I need to send CSR (certificate signing request) to the SSL authority for our wildcard domain SSL certificate. I see strange values in the CN (common name) field, for example CN=\x00*\x00.\x00e\x00x\x00a\x00m\x00p\x00l\x00e\x00.\x00c\x00o\x00m
. If I generate non-wildcard CSR the CN value is as expected: CN=www.example.com
.
Why are there the \x00
characters in the CN in CSR for the wildcard domain?
Is it OK, will everything (HTTPS) work properly?
I'm on Debian stable (Wheezy), the openssl package version is 1.0.1e-2+deb7u11.
$ openssl version
OpenSSL 1.0.1e 11 Feb 2013
This is how I generated the CSR:
$ openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout wildcard.key -out wildcard.csr
Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
.....................................+++
.......................................+++
writing new private key to 'wildcard.key'
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:CZ
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:
Locality Name (eg, city) []:
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []:*.example.com
Email Address []:
Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []:
An optional company name []:
This is the information about the certificate:
$ openssl req -text -noout -verify -in wildcard.csr
verify OK
Certificate Request:
Data:
Version: 0 (0x0)
Subject: C=CZ, ST=Some-State, O=Internet Widgits Pty Ltd, CN=\x00*\x00.\x00e\x00x\x00a\x00m\x00p\x00l\x00e\x00.\x00c\x00o\x00m
Subject Public Key Info:
...
openssl (1.0.1e-2+deb7u11)
from 15 Jun 2014). The openssl package is patched with Heartbleed fix: debian.org/security/2014/dsa-2896MASK:0x2002
(printableSring and UTF8String).