openssl req

Create CSRs and certificates

medium risk

interactive breakdown — edit the command and press Explain

$

⚠ Risks & cautions

-nodes leaves the key unencrypted — protect with chmod 600.
Self-signed certs are not trusted by clients.

What it does

Generates keys and certificate signing requests.

Examples

openssl req -new -newkey rsa:3072 -nodes -keyout key.pem -out csr.pemCSR + key · explain & risk-check →

Related

Open the full explainer →More in Users, Permissions & Security

Reference text is hand-written and may be incomplete — check man openssl for your version. Test destructive commands on a non-production system first.