Creating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and Key/Certificate Pair

Use the following steps to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to submit to your CA. Then, create a private key/certificate pair that can be used to authenticate incoming communication requests to Cloudera Data Science Workbench.

  1. Create a cdsw.cnf file and populate it with the required configuration parameters including the SAN field values.
    vi cdsw.cnf
  2. Copy and paste the default openssl.cnf from: http://web.mit.edu/crypto/openssl.cnf.
  3. Modify the following sections and save the cdsw.cnf file:
    [ CA_default ]
    default_md = sha2
    
    [ req ]
    default_bits       = 2048
    distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
    req_extensions     = req_ext
    
    [ req_distinguished_name ]
    countryName                 = Country Name (2 letter code)
    stateOrProvinceName         = State or Province Name (full name)
    localityName               = Locality Name (eg, city)
    organizationName           = Organization Name (eg, company)
    commonName                 = Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name)
    
    [ req_ext ]
    subjectAltName = @alt_names
    
    [alt_names]
    DNS.1   = *.cdsw.company.com
    DNS.2   = cdsw.company.com
    Key points to note:
    • The domains set in the DNS.1 and DNS.2 entries above must match the DOMAIN set in cdsw.conf.
    • The default_md parameter must be set to sha256 at a minimum. Older hash functions such as SHA1 are deprecated and will be rejected by browsers, either currently or in the very near future.
    • The commonName (CN) parameter will be ignored by browsers. You must use Subject Alternative Names.
  4. Run the following command to generate the CSR.
    openssl req -out cert.csr -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout private.key -config cdsw.cnf
    This command generates the private key and the CSR in one step. The -nodes switch disables encryption of the private key (which is not supported by Cloudera Data Science Workbench at this time).
  5. Use the CSR and private key generated in the previous step to request a certificate from the CA. If you have access to your organization's internal CA or PKI, use the following command to request the certificate. If you do not have access, or are using a third-party/commercial CA, use your organization's respective internal process to submit the request.
    openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in cert.csr -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -CAcreateserial -out <your_tls_cert>.crt -sha256 -extfile cdsw.cnf -extensions req_ext
  6. Run the following command to verify that the certificate issued by the CA lists both the required domains, cdsw.company.com and *.cdsw.company.com, under X509v3 Subject Alternative Name.
    openssl x509 -in <your_tls_cert>.crt -noout -text
    You should also verify that a valid hash function is being used to create the certificate. For SHA-256, the value under Signature Algorithm will be sha256WithRSAEncryption.