Creating private and public key pair for Mac MDM using OpenSSL

Products

• Client Management Suite
• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

When going through the MDM for Mac instructions, it requires that a private and public key be created using OpenSSL.  How is this done?

Resolution

To create a public key using OpenSSL, you first generate a private key using the openssl genrsa command, then extract the public key from that private key using the openssl rsa -pubout command, specifying the private key file as input and the desired output file for the public key; essentially, you don't generate a public key separately, but rather extract it from the private key that contains both parts. 

 

Generate a private key:

• openssl genrsa -out private.key 2048
• This creates a private key named "private.key" with a key size of 2048 bits. 
   

Extract the public key:

• openssl rsa -in private.key -pubout -out public.key 
• This command takes the private key "private.key" as input, extracts the public key information, and writes it to a new file called "public.key". 
   

Explanation of the command options:

• • openssl: The command to launch OpenSSL.
  • genrsa: Command to generate an RSA key pair.
  • -out: Specifies the output file name.
  • -pubout: Option to extract the public key from the private key.
  • -in: Specifies the input file (the private key).