DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / ssl-cert / make-ssl-cert.8.en
make-ssl-cert(8) System Manager's Manual make-ssl-cert(8)

make-ssl-cert - Debconf wrapper for openssl

make-ssl-cert [OPTION]... template output-certificate
make-ssl-cert [OPTION]... generate-default-snakeoil

make-ssl-cert is a simple debconf to openssl wrapper to create self-signed certificates. It requires a source template (Ex: /usr/share/ssl-cert/ssleay.cnf) and it will place the new generated certificate in the specified output file.
Invoked with "generate-default-snakeoil", it will generate /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem and /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key.

A summary of options are included below.

Always create a new certificate, even if the file already exists. For backwards compatibility with 1.0.x, this option can be given as last argument, too.
Never overwrite an existing file, even if the old certificate's key length is too small or if it uses an obsoltete signature algorithm.
Make the new certificate expire in N days. Default is 3650.

openssl(1)

The program author is Thom May <thom@debian.org>, manual page was written for completeness by Fabio M. Di Nitto <fabbione@fabbione.net>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).