Private Key Files Key

Private Key Files Key

How can I find my certificate’s Private Key?

July 9, 2019

CSR and certificate installation related questions

You’ve received your SSL Certificate , and now you need to install it.
Firstly, let’s go through some basics. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) security is about using two unique keys: the Public Key is encrypted within your SSL Certificate, while the Private Key is generated on your server and kept secret.
All the information sent from a browser to a website server is encrypted with the Public Key and gets decrypted on the server-side with the Private Key. Together the key pair keeps communication secured, and one key will not work without the other.
The Private Key is generated with your Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The CSR is submitted to the Certificate Authority right after you activate your Certificate. The Private Key must be kept safe and secret on your server or device because later you’ll need it for Certificate installation.
Yes. You can generate a new Private Key and CSR , or use the automatic CSR and key generation during Certificate reissue (this option is available for all Certificates except for the Multi-Domains).
It looks like a block of encoded data, starting and ending with headers, such as —–BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY—– and —–END RSA PRIVATE KEY—–.
You may not get to see this code when generating your CSR . Usually, it gets generated in the background with the CSR and is automatically saved on your server. The system also fills the corresponding field automatically during the installation of your Certificate in some control panels, such as cPanel.
The way this works varies depending on your web server, control panel, or any other tools used for CSR generation. Select the one that applies to you in the following section for specific guidance.
Generating the Private Key in your browser is an option for all SSL certificates except for multi-domain certificates . If you have a multi-domain SSL, you should have generated the CSR on your server, so skip to the section on finding your Private Key on different servers and control panels.
If you chose to create your CSR in-browser during SSL activation, the Private Key is generally downloaded as a zip file to your computer’s “Downloads” folder by default. Alternatively, if you changed your browser settings to save downloaded files to a different folder, it should be saved there.
The file name will consist of your domain name, the word “key”, and the file extension “.zip”. For instance, for a website called example.com, the file name would be “ example_com_key.zip ”.
If you can’t find the Private Key in the previously mentioned folders, use your computer’s search function and enter the file name (i.e., example_com_key.zip). If you still can’t find the Private Key, you will need to get your SSL reissued . Because the in-browser CSR generation method creates the Private Key directly on your device, there’s no way of restoring it if it’s lost. This is why it’s essential to save your Private Key and back it up if you choose this method.
Normally, the CSR/RSA Private Key pairs on Linux-based operating systems are generated using the OpenSSL cryptographic engine and saved as files with “.key” or “.pem” extensions on the server.
But no specific extensions are mandatory for text files in Linux, so the key file may have any name and extension, or no extension at all.
If you remember the whole name of the key file or at least part of it, you can use the following command in your console to find the file and its directory:
The slash symbol in this command implies that the search begins from the root directory of the server. This way you have more file options to view. The name of the file in between the single quotation marks should be the part of the name that you remember. To search for the file by extension, enter “*.key” to view all the files with the “.key” extension on your server.
Tip: often the name of the file corresponds to the domain name it was generated for e.g. “domain_tld.key” or “domain.tld.pem”.
Here’s another useful command that lets you search files by their content:
This command will return the absolute path to the Private Key file if it’s located on your server.
Windows servers don’t let you view the Private Key in plain text format. When you import your Certificate via MMC or IIS, the Private Key is bound to it automatically if the CSR/Key pair has been generated on the same server.
If you need to obtain the Private Key to install your Certificate on a different server, you can export the key in a password-protected PFX (PKCS#12) file. To do that, open the MMC Certificates snap-in tools following these steps:
Win+R > mmc.exe > OK > File > Add/Remove Snap-in > Certificates > Add > Computer account > Next > Local computer > Finish > OK
Next, go to Certificate Enrollment Requests >> Certificates (if you haven’t completed the Certificate request yet). If you’ve done that, you’d select Personal >> Certificates , then right-click the Certificate >> select All Tasks >> Export . The Export wizard will open, and give you instructions. You can find more detailed instructions here .
Once that’s done, you will see the .pfx file containing your Certificate, CA-Bundle, and Private Key. To extract the key, use this tool . Choose the PKCS12 to PEM option, then upload the file and enter your chosen password.
