Reconfigure SSL with a New Certificate and Private Key (Optional)

AWS CloudHSM uses an SSL certificate to establish a connection to an HSM. A default key and SSL certificate are included when you install the client. You can, however, create and use your own. Note that you will need the self–signed certificate (customerCA.crt) that you created when you initialized your cluster.

To reconfigure SSL with a new certificate and private key

1. Create a private key using the following OpenSSL command:

   openssl genrsa -out ssl-client.key 2048
   Generating RSA private key, 2048 bit long modulus
   ........+++
   ............+++
   e is 65537 (0x10001)
   
   

2. Use the following OpenSSL command to create a certificate signing request (CSR). You will be asked a series of questions for your certificate.

   openssl req -new -sha256 -key ssl-client.key -out ssl-client.csr
   Enter pass phrase for ssl-client.key:
   You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
   into your certificate request.
   What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
   There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
   For some fields there will be a default value,
   If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
   -----
   Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]:
   State or Province Name (full name) []:
   Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]:
   Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]:
   Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
   Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:
   Email Address []:
    
   Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
   to be sent with your certificate request
   A challenge password []:
   An optional company name []:
   	
   

3. Sign the CSR with the customerCA.crt certificate that you created when you initialized your cluster.

   openssl x509 -req -days 3652 -in ssl-client.csr \
           -CA customerCA.crt \
           -CAkey customerCA.key \
           -CAcreateserial \
           -out ssl-client.crt
   Signature ok
   subject=/C=US/ST=WA/L=Seattle/O=Example Company/OU=sales
   Getting CA Private Key
   
   

4. Copy your key and certificate to the appropriate directory. In Linux, use the following commands. The configure --ssl option became available with version 1.0.14 of the AWS CloudHSM client.

   sudo cp ssl-client.crt /opt/cloudhsm/etc/
   sudo cp ssl-client.key /opt/cloudhsm/etc/
   sudo /opt/cloudhsm/bin/configure --ssl --pkey /opt/cloudhsm/etc/ssl-client.key --cert /opt/cloudhsm/etc/ssl-client.crt
   
   

5. Add the customerCA.crt certificate to the trust store. Create a hash of the certificate subject name. This creates an index to allow the certificate to be looked up by that name. Create a file that contains the certificate with the hash name.

   openssl x509 -in /opt/cloudhsm/etc/customerCA.crt -hash | head -n 1
   1234abcd
   sudo cp /opt/cloudhsm/etc/customerCA.crt /opt/cloudhsm/etc/certs/1234abcd.0