Step 2 : Create your own PKI
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Properly creating the PKI is the fundamental anchor of your setup's security !
A number of files we'll create in this section will have to be named starting with the "configuration name" we chose in Step 0 : my-fg-ovpn in this demo.
new-PKIAs first step we'll duplicate the whole contents of our new-PKI folder into our own PKI sub-folder named MY-FG-OVPN-PKI : select all files, then Copy, go to the target folder then Paste
Let's create a sub-folder into our own PKI folder, to store this particular PKI's "database" of certificates and keys, that we'll call MY-FG-OVPN-PKI-KEYS :
You can double-click init-config.bat in MY-FG-OVPN-PKI to run this command, and that will initialize the new vars.bat command script file from a sample file.
The init-config.bat command should not be re-used later on, as it would ERASE the customizations we are about to do in the vars.bat file.
So we'll rename init-config.bat to DONE-DANGER-init-config.bat and FORGET about it.
We now have to edit the vars.bat file for it to meet our requirements :
we comment out (or delete) the lines playing with the PATH to ensure the commands use the version of executable binary programs that we have in our PKI folder, and none other (lines 7 and 10 below; only line 7 needs editing since line 10 is already commented out with "rem ")
we set HOME to the full path of the root folder for our PKI; everything the Easy-RSA commands will do later on will happen from that location : this is the T:\fg-ovpn\MY-FG_OVPN\MY_FG_OVPN_PKI folder (line 12 below) for our sample
we set KEY_DIR to the name of the sub-folder where we want our certificates and keys to be stored : this is the MY-FG-OVPN-PKI-KEYS we created earlier
we give some default values for our future certificates in the list of set KEY_xxxx commands at the end of the file.
To avoid accidentally keeping a (wrong) default value for 2 important fields of our certificates, we'll put a prompt for action as their default value : KEY_CN and KEY_NAME
we can keep or delete all the commented lines (= lines starting with "rem ")
So we edit vars.bat in a text editor (even Right click + Edit with the very limited Windows Notepad is sufficient for good old .bat windows-only command files) as follows.
Supposing you start from the original content below (sample as of OpenVPN v2.4.7),
...then you should end up with this kind of minimal final result :
ALL the other lines you may want to keep for reference in the vars.bat file should be commented out with "rem " as seen above.
Here, i chose to delete them.
The clean-all.bat command script ERASES the whole PKI "database" including all certificates and keys. It must be used ONLY ONCE to initialize the database and NEVER AGAIN !
So we'll first edit it to add these 2 lines between original lines 1 and 2 :
And we'll add this last line at the end of the file :
The resulting clean-all.bat file should be :
This way, when we run this "killer" command script file, we'll have a warning and Y/N choice, with the "No I don't want to kill my own innocent PKI" answer selected by default after 10 seconds...
...and just to be safe, we'll rename clean-all.bat to NEVER-AGAIN-DANGER-clean-all.bat !
From now on, we'll use a single command line prompt window to type all the commands.
We'll ABSOLUTELY NOT double-click command files !!!
So we open a command line prompt window and we position ourselves in the right folder for our PKI. In my demo this is :T:\fg-ovpn\MY-FG_OVPN\MY_FG_OVPN_PKI
A quick check to verify this is the right place :
Then once we know we have arrived at the right place, the VERY FIRST COMMAND we'll type is :
If you need to open a new command prompt window, remember to re-position to the right folder and use ".\vars.bat" command FIRST !
Remember that, when you come back days or months later, to add a new client certificate or revoke an existing one.
Try to build up your keyboard "muscle memory" with the following tip :
The vars.bat command script can be run multiple times without any issue.
Actually, we'll re-run it before every other command in this example.
Let's use the "killer" command script, give the Y answer THIS ONE TIME, and then let's forget about it...
This DELETES any pre-existing data in your PKI keys folder and initializes the PKI "database" :
Easy !
