Best location to keep SSL certificates and private keys on Ubuntu servers? | Better Stack Community (2024)

FAQs

Best location to keep SSL certificates and private keys on Ubuntu servers? | Better Stack Community? ›

On Ubuntu servers, the best practice for storing SSL certificates and private keys is to place them in a directory with restricted access. The standard directory for these files is typically within the /etc/ directory, commonly within /etc/ssl/ .

The default location to install certificates is /etc/ssl/certs .

If you're looking for a bulletproof way to store your private keys, then you should go with physical devices such as USB Tokens, Smart Cards, or Hardware Security Module (HSM).

The CA trust store location

The CA trust store (as generated by update-ca-certificates ) is available at the following locations: As a single file (PEM bundle) in /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt. As an OpenSSL-compatible certificate directory in /etc/ssl/certs.

On Ubuntu servers, the best practice for storing SSL certificates and private keys is to place them in a directory with restricted access. The standard directory for these files is typically within the /etc/ directory, commonly within /etc/ssl/ .

The certificates should be put in a folder dedicated to certificates and key files. An example location would be /usr/local/ssl/crt/. All of your certificates need to be in the same folder.

The certificate store is located in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root. Current user certificate store: This certificate store is local to a user account on the computer. This certificate store is located in the registry under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER root.

The certificate is hosted on a website's origin server, and is sent to any devices that request to load the website. Most browsers enable users to view the SSL certificate: in Chrome, this can be done by clicking on the padlock icon on the left side of the URL bar.

The SSL Store™ is owned by the Internet security firm Rapid Web Services, LLC. We are headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, and have additional offices in Holland, Turkey, and India. Authorities (CAs) including Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte, and RapidSSL brands (source: Symantec).

Where is the safest place to store private keys? ›

Paper wallets

A paper wallet involves printing one's private key on a physical piece of paper and keeping it in a safe location. Websites like bitaddress.org can help users generate paper wallets. However, ensure that the paper and ink are of high quality to prevent degradation over time.

The most common place to store your private key is in your home directory in the . ssh folder, but it doesn't have to be there.

On the user's side, it is stored in SSH key management software or in a file on their computer. The private key remains only on the system being used to access the remote server and is used to decrypt messages.

Basic user information is stored in the /etc/passwd file, but actual passwords are now stored in a separate /etc/shadow file. The /etc/passwd file is readable by all users, but /etc/shadow is readable only by the superuser (root). This significantly reduces the risk of passwords being compromised.

Caddy stores TLS certificates and other important assets in a data directory, which is backed by the configured storage module (default: local file system). If the XDG_DATA_HOME environment variable is set, it is $XDG_DATA_HOME/caddy . All other OSes use the Linux/BSD directory path.

The default-ssl. conf file may be stored in the /etc/apache2/sites-available or /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory. The sites-available directory stores the configuration files of available virtual hosts. The sites-enabled directory stores the configuration files of enabled virtual hosts.