Generating Key Pairs and Self-Signed Certificates

Java Tools Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Notes - Version 5.32, by Dr. Herong Yang

Java Tools Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Notes

∟'keytool' - Public Key Certificate Tool

∟Generating Key Pairs and Self-Signed Certificates

This section provides a tutorial example on how to generate private and public key pairs and self-signed certificates.

In the first example, I want to try the "keytool -genkey" command option:

C:\herong>keytool -genkey -alias my_home -keystore herong.jks

Enter keystore password:  HerongJKS
What is your first and last name?
  [Unknown]:  Herong Yang
What is the name of your organizational unit?
  [Unknown]:  My Unit
What is the name of your organization?
  [Unknown]:  My Home
What is the name of your City or Locality?
  [Unknown]:  My City
What is the name of your State or Province?
  [Unknown]:  My State
What is the two-letter country code for this unit?
  [Unknown]:  US
Is <CN=Herong Yang, OU=My Unit, O=My Home, L=My City, ST=My State, 
   C=US> correct?
  [no]:  yes
Enter key password for <my_home>
        (RETURN if same as keystore password):  My1stKey

Based on the documentation, the above example command should do the following for me:

Create a "keystore" file, herong.jks, in JKS format, with password of "HerongJKS".
Generate a pair of private key and public key for me using the default implementation of the default security package.
Generate a certificate chain with a single self-signed certificate of my public key.
Insert a key entry into the keystore with my private key and the certificate chain.

The following command shows that we do have a key entry in the keystore file:

C:\herong>keytool -list -keystore herong.jks -storepass HerongJKS

Keystore type: jks
Keystore provider: SUN

Your keystore contains 1 entry:

my_home, Sat Jun 1 07:15:16 EDT 2012, keyEntry,
Certificate fingerprint 
   (MD5): BE:D2:AF:4E:A7:44:13:08:16:4C:68:3B:D1:99:79:55

Last update: 2015.

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About This Book

Java Tools Terminology

Installing Java 8 on Windows

'javac' - The Java Program Compiler

'java' - The Java Program Launcher

'jdb' - The Java Debugger

'jconsole' - Java Monitoring and Management Console

'jstat' - JVM Statistics Monitoring Tool

JVM Troubleshooting Tools

jvisualvm (Java VisualVM) - JVM Visual Tool