Deep-dive on the Next Gen Platform. Join the Webinar!

Skip Navigation
Show nav
Dev Center
  • Get Started
  • Documentation
  • Changelog
  • Search
  • Get Started
    • Node.js
    • Ruby on Rails
    • Ruby
    • Python
    • Java
    • PHP
    • Go
    • Scala
    • Clojure
    • .NET
  • Documentation
  • Changelog
  • More
    Additional Resources
    • Home
    • Elements
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Careers
    • Help
    • Status
    • Events
    • Podcasts
    • Compliance Center
    Heroku Blog

    Heroku Blog

    Find out what's new with Heroku on our blog.

    Visit Blog
  • Log inorSign up
Hide categories

Categories

  • Heroku Architecture
    • Compute (Dynos)
      • Dyno Management
      • Dyno Concepts
      • Dyno Behavior
      • Dyno Reference
      • Dyno Troubleshooting
    • Stacks (operating system images)
    • Networking & DNS
    • Platform Policies
    • Platform Principles
  • Developer Tools
    • Command Line
    • Heroku VS Code Extension
  • Deployment
    • Deploying with Git
    • Deploying with Docker
    • Deployment Integrations
  • Continuous Delivery & Integration (Heroku Flow)
    • Continuous Integration
  • Language Support
    • Node.js
      • Working with Node.js
      • Troubleshooting Node.js Apps
      • Node.js Behavior in Heroku
    • Ruby
      • Rails Support
      • Working with Bundler
      • Working with Ruby
      • Ruby Behavior in Heroku
      • Troubleshooting Ruby Apps
    • Python
      • Working with Python
      • Background Jobs in Python
      • Python Behavior in Heroku
      • Working with Django
    • Java
      • Java Behavior in Heroku
      • Working with Java
      • Working with Maven
      • Working with Spring Boot
      • Troubleshooting Java Apps
    • PHP
      • PHP Behavior in Heroku
      • Working with PHP
    • Go
      • Go Dependency Management
    • Scala
    • Clojure
    • .NET
      • Working with .NET
  • Databases & Data Management
    • Heroku Postgres
      • Postgres Basics
      • Postgres Getting Started
      • Postgres Performance
      • Postgres Data Transfer & Preservation
      • Postgres Availability
      • Postgres Special Topics
      • Migrating to Heroku Postgres
    • Heroku Key-Value Store
    • Apache Kafka on Heroku
    • Other Data Stores
  • AI
    • Working with AI
  • Monitoring & Metrics
    • Logging
  • App Performance
  • Add-ons
    • All Add-ons
  • Collaboration
  • Security
    • App Security
    • Identities & Authentication
      • Single Sign-on (SSO)
    • Private Spaces
      • Infrastructure Networking
    • Compliance
  • Heroku Enterprise
    • Enterprise Accounts
    • Enterprise Teams
    • Heroku Connect (Salesforce sync)
      • Heroku Connect Administration
      • Heroku Connect Reference
      • Heroku Connect Troubleshooting
  • Patterns & Best Practices
  • Extending Heroku
    • Platform API
    • App Webhooks
    • Heroku Labs
    • Building Add-ons
      • Add-on Development Tasks
      • Add-on APIs
      • Add-on Guidelines & Requirements
    • Building CLI Plugins
    • Developing Buildpacks
    • Dev Center
  • Accounts & Billing
  • Troubleshooting & Support
  • Integrating with Salesforce
  • Security
  • App Security
  • Creating a Self-Signed SSL Certificate

Creating a Self-Signed SSL Certificate

English — 日本語に切り替える

Last updated January 27, 2022

Table of Contents

  • Prerequisites
  • Generate private key and certificate signing request
  • Generate SSL certificate

Check out Automated Certificate Management to see if it meets your needs before going further in this article.

When using the SSL for non-production applications or other experiments you can use a self-signed SSL certificate. Though the certificate implements full encryption, visitors to your site will see a browser warning indicating that the certificate should not be trusted.

For apps with controlled distribution this warning can be avoided by creating your own authority certificate and adding it to your users’ browsers.

Prerequisites

The openssl library is required to generate your own certificate. Run the following command in your local environment to see if you already have openssl installed installed.

$ which openssl
/usr/bin/openssl

If the which command does not return a path then you will need to install openssl yourself:

If you have… Install with…
Mac OS X Homebrew: brew install openssl
Windows Windows complete package .exe installer
Ubuntu Linux apt-get install openssl

Generate private key and certificate signing request

A private key and certificate signing request are required to create an SSL certificate. These can be generated with a few simple commands.

When the openssl req command asks for a “challenge password”, just press return, leaving the password empty. This password is used by Certificate Authorities to authenticate the certificate owner when they want to revoke their certificate. Since this is a self-signed certificate, there’s no way to revoke it via CRL (Certificate Revocation List).

More detailed instructions can be found in Creating an SSL Certificate Signing Request.

$ openssl genrsa -aes256 -passout pass:gsahdg -out server.pass.key 4096
...
$ openssl rsa -passin pass:gsahdg -in server.pass.key -out server.key
writing RSA key
$ rm server.pass.key
$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
...
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:California
...
A challenge password []:
...

Generate SSL certificate

The self-signed SSL certificate is generated from the server.key private key and server.csr files.

$ openssl x509 -req -sha256 -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

The server.crt file is your site certificate suitable for use with Heroku’s SSL add-on along with the server.key private key.

Keep reading

  • App Security

Feedback

Log in to submit feedback.

WebSocket Security Heroku App Names, Subdomains, and URLs

Information & Support

  • Getting Started
  • Documentation
  • Changelog
  • Compliance Center
  • Training & Education
  • Blog
  • Support Channels
  • Status

Language Reference

  • Node.js
  • Ruby
  • Java
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Go
  • Scala
  • Clojure
  • .NET

Other Resources

  • Careers
  • Elements
  • Products
  • Pricing
  • RSS
    • Dev Center Articles
    • Dev Center Changelog
    • Heroku Blog
    • Heroku News Blog
    • Heroku Engineering Blog
  • Twitter
    • Dev Center Articles
    • Dev Center Changelog
    • Heroku
    • Heroku Status
  • Github
  • LinkedIn
  • © 2025 Salesforce, Inc. All rights reserved. Various trademarks held by their respective owners. Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States
  • heroku.com
  • Legal
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Information
  • Responsible Disclosure
  • Trust
  • Contact
  • Cookie Preferences
  • Your Privacy Choices