Signing a certificate with my CA

Question

On running:

openssl ca -in ${ALIAS}.csr -out user-cert.pem -keyfile cacert-private.pem -cert cacert.pem -passin pass:$PASSWD -config ${CONFIG} 

I get:

The stateOrProvinceName field needed to be the same in the CA certificate (Gloucestershire) and the request (Gloucestershire)

I've read the error a few times and I'm fairly sure the field is the same value in each case. I have found references to similar problems being caused by different encodings but I don't know how I should be specifying that and where.

This is the ${ALIAS}.csr:

-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- MIICxzCCAa8CAQAwgYExCzAJBgNVBAYTAkdCMRgwFgYDVQQIEw9HbG91Y2VzdGVyc2hpcmUxEzAR BgNVBAcTCkNoZWx0ZW5oYW0xHzAdBgNVBAoTFldhbnNkeWtlIEhvdXNlIExpbWl0ZWQxDjAMBgNV BAsTBUZpemlvMRIwEAYDVQQDEwlsb2NhbGhvc3QwggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEK AoIBAQDWvivt1JHiuaNeadOQJtxynQ4sSAR/peWgKd8g9UQgNM+H9QW4NlRE81+g63BdRqZT5YMm J4K3upovQNlDRklevslgEYoTdQM4yBKV676Q4XDbM7Vk+rt04sqL5IgdsAUXODfMJvu81t3tOjFc OGO7S+B+LEJ1+8qshLbuK2gBigfgcZtlbNgW6fCGik8ZsrKWl8W+NFbw1seS01INAipwCBasxaaj /lINwWQVbQIG09+vEdwuHmmq5VIKlJqFcYNUTFBVojoJLfzyStZR2PfFUxp7R+t2YmVj6a48B7NA lODnIlQDkAprECNMpCZoSP1QjrZgW1BgaVbT5OaWlVsPAgMBAAGgADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOC AQEAvalFyJOgzmd1jcFlS5YoqiNgX1bm9nZ0/cFgj6cGL7R0Gqc9wu5QPakWRxa9c2UcI0m7p1lp cygDvQTY23LEBhVcruymIGQG5DhDpXHeaBCbV3OWO6xowAjh+riQjvTNeVSXtP3jUNs5DaId0z+A GXeb7dR96jhyj+soNYENoQseQLqLdAW4p0jdK1BraMJTc0ber0FBx1nOUXOEoTIJL9kL9cUWaCp3 7uYkonIPtVCCfS8KcgXxUsNMC41q/SkKDVB23PeCjnWgcyXxnSpx8n+AK7fwMgh+4TcZ5usmVujR MNqk84hZpw8h1FIcmqRaWtaPWyv3EX8JH5LTnDe3eQ== -----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- 

And cacert.pem:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIDQDCCAqmgAwIBAgIJAPj9mvMDl1K/MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMIG4MQswCQYD VQQGEwJHQjEYMBYGA1UECAwPR2xvdWNlc3RlcnNoaXJlMRMwEQYDVQQHDApDaGVs dGVuaGFtMR8wHQYDVQQKDBZXYW5zZHlrZSBIb3VzZSBMaW1pdGVkMQ4wDAYDVQQL DAVGaXppbzESMBAGA1UEAwwJbG9jYWxob3N0MTUwMwYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFiZyaWNo YXJkLm1pZHdpbnRlckB3YW5zZHlrZS1ob3VzZS5jby51azAeFw0xMTA4MDcyMTU4 NDBaFw0yMTA4MDQyMTU4NDBaMIG4MQswCQYDVQQGEwJHQjEYMBYGA1UECAwPR2xv dWNlc3RlcnNoaXJlMRMwEQYDVQQHDApDaGVsdGVuaGFtMR8wHQYDVQQKDBZXYW5z ZHlrZSBIb3VzZSBMaW1pdGVkMQ4wDAYDVQQLDAVGaXppbzESMBAGA1UEAwwJbG9j YWxob3N0MTUwMwYJKoZIhvcNAQkBFiZyaWNoYXJkLm1pZHdpbnRlckB3YW5zZHlr ZS1ob3VzZS5jby51azCBnzANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOBjQAwgYkCgYEA03Y4hYdd at3e3AB98s+E5wlxrvRL8RhJtRac0Jt0gXQy12ZYziFm3gryx0IG02srXluM+V3/ BPRRCLsnEnltfoi/fE0wM9MT0V1Ao9EXQ5t1E2rOzdoXUUdvovd6qvwG2L/DHCdL kKjhokVR9TkFW/AWctBdWkb9qfFFTpDY4i0CAwEAAaNQME4wHQYDVR0OBBYEFHbG d3+Lzax90slk65y1BYDgZ897MB8GA1UdIwQYMBaAFHbGd3+Lzax90slk65y1BYDg Z897MAwGA1UdEwQFMAMBAf8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEFBQADgYEArZ2yfTGJK3R+jRwP FjaonDy1NVOt9tgjHfyh9YNQfyFSC7R987wFPcyydEqh8xg/Lb3WGwseDuzCBusw jmVIqiUYBClHzkF3jG1766ltdlVVTOavVQgQMRBGMvpHVxcMH2RUNUyWH0XW+DH2 /uuRRpu4vX5sfEW75uEfORB9Mrg= -----END CERTIFICATE----- 

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can also set the attributes as optional:

# For the CA policy  [policy_match] countryName= optional stateOrProvinceName= optional organizationName= optional organizationalUnitName= optional commonName= supplied emailAddress= optional 

Answer 2

I have also run into this problem. Thanks to the replies above (mainly Francois), I discovered the source of the problem.

openssl is encoding using UTF8STRING and keytool (Java 6) is encoding with PRINTABLESTRING.

Worked around it by changing the openssl configuration so it matches keytool. In /usr/ssl/openssl.cnf change the "string_mask" setting to "pkix".