Creating a Certificate Signing Request and Importing a Third-Party SSL Certificate for MDaemon

Creating a Certificate Signing Request and Importing a Third-Party SSL Certificate for MDaemon

MDaemon does not include a method for creating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) in order to obtain a third-party SSL certificate issued by a Trusted Root Authority (such as Comodo or GoDaddy), as Windows has its own command-line utility, certreq.exe that can be used for this purpose. This utility allows you to create a certificate request and import the new certificate into the Windows Certificate Store, where it can be used by MDaemon.

The example below will generate a 2048 bit key length certificate.

Procedure:

  1. Purchase an SSL Certificate from an issuing authority (examples include http://www.comodo.com or http://www.godaddy.com).

  2. Create the Certificate Signing Request (CSR):

    a. Login to your email server with an administrator account.
    b. Create a file called CSRParameters.inf on the C:\ drive using the contents below as a template. Edit values as specific to your setup. The CN= value should be the host name you intend to use to access MDaemon via IMAP, SMTP, Webmail, ActiveSync, etc.

    [NewRequest]
    Subject="CN=mail.example.com,OU=Bloggs Limited,O=Bloggs Limited,S=Manchester,L=Lancashire,C=GB"
    KeySpec=1
    KeyLength=2048
    Exportable=TRUE
    MachineKeySet=TRUE
    SMIME=False
    PrivateKeyArchive=FALSE
    UserProtected=FALSE
    UseExistingKeySet=FALSE
    ProviderName="Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider"
    ProviderType=12
    RequestType=PKCS10
    KeyUsage=0xa0
    Silent=TRUE
    [EnhancedKeyUsageExtension]
    OID=1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1

    c. Open an elevated command prompt (Start -> Run then type: cmd) and type in:

    C:\>certreq -new CSRParameters.inf CSROutput.pem

    d. Open Windows File Explorer and browse to the C drive to locate the CSROutput.pem file.

    e. Using the CSROutput.pem file, go back to the certificate authority and use the file to request your certificate.

  3.  Install the certificate:
    a. Download the certificate as a .crt file.

    b. On the server, open a command prompt and type the following (substituting mail.example.com.crt for the actual name of the .crt file you received from the certificate authority):

    C:\>certreq -accept mail.example.com.crt

  4. Configure MDaemon to use the certificate through its Interface at Security -> Security Manager -> SSL + TLS.