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Tingwei
Tingwei

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Using mkcert in Node.js

#node #mkcert #https #ssl

This main purpose is to create self signed ssl certificates with mkcert@Subash and write a quick demo locally with Node.js.

Step 1: Install NPM package mkcert

$npm install mkcert
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Step 2: Create ca.key and ca.crt

$node_modules/mkcert/src/cli.js create-ca
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It generates two files ca.key, ca.crt in node_modules/mkcert/src.

Step 3: Create cert.key and cert.crt

$node_modules/mkcert/src/cli.js create-cert
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It generates two files cert.key, cert.crt in node_modules/mkcert/src.

Step 4: For the convenience, copy ca and cert out.

$cp node_modules/mkcert/src/ca.key ./ca.key $cp node_modules/mkcert/src/ca.cert ./ca.crt $cp node_modules/mkcert/src/cert.key ./cert.key $cp node_modules/mkcert/src/cert.crt ./cert.crt
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The directory looks like this.

./node_modules ./client.js ./server.js ./ca.key ./ca.crt ./cert.key ./cert.crt
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Step 5: Write codes on server side

in server.js

const https = require('https'); const fs = require('fs'); const hostname = '127.0.0.1'; const port = 3001; const server = https.createServer({ key: fs.readFileSync("./cert.key"), cert: fs.readFileSync("./cert.crt"), }, (req, res) => { res.statusCode = 200; res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain'); res.end('Hello World\n'); }); server.listen(port, hostname, () => { console.log(`Server running at https://${hostname}:${port}/`); });
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Step 6: Write codes on client side

in client.js

const https = require('https'); const fs = require('fs'); const options = { hostname: 'localhost', port: 3001, method: 'GET', ca: fs.readFileSync('./ca.crt'), }; const req = https.request(options, (res) => { res.on('data', (d) => { process.stdout.write(d); }); }).on('error', (e) => { console.error(e); }); req.end();
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Step 7: Start a server

$node server.js
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Step 8: Send a request to server

$node client.js
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You can send a request with curl. Remember to put --cacert

$curl --cacert ./ca.crt -X GET https://localhost:3001
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Thank you!

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