The 'pem' npm package is a tool for creating and managing PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) files, which are commonly used for SSL/TLS certificates and keys. It provides a variety of functionalities for generating, reading, and managing these files.
Generate SSL Certificates
This feature allows you to generate self-signed SSL certificates. The code sample demonstrates how to create a certificate that is valid for one day.
const pem = require('pem');
pem.createCertificate({ days: 1, selfSigned: true }, function (err, keys) {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(keys);
});Read Certificate Information
This feature allows you to read and extract information from an existing certificate. The code sample shows how to read certificate information from a specified file path.
const pem = require('pem');
pem.readCertificateInfo('path/to/certificate.pem', function (err, info) {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(info);
});Create Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
This feature allows you to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR), which is used to request a certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). The code sample demonstrates how to create a CSR with a specified common name.
const pem = require('pem');
pem.createCSR({ commonName: 'example.com' }, function (err, csr) {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(csr);
});Create Private Key
This feature allows you to generate a private key. The code sample shows how to create a private key using the 'pem' package.
const pem = require('pem');
pem.createPrivateKey(function (err, key) {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
console.log(key);
});The 'node-forge' package is a comprehensive library for implementing various cryptographic functionalities in Node.js. It includes features for working with SSL/TLS, X.509 certificates, and more. Compared to 'pem', 'node-forge' offers a broader range of cryptographic tools but may require more in-depth knowledge to use effectively.
The 'openssl-wrapper' package is a Node.js wrapper for the OpenSSL command-line tool. It allows you to perform various cryptographic operations using OpenSSL commands. While 'openssl-wrapper' provides a wide range of functionalities similar to 'pem', it relies on having OpenSSL installed on the system and may be less user-friendly for those unfamiliar with OpenSSL commands.
The 'pkijs' package is a JavaScript library for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and X.509 certificates. It provides tools for creating, parsing, and validating certificates. Compared to 'pem', 'pkijs' is more focused on PKI and X.509 standards and offers more advanced features for working with certificates.
Create private keys and certificates with node.js
Install with npm
npm install pem
Here are some examples for creating an SSL key/cert on the fly, and running an HTTPS server on port 443. 443 is the standard HTTPS port, but requires root permissions on most systems. To get around this, you could use a higher port number, like 4300, and use https://localhost:4300 to access your server.
var https = require('https'),
pem = require('pem');
pem.createCertificate({days:1, selfSigned:true}, function(err, keys){
https.createServer({key: keys.serviceKey, cert: keys.certificate}, function(req, res){
res.end("o hai!")
}).listen(443);
});
var https = require('https'),
pem = require('pem'),
express = require('express');
pem.createCertificate({days:1, selfSigned:true}, function(err, keys){
var app = express();
app.get('/', requireAuth, function(req, res){
res.send("o hai!");
});
https.createServer({key: keys.serviceKey, cert: keys.certificate}, app).listen(443);
});
Use createPrivateKey for creating private keys
pem.createPrivateKey(keyBitsize, callback)
Where
{key}Use createCSR for creating certificate signing requests
pem.createCSR(options, callback)
Where
{csr, clientKey}Possible options are the following
clientKey is undefined, bit size to use for generating a new key (defaults to 2048)md5, sha1 or sha256, defaults to sha256)localhost)Array) of subjectAltNames in the subjectAltName field (optional)Use createCertificate for creating private keys
pem.createCertificate(options, callback)
Where
{certificate, csr, clientKey, serviceKey}Possible options include all the options for createCSR - in case csr parameter is not defined and a new
CSR needs to be generated.
In addition, possible options are the following
serviceKey is not defined, use clientKey for signingUse getPublicKey for exporting a public key from a private key, CSR or certificate
pem.getPublicKey(certificate, callback)
Where
{publicKey}Use readCertificateInfo for reading subject data from a certificate or a CSR
pem.readCertificateInfo(certificate, callback)
Where
{country, state, locality, organization, organizationUnit, commonName, emailAddress, validity{start, end}, san{dns, ip}? }? san is only present if the CSR or certificate has SAN entries.
Use getFingerprint to get the SHA1 fingerprint for a certificate
pem.getFingerprint(certificate, callback)
Where
{fingerprint}Use getModulus to get the modulus for a certificate, a CSR or a private key. Modulus can be useful to check that a Private Key Matches a Certificate
pem.getModulus(certificate, callback)
Where
{modulus}MIT
FAQs
Create private keys and certificates with node.js and io.js
The npm package pem receives a total of 129,024 weekly downloads. As such, pem popularity was classified as popular.
We found that pem demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 2 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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