Thanks for everyone's assistance! How can I get rid of the pass-phrase dialog at Apache startup time? The reason why this dialog pops up at startup and every re-start is that the RSA private key inside your server.key file is stored in encrypted format for security reasons. The pass-phrase is needed to be able to read and parse this file. When you can be sure that your server is secure enough you perform two steps: 1. Remove the encryption from the RSA private key (while preserving the original file): $ cp server.key server.key.org $ openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key 2. Make sure the server.key file is now only readable by root: $ chmod 400 server.key Now server.key will contain an unencrypted copy of the key. If you point your server at this file it will not prompt you for a pass-phrase. HOWEVER, if anyone gets this key they will be able to impersonate you on the net. PLEASE make sure that the permissions on that file are really such that only root or the web server user can read it (preferably get your web server to start as root but run as another server, and have the key readable only by root). Denise O. James Systems Project Analyst Florida Department of Education Education Data Center Rm. B2-24 325 W. Gaines Street Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400 Phone and Fax: (850) 245-9805 denise.james@xxxxxxxxx -----Original Message----- From: Mark H. Wood [mailto:mwood@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 9:52 AM To: users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [users@httpd] apachectl startssl --need to start without entering password -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Sun, 14 Aug 2005, James, Denise wrote: > Please point me to where I can find documentation on starting apache > with ssl and NOT having to enter the password. I am new to managing > this web server and was recently asked to setup a new certificate which > expired. > > I did that, but now whenever apache is restarted, or the server itself > is taken offline, at boot time the password is required. I didn't have > this problem until I added the new certificate. The usual way is to remove the password from the private key. For example (from OpenSSL's 'man rsa'): openssl rsa -in key.pem -out keyout.pem Do something similar for a DSA key, using the 'openssl dsa' command instead. You'll be asked for the input key's passphrase if it has one. If you don't specify a cipher then the output key won't have a passphrase. Instruct Apache to use the output key instead of the input key and the SSL library should no longer prompt for a passphrase, since it won't need one to decrypt the private key. - -- Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer mwood@xxxxxxxxx Open-source executable: $0.00. Source: $0.00 Control: priceless! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: pgpenvelope 2.10.2 - http://pgpenvelope.sourceforge.net/ iD8DBQFDAJ4fs/NR4JuTKG8RAhygAJ9m2QopD1+iozwDfNvtpmTUlSdoegCfcbs9 Mv0QE9J3g/dPSvtg3KlPohA= =wEf3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server Project. See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info. To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx " from the digest: users-digest-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --------------------------------------------------------------------- The official User-To-User support forum of the Apache HTTP Server Project. See <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/userslist.html> for more info. To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx " from the digest: users-digest-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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