64

I get the following error from openssl req:

unable to find 'distinguished_name' in config
problems making Certificate Request
41035:error:0E06D06C:configuration file routines:NCONF_get_string:no value:/SourceCache/OpenSSL098/OpenSSL098-52.30.1/src/crypto/conf/conf_lib.c:329:group=req name=distinguished_name

My understanding is that this is the "Subject" that it can't find… however, I am specifying that:

openssl req -new \
    -key "$PRIVATE_KEY" \
    -sha256 \
    -config "$OPTIONS_FILE" \
    -subj "/C=US/ST=California/L=San Francisco/O=ACME, Inc./CN=*.*.$DOMAIN/" \
    -out "$CSR_FILENAME"

The manual's only suggestion is that the config file doesn't exist; I can cat "$OPTIONS_FILE", so it's definitely there, and the error isn't preceded by the error the manual notes it would be preceded by if this were the case, so I'm pretty sure openssl sees the config file.

My config file contains the following:

[req]
req_extensions = v3_req

[ v3_req ]
# Extensions to add to a certificate request
basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
keyUsage = nonRepudiation, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[alt_names]
DNS.1 = *.*.example.com

…which is pretty much literally the example in the docs.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanatos
  • 2,542

7 Answers7

49

Near as I can tell, -config is overriding some sort of internal config; if you see the "EXAMPLES" section for the man page for openssl req, it shows an example of a config file with distinguished_name in it. On a hunch, I added the following to my config:

[req]
…
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name

[req_distinguished_name]


empty.

Thus, my entire config looked something like

[req]
req_extensions = v3_req
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name

[req_distinguished_name]


[v3_req]


Extensions to add to a certificate request


basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
keyUsage = digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
subjectAltName = @alt_names


[alt_names]
DNS.1 = ..${DOMAIN}

(Note that here, ${DOMAIN} is not literal; you should replace it with your DNS domain name; I create this file in a bash script with cat >"$OPTIONS_FILE" <<EOF, followed by the above, followed by EOF)

openssl req … -subj <my subject> -config <that file> … then took my subject from the command line. For those interested, the entire command ended up looking like:

openssl req -new \
    -key "$PRIVATE_KEY" \
    -sha256 \
    -config "$OPTIONS_FILE" \
    -subj "/C=US/ST=California/L=San Francisco/O=My Company, Inc./CN=*.*.$DOMAIN/" \
    -out "$CSR_FILENAME"

As of this posting, my understanding is that SHA-1 is deprecated¹ for X.509 certs, hence -sha256 (which is an undocumented flag…), and subjectAltName is becoming required², hence the need for the config. The only additional gotcha that I know of in order to generate a best-practice CSR to the above is that you should use a RSA key size of at least 2048 bits (if you're using RSA, which I am); you must specify the size to the openssl genrsa command as the current default is insecure.

¹While not broken at the time I'm writing this, people feel that it is only a matter of time. See "Gradually sunsetting SHA1"
²Using CN for the domain-name is no longer recommended; I'm not sure when/if browsers are planning to deprecate this. "Move away from including and checking strings that look like domain names in the subject's Common Name.", RFC 6125
Note: I am less certain about the "correct" value of keyUsage.

Community
  • 1
Thanatos
  • 2,542
21

I had the same problem and found the response here:

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2015/04/10/how-to-create-a-csr-for-a-san-certificate-on-netscaler/

The config file looks like this:

[req]
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
req_extensions = v3_req
prompt = no
[req_distinguished_name]
C = US
ST = VA
L = SomeCity
O = MyCompany
OU = MyDivision
CN = www.company.com
[v3_req]
keyUsage = keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
extendedKeyUsage = serverAuth
subjectAltName = @alt_names
[alt_names]
DNS.1 = www.company.com
DNS.2 = company.com
DNS.3 = www.company.net 
DNS.4 = company.net

And then:

openssl req -new -key private.key -sha256 -nodes -config openssl.conf -out certificate.csr
Miquel
  • 371
5

For me this error seem to be caused by incorrect path creation when running the command in Windows Server 2012, C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin

openssl req -new -sha256 -key private.pem -out example.csr

which output a non-blocking error before asking for pass phare:

Can't open C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\SSL/openssl.cnf for reading, No s uch file or directory

Clearly, the path is invalid because of the wrong slash, so config file must be explicitly appended in the command line:

openssl req -new -sha256 -key private.pem -config openssl.cfg -out example.csr
Alexei
  • 773
1

This similar error:

$ openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout _key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter '.', the field will be left blank. ----- Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:problems making Certificate Request

(Ubuntu 17.04) meant "you need to add

-subj "/C=US/ST=California/L=San Francis co/O=ACME, Inc./CN=*.*.$DOMAIN/"

to the command line" FWIW.

rogerdpack
  • 2,394
0

Another possible issue can be special (invisible) UTF-8 characters. Check your file using 

cat -v $OPTIONS_FILE
feri
  • 1
0

For future reference, run /bin/openssl.exe as Administrator.

Worthwelle
  • 4,816
psavov
  • 11
0

Just 2 cents. I had this weird error message, when in .bashrc there was set another

export OPENSSL_CONF=somelocalpath/openssl.conf

thus default config was not working!

quick check is to manually add -config=/etc/ssl/openssl.cnf to command line, and if it start working, just look at your environment.

Arunas Bart
  • 1,766