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Issue-a-certificate-for-the-data-team-server.md

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The Data team uses an X.509 TLS certificate signed by the CCAO's domain controller to provide HTTPS for its internal server. This certificate occassionally needs to be manually renewed by an administrative or IT staff member. This guide walks through how to create/renew the certificate.

Create a certificate

  1. Open the Certificate Manager app by pressing Windows + R, then typing certmgr.msc.
  2. Click the arrow next to the Personal directory on the sidebar, then select the Certificates directory.
  3. Right-click the Certificates directory, then click All Tasks > Request New Certificate.
  4. Click Next, keep Active Directory Enrollment Policy selected, then click Next again.
  5. Under Active Directory Enrollment Policy, select CCAO EFS or CCAO WEB2, click the Details down arrow to the right of the policy, then click Properties.
  6. On the General tab of the popup, make the friendly name the name of the server datascience.cookcountyassessor.com.
  7. Switch to the Subject tab, under the Subject name field, select Common name and add a value of datascience.cookcountyassessor.com, then click the Add > button.
  8. Repeat the process of adding Subject name values for the following:
    • Country: US
    • State: Illinois
    • Locality: Chicago
    • Email: Email of whoever is making the cert
    • Organization: Cook County Assessor's Office
    • Organization unit: Data Department
  9. Under the Alternative name field, select DNS and add a value of datascience.cookcountyassessor.com, then click the Add > button.
  10. Switch to the Private Key tab. Under Key options, check the box for Make private key exportable.
  11. Hit Apply in the bottom right of the popup. Then click Next to create the new certificate.
  12. Click Finish to return to the Certificate Manager. You should see your new certificate in the list.

Export the certificate

Now that the certificate is created, we need to export it for NGINX. To do so:

  1. Right-click the newly created certificate, then click All Tasks > Export. Click Next.
  2. Select Yes, export the private key option, then click Next.
  3. Select Export all extended properties then click Next.
  4. Select the Password option, enter an arbitrary strong password you'll remember, then click Next.
  5. Select an export location and filename (the extension should be .pfx), then click Next, then Finish to save the file.

Disaggregate the certificate

NGINX expects separate certificate and key files, so we need to break up the .pfx file we just made using some openssl options.

  1. Move the exported .pfx file to the target/host server (use scp or a similar method). Be sure the directory you move it to is writeable.

  2. Run the following command to extract the private key:

    openssl pkcs12 -in [yourfile.pfx] -nocerts -out temp.key

    You'll need to type the import password, which is the same password you used when exporting the .pfx file. You'll be prompted again to create a new password, this will be temporary and so can be something short.

  3. Run the following command to extract the certificate:

    openssl pkcs12 -in [yourfile.pfx] -clcerts -nokeys -out datascience.cookcountyassessor.com.crt

  4. Run the following command to decrypt the private key:

    openssl rsa -in temp.key -out datascience.cookcountyassessor.com.key

  5. Remove the temp.key file.

Install the new certificate

You now have a signed certificate and private key file for use with NGINX. All that's left to do is to install them in the appropriate directory and set the correct permissions.

  1. Move the .key and .crt files you just created to $NGINX_DIRECTORY/secrets. Where $NGINX_DIRECTORY is wherever the CCAO's nginx service is running.
  2. Set the owner of the key and certificate files to root with the following command: 
    sudo chown -r root:root $NGINX_DIRECTORY/secrets/*
  3. Set the permissions of the key and cert files to read-only for user: 
    sudo chmod -r 600 $NGINX_DIRECTORY/secrets/*
  4. Restart NGINX using docker compose. In $NGINX_DIRECTORY: 
    docker compose down
docker compose up -d
  5. Test the certificate by visiting RStudio. You should be able to click the certificate in the address bar and view the details you filled out earlier.