Get Certificate of website by Firefox

In previous tutorials, I learned how to view an HTTPS server certificate and its certificate path. Now I want to learn how to save a server certificate to a certificate file.

2. Click the lock icon at bottom right corner of the browser window. The Page Info dialog box shows up.

3. Click the "View Certificate" button. The Certificate Viewer dialog box shows up.

4. Click the "Details" tab and click the "Export..." button. The "Save Certificate To File" dialog box shows up.

5. Select "X.509 Certificate (PEM)" in the "Save as type" field. Enter "\temp\yahoo_pem.crt" as the file name.

6. Click the "Save" button. The "login.yahoo.com" certificate will be exported into the specified file.

Step 2: Export to a PKCS#12 file

Click on the Backup button to export the private key, its corresponding certificate, and signing chain certificates into a file.

Enter a file name, select a location, and save it as a PKCS#12 file. PKCS#12 is a format for storing private keys and certificates.

The Certificate Manager will prompt you for a password to protect the private key in the PKCS#12 file. Enter a strong password and press OK.

The private key, its corresponding certificate, and the certificates in the signing chain are exported to the backup file.

Recently I am dealing with X.509 related stuff. The browser I am using is Firefox 3.5.3.

Generation and Import

The steps of generating and importing private key and certificate consist of:

Public/private key pair generation
You can use standalone utility (e.g. openssl) to generate them.
Then you generate a self-signed certificate for the public key generated in the first step.
Also, you can generate a Certificate Request message and send it to an external CA to apply for a certificate.
Now you have both private key and the associated certificate.
You need to put both of them into a single pkcs12 file which can be recognized by Firefox.
Then you can import the pkcs12 file into Firefox by clicking
Tools –> Options –> Advanced –> Encryption –> View Certificates –> Your Certificates –> Import…

If you use javascript, you can use crypto object to generate them.

Use crypto.generateCRMFRequest to
generate a key pair and create a Certificate Request message
Send the generated Certificate Request message to remote server
“The string found by accessing crmfObject.request is the base-64 encoded CRMF message to be sent to the CA/RA”
After your certificate request is approved, you will get a public key certificate
You can import the certificate into your browser.

Note: In this case, you don’t need to import the private key because it is imported automatically when function crypto.generateCRMFRequest is called.

Export

Export your private key and certificate from Firefox:

Tools –> Options –> Advanced –> Encryption –> View Certificates –> Your Certificates –> Backup…
Note: the keystore format supported is pkcs12.

Export trusted certificates from Firefox:

Tools –> Options –> Advanced –> Encryption –> View Certificates –> {corresponding tab} –>Export
Note: Firefox supports couple of different formats including PEM, PKCS#7, etc.

How do I backup my certificate with Firefox?

Note: This article applies to Firefox 2 and greater. This article also applies for e-mail certificates(SMIME/DigitalID) as well as code-signing certificates.

1. Open Firefox.
2. Depending on your Operating System go to one of the following locations:

Windows: Tools -> Options

Linux: Edit -> Options
Mac: Firefox -> Options

3. Navigate to Advanced -> Encryption and then click on View Certificates.
This opens up Firefox's certificate manager.

4. Select the tab that says Personal or Your Certificates.
5. Highlight the certificate you would like to backup/export.
6. Click Backup All.

You should now be prompted to save the file.

Recommended:
* Save location: Desktop
* File Name: Something descriptive of the file (this can be any name you want)
* File type: PKCS12 Files (*.p12)

7. Provide a password for your .p12 file.

8. Click Save.

9. This new file contains both your certificate and private key joined together as a PKCS#12 (PFX) file.

Importing Certificate into Windows Certificate Store

Your certificate can now be used by any program that makes use of the Windows Certificate store

Today was the day that only few days left before I have to renew my CACert certificate. I have signed in to my CACert console and added a new email I want to have included in my certificate. Once done I have click on RENEW and the process completed quickly. I was doing this in the Google Chrome browser. Once renewal completed you get email with link to collect your certificate or you can click in redirection link and you should be able to get your new certificate. Unfortunately this did not work for me in Google Chrome or Microsoft Internet Explorer 8. I have installed latest Mozilla Firefox 6. Got the warning about certificate, added the exception and was taken to my collection link. Once certificate has been installed, I got message that my certificate is now successfully installed.

In order to import it to for example to your Outlook and use it as the signature and sign your emails and communication you have to first export the certificate from the browser store. Here are the steps how to do it in Mozilla Firefox 6.