How to get only the certificate and key without a site, for a p12 file?

#1

Hello all. I would create a .p12 file for signing PDFs with a PADES signature. So I don’t have a site, I just need the certificate and the key. How can I do to get them? Certbot wants absolutely a domain.

I ran this command:

sudo certbot certonly --standalone

It produced this output:

Failed authorization procedure. marcosulla.org (http-01): urn:ietf:params:acme:error:connection :: The server could not connect to the client to verify the domain :: dns :: DNS problem: NXDOMAIN looking up A for marcosulla.org

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version):

Lubuntu 18.0.4 (it’s my laptop)

The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you’re using Certbot):

certbot 0.31.0

#2

Hi @Marco_Sulla

if you want a public trustet certificate, you need a public visible, worldwide unique domain name.

But marcosulla.org isn’t registered

Host T IP-Address is auth. ∑ Queries ∑ Timeout
marcosulla.org Name Error yes 1 0
www.marcosulla.org Name Error yes 1 0

So first step: Register that domain.

Then you can create a certificate via dns-01 - validation. Then you don’t need a webserver.

Check

But: As I know, you can’t use that certificate to sign PDFs. So Letsencrypt is the wrong way to do that.

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#3

Yes, Let’s Encrypt certificates are only valid for authenticating online sites and services with TLS and can’t be used for file or code signing. For these purposes, you’ll need to look for a certificate from a different CA.

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#4

Well, do you know any free CA Authority for signing a file?

#5

No, I don’t know of such a service.

1 Like