The overall process is:

1. Create CA
   1. Private CA key
      1. Create private key
      2. Check private key
   2. Public CA certificate
      1. Create public certificate
      2. Check public certificate
2. Sign CSR
   1. SHA-1
      1. Create CSR using SHA-1
      2. Check CSR
      3. Sign CSR enforcing SHA-256
      4. Check signed certificate
   2. SHA-256
      1. Create CSR using SHA-256
      2. Check CSR
      3. Sign CSR
      4. Check signed certificate

Sign CSR request – SHA-256

When a CSR is created a signature algorithm can be specified. Currently, this should be SHA-256. Installing a TLS certificate that is using SHA-256 ensures that browsers like Chrome, Firefox, etc won`t show a security warning to the user. Signing the CSR using the CA is straight forward.

Create CSR using SHA-256

openssl req -out sha256.csr -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout sha256.key -sha256

The command creates two files: sha256.key containing the private key and sha256.csr containing the certificate request.

Check CSR

openssl req -verify -in sha256.csr -text -noout

The signature algorithm of the CSR is SHA-256

Sign CSR

Singing the CSR using the CA

openssl x509 -req -days 360 -in sha256.csr -CA ca.cert.pem -CAkey ca.key.pem -CAcreateserial -out sha256.crt

This will sign the CSR using SHA-256 as provided by CSR.

Check signed certificate

openssl x509 -text -noout -in sha256.crt

The certificate is signed using SHA-256.

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Possible problem: the certificate may be signed using SHA-1.

Why is the certificate signed with SHA1? Without providing –sha256 parameter, openssl is using the default value. Depending on the version of openssl you are using, the default may be using SHA-1. This is the case when you use the default openssl binary available on MacOs.

openssl version –a

This version is old. Better to install a newer one using brew.

After updating, the default algorithm is SHA-256 and not SHA-1 anymore. In case you cannot update the default openssl binary, install a newer version to a different location and use that one.