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Trouble installing renewed SSL certificate with Apache

+4 votes
703 views

The ssl cert on my apache server have expired. It is actually a server at work - a important one as well so I'm a bit stressed at the moment.

The cert is renewed and I have received the cert files. I'm now trying to install them but I can't get it to work.

I thought it was as simple as just copying the new crt file to the server and restart apache but apache start fails.

I see this in the log:

509 certificate routines:X509_check_private_key:key values mismatch

Server: Apache 2.2.22 on Ubuntu 12.04. How does one install a renewed ssl cert? Do I need to create a new private key and ca-bundle? Please point me in the right direction.

posted Oct 25, 2013 by Amit Parthsarthi

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It sounds like the configured private key does not match your new certificate. Did you create a new private key and CSR when you ordered the new certificate?
commented Oct 25, 2013 by anonymous
No. I just received the new certificate from Comodo. I assume they used the original csr file which I have stored somewhere :)

I thought I documented what I did to set up the cert but can't for the life of me find it now. So I probably just need to create a new private key but memory does not serve me well right now.

I'm starting to believe that receiving a renewed cert is actually like receiving a cert in the first place and should be installed like a completely new cert.

If you know of a good article on how to install a ssl cert including creating a new private key and ca-bundle please let me know.
commented Oct 25, 2013 by anonymous

1 Answer

+1 vote

1) If the same csr was used, it should be sufficient to replace the .crt.

2) A certificate is linked to the specific private key it was created for. The modulus of that key was stored in the CSR that was used to generate the certificate. You need to find the correct key, since you won't be able to generate a matching one. You can check the modulus of the key, csr and certificate with openssl:

openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in certificate.crt 
openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in private.key 
openssl req -noout -modulus -in csr.csr

You probably should check the certificate as well, especially the CN of the Subject, e.g. with

openssl x509 -noout -text -in certificate.crt
answer Oct 25, 2013 by Abhay Kulkarni
Solved! The new certificate was issued with a new private key but I did not receive info about that. I have now received both the crt and the private key and apache is up and running again.
commented Oct 25, 2013 by anonymous
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