The Keychain tool in the Server application of Mac OS X won’t allow you to access the Private Key via the graphic user interface. Instead use the Terminal, by opening /etc/certificates/ directory and clicking the file.
Its name should be something like “*.key.pem”. And the terminal commands to open the file are: cd /etc/certificates/ , then ls , and sudo nano test.key.pem .
Note : to check if the Private Key matches your Certificate, go here . Then paste the Certificate and the Private Key text codes into the required fields and click Match .
If your Tomcat SSL connector is configured in JSSE style, the Private Key must be in a password-protected keystore file with a .jks or .keystore extension. This file, unlike most other cases, is created before the CSR. To extract the Private Key, you’ll need to convert the keystore into a PFX file with the following command:
After the PKCS12 file is generated, you can convert it to a PEM file with separated CRT, CA-Bundle and KEY files using this tool . Alternatively, use the following command in the terminal:
“Private.key” can be replaced with any key file title you like.
The simplest way to get the appropriate key used during SSL installation is reflected in the below picture:
Alternatively, you can find the Private Key in the Private keys section of the SSL/TLS Manager , which can be located in the cPanel main menu. You will see all the Private Keys ever generated in your cPanel. To view the code of the key, click View & Edit . If there are several keys in that menu, you can copy each of them to find a match with your Certificate code by using this tool .
The matching Private key can also be found in the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) section of the SSL/TLS Manager. For this, open the “Certificate Signing Request (CSR)” menu, locate the CSR code for your certificate, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the link under “This CSR uses the following key”:
Just copy the Private key code from the following window and use it for further installation.
On the homepage of your cPanel, click File manager . Find the folder named “ssl” in the folder tree to the left (see screenshot). That folder will contain another folder named “keys”. This key folder also contains all the keys ever generated in your cPanel.
WHM stores your Private Keys and CSR codes in the SSL Storage Manager menu. On the homepage, click SSL/TLS >> SSL Storage Manager . To view the Private Key, click the magnifier icon next to the relevant key in the Key column.
Click Domains > your domain > SSL/TLS Certificates . You’ll see a page like the one shown below. The key icon with the message “Private key part supplied” means there is a matching key on your server.
To get it in plain text format, click the name and scroll down the page until you see the key code. Alternatively, click the green arrow icon on the right. This will download a PEM file, containing your Private Key, Certificate, and CA-Bundle files (if they were previously imported to the server). The files can be opened in any text editor, such as Notepad.
When generating a CSR in Synology DSM , the Private Key is provided to you in a zip file on the last step. The key code is contained within a server.key file, that can be opened with a text editor, such as Notepad.
Webmin works as a graphic user interface (GUI) on top of the command-line interface. There is also a file manager called Filemin, that you can use to browse the server file system and find your Private Key file. Alternatively, go to Others > Command Shell and run the find or grep command, which you can find in the Linux Operating Systems section above.
Your Private Key needs to be saved during CSR generation, as it will not be available via the graphic user interface.
That said, you may be able to retrieve your Private Key via SSH. It is saved as a temporary file in the “/tmp” folder. The path to the file will look something like this: “/tmp/tmp.npAnkmWFcu/domain.com.key”.
Note: the files in the /tmp directory are deleted every time your server is rebooted, so this is not a safe place to store your Private Key.
To get the path to your key file, use this Linux command:
Where you see “domain.com”, replace this with the actual domain name you generated the CSR for.
The path to your key file can also be found using the grep command:
In the up-to-date version of DirectAdmin, your Private Key is saved on the server. Access it in the “Paste a pre-generated Certificate and key” field during installation.
If that section is empty, it may mean the CSR and key were generated elsewhere, or the key was not saved in DirectAdmin due to a glitch. If a glitch happened, try retrieving the key via SSH. Usually, it is saved in this directory:
Note: and are your DirectAdmin details.
On the homepage, find the SSL management section by clicking the Private Keys button. This will display a list of all the Private Keys generated in Webuzo. To see the key code, click the pencil icon to the right under the Option column, as shown in the screenshot below:
To sum up, ways to find your Private Key fully depend on the interface of the webserver where you generate the CSR. If the methods described above did not help you find the Private Key for your certificate, the only solution would be to generate a new CSR/Private Key pair and reissue your certificate, and to make sure that the key is saved on your server/local computer this time.

