Generate Private Key For Certificate
The private key is generated simultaneously with the CSR (certificate signing request), containing the domain name, public key and additional contact information. The CSR is to be sent to the certificate authority for validation and signing immediately after the certificate activation in the Namecheap user account panel. How to Generate SSH Public/Private Keys on Windows By Alexandru Andrei – Posted on Sep 17, 2019 Sep 17, 2019 in Windows If you ever managed a Linux server from Windows, you probably used PuTTY or at least heard about it.
-->Adds a certificate to a database in SQL Server.
This feature is incompatible with database export using Data Tier Application Framework (DACFx). You must drop all certificates before exporting.
Syntax
Arguments
certificate_name
Is the name for the certificate in the database.
AUTHORIZATION user_name
Is the name of the user that owns this certificate.
ASSEMBLY assembly_name
Specifies a signed assembly that has already been loaded into the database.
[ EXECUTABLE ] FILE = 'path_to_file'
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to a DER-encoded file that contains the certificate. If the EXECUTABLE option is used, the file is a DLL that has been signed by the certificate. path_to_file can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the required file-system permissions.
Important
Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file or using private key files.
BINARY = asn_encoded_certificate
ASN encoded certificate bytes specified as a binary constant.
Applies to: SQL Server 2012 (11.x) and later.
WITH PRIVATE KEY
Specifies that the private key of the certificate is loaded into SQL Server. This clause is invalid when the certificate is being created from an assembly. To load the private key of a certificate created from an assembly, use ALTER CERTIFICATE.
FILE ='path_to_private_key'
Specifies the complete path, including file name, to the private key. path_to_private_key can be a local path or a UNC path to a network location. The file is accessed in the security context of the SQL Server service account. This account must have the necessary file-system permissions.
Important
This option is not available in a contained database or in Azure SQL Database.
BINARY = private_key_bits
Applies to: SQL Server (Starting with SQL Server 2012 (11.x)) and Azure SQL Database.
Private key bits specified as binary constant. These bits can be in encrypted form. If encrypted, the user must provide a decryption password. Password policy checks are not performed on this password. The private key bits should be in a PVK file format.
DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'key_password'
Specifies the password required to decrypt a private key that is retrieved from a file. This clause is optional if the private key is protected by a null password. Saving a private key to a file without password protection is not recommended. If a password is required but no password is specified, the statement fails.
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password'
Specifies the password used to encrypt the private key. Use this option only if you want to encrypt the certificate with a password. If this clause is omitted, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. password must meet the Windows password policy requirements of the computer that is running the instance of SQL Server. For more information, see Password Policy.
SUBJECT = 'certificate_subject_name'
The term subject refers to a field in the metadata of the certificate as defined in the X.509 standard. The subject should be no more than 64 characters long, and this limit is enforced for SQL Server on Linux. For SQL Server on Windows, the subject can be up to 128 characters long. Subjects that exceed 128 characters are truncated when they are stored in the catalog, but the binary large object (BLOB) that contains the certificate retains the full subject name.
START_DATE = 'datetime'
Is the date on which the certificate becomes valid. If not specified, START_DATE is set equal to the current date. START_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time.
EXPIRY_DATE = 'datetime'
Is the date on which the certificate expires. If not specified, EXPIRY_DATE is set to a date one year after START_DATE. EXPIRY_DATE is in UTC time and can be specified in any format that can be converted to a date and time. SQL Server Service Broker checks the expiration date. Backup with Encryption using certificates also checks the expiration date and will not allow a new backup to be created with an expired certificate, but will allow restores with an expired certificate. However, expiration is not enforced when the certificate is used for database encryption or Always Encrypted.
ACTIVE FOR BEGIN_DIALOG = { ON OFF }
Makes the certificate available to the initiator of a Service Broker dialog conversation. The default value is ON.
