Pistonite VM

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SSL Certificate ​

Sometimes you need to test web features that are only available in secure context. This section covers how to create a self-signed certificate trusted by the Windows Host, that the VM can then use to host a development server with https.

This page is partially adopted from https://oak.dev/2021/02/03/create-a-self-signed-certificate-on-windows-for-local-development/#:~:text=Create a Self-signed Certificate on Windows for Local,and key ... 5 Step 5%3A Test

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The link is really helpful with images, if you don't like the text-only version below

Create a Certificate ​

Run Powershell as administrator. Replace pistonite.local below with the domain name of your choice.

powershell
New-SelfSignedCertificate -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\My -DnsName "pistonite.local" -FriendlyName "pistonite.local" -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddYears(100)
New-SelfSignedCertificate -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\My -DnsName "pistonite.local" -FriendlyName "pistonite.local" -NotAfter (Get-Date).AddYears(100)

Now follow the following steps:

  1. Open Management Console for Certificates. Search for "Certificates" in the Start Menu.
  2. In the left panel, click on Certificates - Local Computer > Personal > Certificates
  3. Find the certificate you just created (looked for the domain name), then right click and select copy
  4. In the left panel, click on Trusted Root Certification Authorities, then right click Certificates and select paste
  5. Go back to the certificate in Personal, right click and select All Tasks > Export...
  6. Select Yes to export private key. Click Next.
  7. Select .PFX format and keep default values. Click Next.
  8. Check the password box, and type a password (don't forget this).
  9. Select a location and finish the export.

Edit hosts file ​

Now we need to edit the host file so that the domain name above resolves to the VM.

Edit C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and add the following. Replace the IP address with the VM IP address and the domain name with the one you used for the certificate.

192.168.0.4 pistonite.local
192.168.0.4 pistonite.local

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Run ip address in the VM to find the IP address of the VM

Send the Certificate to VM ​

You can use scp to do that, which is available in windows. Replace <user> with the VM user.

powershell
scp cert.pfx <user>@pistonite.local:/home/<user>
scp cert.pfx <user>@pistonite.local:/home/<user>

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If you disabled password auth, you need to use -i <key> in the same way as ssh

Next steps ​

Follow these steps to see how you might want to use the certificate on the VM side