side note, this guide was written based on a Fedora Core 6 distribution, but should be the same for most other distros out there.

Today it is possible to create a secure website with relative ease by requiring a client to present a digitally signed certificate. A digitally signed certificate is simply a piece of information that contains data about the subject, public key, dates of validity, identification of the Certificate Authority (CA), and the digital signature. There are typically two ways to go about creating a secure website. First is by the use of a self-signed certificate. The second way is by using a Trusted Certificate signed by a CA. The choice is up to you, and this tutorial will show you how to do both. Go ahead and su into root and let's begin!