Remarks
A certificate is a database-level securable that follows the X.509 standard and supports X.509 V1 fields. CREATE CERTIFICATE can load a certificate from a file, a binary constant, or an assembly. This statement can also generate a key pair and create a self-signed certificate.
The Private Key must be <= 2500 bytes in encrypted format. Private keys generated by SQL Server are 1024 bits long through SQL Server 2014 (12.x) and are 2048 bits long beginning with SQL Server 2016 (13.x). Private keys imported from an external source have a minimum length of 384 bits and a maximum length of 4,096 bits. The length of an imported private key must be an integer multiple of 64 bits. Certificates used for TDE are limited to a private key size of 3456 bits.
The entire Serial Number of the certificate is stored but only the first 16 bytes appear in the sys.certificates catalog view.
The entire Issuer field of the certificate is stored but only the first 884 bytes in the sys.certificates catalog view.
The private key must correspond to the public key specified by certificate_name.
When you create a certificate from a container, loading the private key is optional. But when SQL Server generates a self-signed certificate, the private key is always created. By default, the private key is encrypted using the database master key. If the database master key does not exist and no password is specified, the statement fails.
The ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD option is not required when the private key is encrypted with the database master key. Use this option only when the private key is encrypted with a password. If no password is specified, the private key of the certificate will be encrypted using the database master key. If the master key of the database cannot be opened, omitting this clause causes an error.
You do not have to specify a decryption password when the private key is encrypted with the database master key.
Note
Built-in functions for encryption and signing do not check the expiration dates of certificates. Users of these functions must decide when to check certificate expiration.
A binary description of a certificate can be created by using the CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL) and CERTPRIVATEKEY (Transact-SQL) functions. For an example that uses CERTPRIVATEKEY and CERTENCODED to copy a certificate to another database, see example B in the article CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL).
The MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA, and SHA1 algorithms are deprecated in SQL Server 2016 (13.x). Up to SQL Server 2016 (13.x), a self-signed certificate is created using SHA1. Starting with SQL Server 2017 (14.x), a self-signed certificate is created using SHA2_256.
Permissions
Requires CREATE CERTIFICATE permission on the database. Only Windows logins, SQL Server logins, and application roles can own certificates. Groups and roles cannot own certificates.
Examples
A. Creating a self-signed certificate
The following example creates a certificate called Shipping04. The private key of this certificate is protected using a password.
B. Creating a certificate from a file
The following example creates a certificate in the database, loading the key pair from files.
Important
Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file.
C. Creating a certificate from a signed executable file
Winzip registry optimizer license key generator. Alternatively, you can create an assembly from the dll file, and then create a certificate from the assembly.
Important
Azure SQL Database does not support creating a certificate from a file.
Important
Starting with SQL Server 2017 (14.x), the 'CLR strict security' server configuration option prevents loading assemblies without first setting up the security for them. Load the certificate, create a login from it, grant UNSAFE ASSEMBLY to that login, and then load the assembly.
D. Creating a self-signed certificate
The following example creates a certificate called Shipping04 without specifying an encryption password. This example can be used with Parallel Data Warehouse.
See Also
ALTER CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
DROP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
BACKUP CERTIFICATE (Transact-SQL)
Encryption Hierarchy
EVENTDATA (Transact-SQL)
CERTENCODED (Transact-SQL)
CERTPRIVATEKEY (Transact-SQL)
CERT_ID (Transact-SQL)
CERTPROPERTY (Transact-SQL)
Certificate With Private Key
-->A Key Vault (KV) certificate can be either created or imported into a key vault. When a KV certificate is created the private key is created inside the key vault and never exposed to certificate owner. The following are ways to create a certificate in Key Vault:
Create a self-signed certificate: This will create a public-private key pair and associate it with a certificate. The certificate will be signed by its own key.
Create a new certificate manually: This will create a public-private key pair and generate an X.509 certificate signing request. The signing request can be signed by your registration authority or certification authority. The signed x509 certificate can be merged with the pending key pair to complete the KV certificate in Key Vault. Although this method requires more steps, it does provide you with greater security because the private key is created in and restricted to Key Vault. This is explained in the diagram below.
