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other useful openssl commands

generate a new key and a csr

openssl req -sha256 -out my.csr -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout my.key

generate csr from existing key

openssl req -sha256 -out my.csr -key my.key -new

extract the information from a certificate

openssl x509 -text -in cert.pem

extract the information from a csr

openssl req -in my.csr -noout -text

The private key contains a series of numbers. Two of those numbers form the "public key", the others are part of your "private key". The "public key" bits are also embedded in your Certificate (we get them from your CSR). To check that the public key in your cert matches the public portion of your private key, you need to view the cert and the key and compare the numbers. To view the Certificate and the key run the commands:

this example is for ed25519, change "pkey" for "rsa" if you use a rsa key

openssl x509 -noout -text -in server.pem
openssl pkey -noout -text -in server.key

The `modulus' and the `public exponent' portions in the key and the Certificate must match. But since the public exponent is usually 65537 and it's bothering comparing long modulus you can use the following approach (only works with rsa key)

openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in server.pem | openssl md5
openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in server.key | openssl md5

if you want to check to which key or certificate a particular CSR belongs you can compute : (only works with rsa key)

openssl req -noout -modulus -in server.csr