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When you generate a CSR to request an SSL certificate , a private key is created on your local server. You shouldn't ever send your private key to someone else (including us!), but you'll need to know where it is to complete the installation of your SSL certificate. Below are some common places to find the private key on your server.
On Windows servers, the OS manages the certificate for you in a hidden file, but you can export a .PFX file that contains both the certificate and the private key.
Once you have the .pfx file, you can keep it as a backup of the key, or use it to install the certificate on another Windows server. If you're trying to use the certificate on a different OS, you'll need to split the .pfx into the certificate and the private key.

You can find the location of your private key in your Apache configuration file, which is named .httpd.conf or apache2.conf . The line SSLCertificateKeyFile shows you the file path to your private key.
The path to your private key is listed in your site's virtual host file. Navigate to the server block for your site (by default, it's located in the /var/www directory). Open the configuration file for your site and search for ssl_certificate_key which will show the path to your private key.

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Last updated on August 22, 2020 by Dan Nanni
If you connect to a remote server via SSH, which only accepts key authentication , you need to present your private key to the SSH server for authentication. It is straightforward to do so by using SSH's command line option. But what if you have many different servers, each of which happens to require different private keys? It will be nice for you to be able to automatically load a certain private key with a specific SSH server. In the following, I describe how to do it.
To specify a private key file in SSH from the command line, you can simply use -i option in the ssh command.
Assume that you want to access ec2-23-22-230-24.compute-1.amazonaws.com with a private key located in ~/.ssh/alice.pem :
However, things get complicated when you have multiple private keys. In that case, you can declare which private key to use for each SSH server, in your SSH configuration file which is found at ~/.ssh/config .
Then you can SSH without explicitly specifying your private key with -i option.
Note that the hostname (e.g., ec2-23-22-230-24.compute-1.amazonaws.com ) specified with ssh command must match with that declared in .ssh/config . Thus even with the above .ssh/config , you cannot directly SSH to alternative names (e.g., IP address or hostname alias defined in /etc/hosts ) of the SSH server, unless you also add them explicitly to ~/.ssh/config .
Suppose 23.22.230.24 is the IP address of ec2-23-22-230-24.compute-1.amazonaws.com , and " my_ec2_host 23.22.230.24 " is added in /etc/hosts . Then these alternative names must be declared in ~/.ssh/config as well in order you to use these names to connect to via SSH.
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SSL & PKI

CSR Private Key: How to Generate Your Private Key from a Certificate
By
Savvy Security

June 22, 2022

7 Mins Read

Are you planning to add a secure socket layer/transport layer security (SSL/TLS) certificate to your cybersecurity arsenal but you don’t know how to get the required certificate signing request (CSR) and a private key? No worries generate private key from a certificate
Don’t be yet another victim to be added to the 85% of organizations that suffered a cyberattack in 2021. Learn how to generate a private key from a certificate using a free CSR generator tool.
It’s fast, painless, and easy — so much so that we’re going to show you how to do it right now.
An SSL/TLS certificate won’t only encrypt all communications between your server and the client, but it’ll also avoid your website being marked as “not secure” by the most used browsers.
Before you can receive the SSL/TLS certificate from a trusted certificate authority (CA), you’ll require two important digital files:
All this information will be used to create the SSL/TLS certificate that will be issued to you by the CA. A CSR generator tool will create something that looks like this:
Image caption: This is an example of CSR obtained with a generator tool
How do you get them? Let’s find it out!
Time is money. Why should you spend time and effort to manually generate your private key from a CSR or with the Windows MMC console when you can do it using a free CSR generator tool in seconds? How? By using our browser-based CSR generation tool .
The CSR generator will enable you to keep your private key really private. Why? Because instead of being server-based like many other CSR generators, it’s browser-based. This means that your private key will be generated and displayed only inside your browser. This is fine so long as you’re using a secure, encrypted website like CheapSSLsecurity.com. Your key will never be saved, transmitted, or shared to our server.
OK, enough talking, let’s get down to business and discover how to get a private key from a CSR using the CSR generation tool.
A screenshot of the form that you’ll need to complete can be seen below:
2. Enter your hostname (i.e., common name) .
Type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your server that customers use to access your website.
Tip : Do you need the key for a wildcard SSL certificate? Then make sure you enter your common name using this format: *.mydomain.com
Ensure you use the exact legal name (e.g., Google, Inc.). If you don’t have one and are a private site owner, enter your full name.
Indicate the department that’ll handle the certificate (e.g., IT department, Security team). Tip : This field isn’t mandatory and can be left blank. In fact, the OU field is being deprecated across the industry as a whole because it’s a non-validated field that threat actors could misuse.
5. Enter the city where your company is located .
Make sure you enter your legal location. I’ve entered Philadelphia for demonstration purposes.
6. Add the state or province where your company is located .
This should match the information you entered in the previous step. If you typed Philadelphia, for example, you’ll then indicate Pennsylvania as your state.
Based on the information entered till now, choose from the drop-down menu the country your organization is located in.
8. Select your preferred key generation algorithm .
You can choose between the most used Rivest-Shamir-Aldman (RSA) algorithm and the newer elliptical curve cryptography (ECC). Don’t know which one to pick? Check out our SSL/TLS algorithms comparison article to make an informed choice. I’ve selected ECC here for this example as it offers the same level of encryption as RSA but it’s faster and more secure.
If you selected the RSA key algorithm in the previous step, you may want to stick to the National Institute of Standards and Technology ’s (NIST) recommendation and choose the approved, pre-filled high strength 2048 key size as a minimum. If you’re like me and opted for the ECC key algorithm, you can go with 256 as your key size.
Tip : The tool only lists highly secure key sizes. Smaller sizes aren’t included in the drop-down menu to avoid you getting a too-insecure private key.
Review all the information you entered. Is it correct? Well done! Now, all you have to do is to click on the Generate CSR button at the bottom of the form.
11. Get ready to order your SSL/TLS certificate .
There we go! Now you have your private key ready to download as a text file! Download it and save it on your device. Copy your CSR and send it to the CA to get your brand new SSL/TLS certificate. And remember, when you need to renew it, you’ll just have to follow the same proc
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