The following descriptions correspond to the green lettered steps in the preceding diagram.
- In the diagram above, your application is creating a certificate which internally begins by creating a key in your key vault.
- Key Vault returns to your application a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
- Your application passes the CSR to your chosen CA.
- Your chosen CA responds with an X509 Certificate.
- Your application completes the new certificate creation with a merger of the X509 Certificate from your CA.
- Create a certificate with a known issuer provider: This method requires you to do a one-time task of creating an issuer object. Once an issuer object is created in you key vault, its name can be referenced in the policy of the KV certificate. A request to create such a KV certificate will create a key pair in the vault and communicate with the issuer provider service using the information in the referenced issuer object to get an x509 certificate. The x509 certificate is retrieved from the issuer service and is merged with the key pair to complete the KV certificate creation.
The following descriptions correspond to the green lettered steps in the preceding diagram.
- In the diagram above, your application is creating a certificate which internally begins by creating a key in your key vault.
- Key Vault sends an TLS/SSL Certificate Request to the CA.
- Your application polls, in a loop and wait process, for your Key Vault for certificate completion. The certificate creation is complete when Key Vault receives the CA’s response with x509 certificate.
- The CA responds to Key Vault's TLS/SSL Certificate Request with an TLS/SSL X.509 certificate.
- Your new certificate creation completes with the merger of the TLS/SSL X.509 certificate for the CA.
Asynchronous process
KV certificate creation is an asynchronous process. This operation will create a KV certificate request and return an http status code of 202 (Accepted). The status of the request can be tracked by polling the pending object created by this operation. The full URI of the pending object is returned in the LOCATION header.
When a request to create a KV certificate completes, the status of the pending object will change to “completed” from “inprogress”, and a new version of the KV certificate will be created. This will become the current version.
First creation
When a KV certificate is created for the first time, an addressable key and secret is also created with the same name as that of the certificate. If the name is already in use, then the operation will fail with an http status code of 409 (conflict).The addressable key and secret get their attributes from the KV certificate attributes. The addressable key and secret created this way are marked as managed keys and secrets, whose lifetime is managed by Key Vault. Managed keys and secrets are read-only. Note: If a KV certificate expires or is disabled, the corresponding key and secret will become inoperable.
If this is the first operation to create a KV certificate then a policy is required. A policy can also be supplied with successive create operations to replace the policy resource. If a policy is not supplied, then the policy resource on the service is used to create a next version of KV certificate. Note that while a request to create a next version is in progress, the current KV certificate, and corresponding addressable key and secret, remain unchanged.
Self-issued certificate
To create a self-issued certificate, set the issuer name as 'Self' in the certificate policy as shown in following snippet from certificate policy.
If the issuer name is not specified, then the issuer name is set to 'Unknown'. When issuer is 'Unknown', the certificate owner will have to manually get a x509 certificate from the issuer of his/her choice, then merge the public x509 certificate with the key vault certificate pending object to complete the certificate creation.
Partnered CA Providers
Certificate creation can be completed manually or using a “Self” issuer. Key Vault also partners with certain issuer providers to simplify the creation of certificates. The following types of certificates can be ordered for key vault with these partner issuer providers.
| Provider | Certificate type |
|---|---|
| DigiCert | Key Vault offers OV or EV SSL certificates with DigiCert |
| GlobalSign | Key Vault offers OV or EV SSL certificates with GlobalSign |
A certificate issuer is an entity represented in Azure Key Vault (KV) as a CertificateIssuer resource. It is used to provide information about the source of a KV certificate; issuer name, provider, credentials, and other administrative details.
Add Private Key To Certificate
Note that when an order is placed with the issuer provider, it may honor or override the x509 certificate extensions and certificate validity period based on the type of certificate.
Authorization: Requires the certificates/create permission.