This creates the PKI Certificate Authority's own self-signed certificate (ca.crt) and private key (ca.key) in the MY-FG-OVPN-PKI-KEYS sub-folder.
Since we are here within our own PKI, we only have one CA so these simple filenames are fine. But :
Our server will need to have the CA certificate named as "configuration name"-ca.crt
("configuration name" = my-fg-ovpn in this demo)
=> We'll copy+paste+rename these 2 files to have proper names :
ca.crt copied to my-fg-ovpn-ca.crt
ca.key copied to my-fg-ovpn-ca.key
Do NOT rename the original files directly, but keep properly named copies !
Easy, but may take a long time depending on your computer !
...time passes...finally :
Our server will need to have our DH file named as "configuration name"-dh2048.pem
("configuration name" = my-fg-ovpn in this demo)
=> We'll also keep a copy of dh2048.pem named my-fg-ovpn-dh2048.pem
Easy again !
Our server will need to have it's certificate file named "configuration name"-srv.crt (and similarly for the key and certificate request)
("configuration name" = my-fg-ovpn in this demo)
Since our server should boot up in unattended mode (without anyone to enter a password) :
Do NOT enter a challenge password
This creates 3 files in your keys folder, with the name you typed on the command line :
my-fg-ovpn-srv.crt : the server public certificate
my-fg-ovpn-srv.key : the server private key
my-fg-ovpn-srv.csr : the "certificate signing request" used during the process
Being used to D&D, i already called my clients subfolders my-fg-ovpn-dm01/02, so let's stick to that.
Do the same thing with my-fg-ovpn-dm02...
You should now have :
Our next step will be to initialize a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) for our OpenVPN server to systematically check before authorizing a connection.
You can see on the above screenshot :
After all, DM01 was here first, and he's not a sharer...
As soon as you have revoked the (probably innocent) my-fg-ovpn-dm02 during the previous step, your PKI (re-)generated the CRL=Certificate Revocation List with the basic name of crl.pem :
Our server will need to have the CRL named as "configuration name"-crl.pem
("configuration name" = my-fg-ovpn in this demo)
=> We'll copy+paste/rename the CRL from crl.pem to my-fg-ovpn-crl.pem :
Congratulations !
Your own PKI is now complete, with clear enough filenames so that you know who is what, in case they happen to be used on OpenVPN servers/clients managing/using multiple independent VPNs.
We'll see in the following sections how these files are put to use, first on the OpenVPN client, then on the server.
While we are in our PKI root folder (T:\fg-ovpn\MY-FG_OVPN\MY_FG_OVPN_PKI) at the command prompt, let's have OpenVPN generate a static secret key.
Our server will need to have the TLS-Auth file named as "configuration name"-ta.key
("configuration name" = my-fg-ovpn in this demo)
We'll create this key with the right filename, in our keys sub-folder :
Nothing fancy, it just creates the last key file we were missing in our security arsenal. Here is the complete list of files in our keys sub-folder :
I'll bore you considerably more than the short orignal README (Sorry, tech guys ! )
Yes of course ! The HOME full path to your own PKI may be different than this demo, as well as your KEY_COUNTRY etc... default values at the end of the file
What ? Sorry ? Are you kidding me ? Did I ever fall into that trap, instantly killing a PKI that had been used for 3 years with 50+ certificates ? With an out of date backup ?...
YOU in the background ! WAKE UP ! This is important !
=> Last reference to "" in Step 0 !
This has generated the parameter file that will be used to initiate encryption sessions.
But to create that CRL, we need one client certificate to be revoked, so "DM02" is our victim !
why we kept the original ca.crt and ca.key files, visibly used there...
the Easy-RSA utility checks that a session negociation initiated on behalf of my-fg-ovpn-dm02 actually fails because the certificate is revoked, which is what we want !
So : R.I.P. my-fg-ovpn-dm02...
That key will be used by OpenVPN "TLS Authentication" feature to protect initial key negociations when OpenVPN clients connect to the server. You can read about tls-auth .
