Creating a Private key and a Certificate

Use the Certificate Generator (a software development kit command line tool) to create a private key and a self-signed certificate.
            makekeys -cert [-v] [-len <key-length> ] [-password <password> ] -dname <distinguished-name-string> <private-key-file> <public-key-cert>

For example: makekeys -cert -dname “CN=Symbian OU=Development OR=SymbianLtd CO=GB” mykey.key mycert.cer

Note: The Certification Generator uses a mouse input mechanism to generate the private key. The MSDOS property QuickEdit must be turned off for sampling of random data from the mouse to work.

            makekeys – req [-v][-password password] -dname <distinguished-name-string> <private-key-file> <public-key-cert> <cert-request-file>

For example:  makekeys req -dname “CN=Symbian OU=Development OR=SymbianLtd CO=GB” mykey.key mycert.cer myreq.p10

Send the certificate request to the Certificate Authority (CA).
Note: Certificates returned by the CA must be in the base64-encoded ASCII format. The Certification Generator generates base64-encoded certificate files and expects certificates that come back from the CA to be in the same format.

With Carbide.ui:

Note: You can also create keys using the Handle Key Pairs window.

Command Arguements

-cert Create the private key (<private-key-file>) and self-signed certificate (<public-key-cert>). If the private key file already exists, it is used to create the self-signed certificate.
-req Create a certificate request.
-view View certificate details.
-v Verbose mode — displays additional diagnostic information.
-dname <distinguished-name-string> The <distinguished-name-string> specifies the distinguished name parameters required for the self-signed public key certificate file. This command line option must be constructed of a string of white-space-separated key=value pairs as follows:
  • CN=common name
  • OU=organisational unit
  • OR=organisation
  • LO=locality
  • ST=state
  • CO=country
EM=e-mail address
For example: "CN=Symbian OU=Development OR=SymbianLtd CO=GB"
-password <password> Password (optional). After creation, the password must be supplied to subsequently use the private key.
-len <key-length> The key-length. The minimum is 512, maximum is 4096. The key length defaults to 1024.
<private-key-file> The file containing the private key. The developer keeps the private key secret, whereas the public key is usually made generally available. The file has a .key extension.
<public-key-cert> A self-signed certificate containing the public key. The file has a .cer extension.
<cert-request-file> A self-contained file that is sent to the Certificate Authority (CA). The Certification Generator creates this file with a private and public key. It is then up to the developer to send the file to the CA and arrange for the application of the certificate. The file has a .p10 extension.