How to Create CSR for Your Code Signing Certificate [Guide]

Are you a programmer or firm that develops desktop, web, and mobile software or applications?

If yes, then you must have planned to publish it online so that users can download and install it on their devices. But today, users only install and use software with proper security measures. This can easily be handled by integrating a code signing certificate in your software products.

A code signing certificate is a digital security certificate that assures users of the authenticity of the publisher. It provides assurance that the software comes from verified publishers and doesn’t have any malicious code. Moreover, these certificates are necessary to authenticate that your code is not modified or altered since it was signed.

It has become important for digital brands to purchase it from a reliable Certificate Authority like Comodo or Sectigo or their trusted distributors. But what’s next after buying the certificate? The next step is to create CSR for code signing certificates.

Let’s understand what CSR is and how to create one:

What is CSR?

A CSR contains information in the encoded text about the code signing certificate requester. This information can include the publisher’s name, contact info, and other necessary data. When you create CSR, it’ll generate two files: CSR which will be requested during the enrollment, and private key which is required during installation and shouldn’t be shared.

What’s the Next Step After Buying Code Signing Certificate?

After you purchase code signing certificate from a respected CA or a trusted distributor, the next thing you want to do is generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). A CSR is an encoded text created by the certificate requester and contains all the necessary information regarding the request. It can include:

• Common Name or name of requester or publisher for the certificate
• Contact info such as email address for getting in touch regarding the certificate
• The public key that is tied to the private key of your certificate

Once you provide this information while generating CSR, it’ll be sent to your respective CA to issue a code signing certificate. For instance, let’s say you have purchased a code signing certificate from Comodo or Sectigo CA. Now, you can generate a CSR and while doing so you’ll provide the above information to that respective CA.

When you create a CSR request, it’ll state that your organization has requested the code signing certificate. Now let’s understand how to generate CSR for code signing:

How to Create CSR for Code Signing Certificate?

Generating certificate signing requests is a simple and straightforward process and can be completed using certain browsers only. For instance, you can complete the CSR generation process successfully in the Firefox browser as it has a unique feature for quick and easy CSR generation.

Here’s the step-by-step process you want to follow:

• Open your Firefox browser
• Next, log in to your account from where you purchased the code signing certificate.
• Once you get in, locate your code signing certificate
• You’ll see a button: Generate Certificate, click on it
• Fill the vital information and click on submit
• Firefox will now generate the key pair once submitted

Once done, the CSR will be generated and sent to the CA directly and you’ll get an order number for your CSR request. Now, you’ll need to validate your code signing certificate by following the guidelines set by your code signing CA.

This can include providing important details about yourself and your organization to prove its legality.

The validation can take up to 1 to 5 business days depending upon when you provide all the information and what type you’ve chosen. Once the CA verifies the information and validates your organization, you will get a code signing certificate on your registered email address.

Now the only thing you have to do is download your code signing certificate in a PFX or p12 format and save it on your computer.

Important note: It’s recommended to use the same computer and browser for the validation completion which you used for creating CSR. This is because the private keys for code signing certificates are stored on the same computer which was used for CSR generation.

Wrapping Up

A code signing certificate is important for any digital software and application developer to safeguard their intellectual property from prying eyes. To get one, you need to purchase it from reliable certificate authorities like Sectigo or Comodo or their trusted distributors at affordable rates.

Once you purchase the certificate, the next thing you want to do is create CSR for code signing certificate. We have explained the CSR generation process elaborately in this article, which you can follow and create one on your own. As mentioned CSR is an important encoded text that CAs refer to for validating and verifying your organization.

That said, we conclude this article here and hope you got the information you were looking for. See you till the next!

Search