• Create custom certificates or certification authorities (CAs) for ESET Remote Administrator (ERA).

Prerequisites

• Verify Java is installed. Keytool, included in Java, allows you to create and store certificates.

Enter the commands shown below to create a new certificate:

1. Open a Command Prompt as the administrator (or root on Linux systems) and navigate to the folder where keytool is located:

   C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_40\bin

   (The directory depends on the OS and JRE version.)

2. Generate a key pair (a public key and associated private key) which will be used as the Certification Authority (CA):

   Linux

   keytool -genkeypair -v -alias aliasName -keystore [Common Name].jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -ext KeyUsage:critical="keyCertSign" -ext BasicConstraints:critical="ca:true" -validity 3650

   Windows 

   keytool -genkeypair -v -alias "aliasName" -keystore [Common Name].jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -ext KeyUsage:critical="keyCertSign" -ext BasicConstraints:critical="ca:true" -validity 3650

   “aliasName” represents the name of your key in keystore.jks

   Replace aliasName with your alias. It represents the name of your key in the [Common Name].jks

   Setting certificate validity

   In the example above, the parameter -validity represents the duration for which the certificate is valid in days.

   The -validity parmeter must be greater then other certificates set during certificate creation in ERA Web Console. Default validity for the ERA Agent certificate is 5 years and default validity for ERA CA is 10 years. ERA certificate validity must start at least one day after the beginning of the ERA CA validity. For example, if your CA is valid since April 4, your ERA certificate can start on April 5.

3. Export the CA from the keystore:

   Linux

   keytool -exportcert -alias "aliasName" -file aliasName.der -keystore [Common Name].jks

   Windows 

   keytool -export -alias "aliasName" -file aliasName.der -keystore [Common Name].jks
   

4. Generate a key pair for the certificate:

   Linux 

   keytool -genkeypair -v -alias "aliasName" -keytore [Common Name].jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -storepass "yourPassword" -keypass "yourPassword"

   Windows 

   keytool -genkeypair -v -alias "aliasName" -keytore [Common Name].jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -storepass "yourPassword" -keypass "yourPassword"

   Common name must contain name of ERA components

   The Common Name must contain one of these strings: “server”or “agent”.

   Unsupported characters in Agent Certificate

   The certificate passphrase must not contain following characters:  “\ These characters cause critical error during the initialization of the Agent.

5. Create a certificate request (.csr file) for the certificate:

Linux 

keytool -certreq -keystore [Common Name].jks -storepass "yourPassword" -alias "aliasName" -file file.csr

Windows

keytool -certreq -keystore [Common Name].jks -storepass “yourPassword” -alias “aliasName” -file file.csr

6. Create a certificate with the certificate request:

Linux 

keytool -gencert -keystore [Common Name].jks -storepass “yourPassword” -alias “aliasName” -infile file.csr -outfile output.cer

Windows

keytool -gencert -keystore [Common Name].jks -storepass “yourPassword” -alias “aliasName” -infile file.csr -outfile output.cer

7. Create a .pfx file from [Common Name].jks:

   Linux 

   keytool -importkeystore -v -srcalias aliasName -srckeystore [Common Name].jks -srcstorepass yourPassword -srcstoretype JKS -destkeystore aliasName.pfx -destkeypass yourPassword -deststorepass yourPassword -deststoretype PKCS12 -destalias aliasName

   Windows

   keytool -importkeystore -v -srcalias "aliasName" -srckeystore [Common Name].jks -srcstorepass yourPassword -srcstoretype JKS -destkeystore aliasName.pfx -destkeypass yourPassword -deststorepass yourPassword -deststoretype PKCS12 -destalias "aliasName"

For more information about keytool, visit the Oracle webpage.