Do I need to convert .CER to .CRT for Apache SSL certificates? If so, how?

I need to setup an Apache 2 server with SSL.

I have my *.key file, but all the documentation I've found online, *.crt files are specified, and my CA only provided me with a *.cer file.

Are *.cer files the same as *.crt? If not, how can I convert CER to CRT format?

File extensions for cryptographic certificates aren't really as standardized as you'd expect. Windows by default treats double-clicking a .crt file as a request to import the certificate into the Windows Root Certificate store, but treats a .cer file as a request just to view the certificate. So, they're different in the sense that Windows has some inherent different meaning for what happens when you double click each type of file.

But the way that Windows handles them when you double-click them is about the only difference between the two. Both extensions just represent that it contains a public certificate. You can rename a certificate file to use one extension in place of the other in any system or configuration file that I've seen. And on non-Windows platforms (and even on Windows), people aren't particularly careful about which extension they use, and treat them both interchangeably, as there's no difference between them as long as the contents of the file are correct.

Making things more confusing is that there are two standard ways of storing certificate data in a file: One is a "binary" X.509 encoding, and the other is a "text" base64 encoding that usually starts with "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----". These encode the same data but in different ways. Most systems accept both formats, but, if you need to, you can convert one to the other via openssl or other tools. The encoding within a certificate file is really independent of which extension somebody gave the file.

Basically there are two CER certificate encoding types, DER and Base64. When type DER returns an error loading certificate (asn1 encoding routines), try the PEM and it shall work.

openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt

openssl x509 -inform PEM -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt

According to documentation mod_ssl:

SSLCertificateFile: 
   Name: SSLCertificateFile
   Description: Server PEM-encoded X.509 certificate file

Certificate file should be PEM-encoded X.509 Certificate file:

openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.pem

CER is an X.509 certificate in binary form, DER encoded.
CRT is a binary X.509 certificate, encapsulated in text (base-64) encoding.

It is not the same encoding.

I assume that you have a .cer file containing PKCS#7-encoded certificate data and you want to convert it to PEM-encoded certificate data (typically a .crt or .pem file). For instance, a .cer file containing PKCS#7-encoded data looks like this:

-----BEGIN PKCS7-----
MIIW4gYJKoZIhvcNAQcCoIIW0zCCFs8CAQExADALBgkqhkiG9w0BBwGggha1MIIH
...
POI9n9cd2cNgQ4xYDiKWL2KjLB+6rQXvqzJ4h6BUcxm1XAX5Uj5tLUUL9wqT6u0G
+bKhADEA
-----END PKCS7-----

PEM certificate data looks like this:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIHNjCCBh6gAwIBAgIQAlBxtqKazsxUSR9QdWWxaDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADBm
...
nv72c/OV4nlyrvBLPoaS5JFUJvFUG8RfAEY=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

There is an OpenSSL command that will convert .cer files (with PKCS#7 data) to the PEM data you may be expecting to encounter (the BEGIN CERTIFICATE block in the example above). You can coerce PKCS#7 data into PEM format by this command on a file we'll call certfile.cer:

openssl pkcs7 -text -in certfile.cer -print_certs -outform PEM -out certfile.pem

Note that a .cer or .pem file might contain one or more certificates (possibly the entire certificate chain).

I use command:

openssl x509 -inform PEM -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt

But CER is an X.509 certificate in binary form, DER encoded. CRT is a binary X.509 certificate, encapsulated in text (base-64) encoding.

Because of that, you maybe should use:

openssl x509 -inform DER -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt

And then to import your certificate:

Copy your CA to dir:

/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/

Use command:

sudo cp foo.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/foo.crt

Update the CA store:

sudo update-ca-certificates

The answer to the question how to convert a .cer file into a .crt file (they are encoded differently!) is:

openssl pkcs7 -print_certs -in certificate.cer -out certificate.crt

If your cer file has binary format you must convert it by

openssl x509 -inform DER -in YOUR_CERTIFICATE.cer -out YOUR_CERTIFICATE.crt

The .cer and .crt file should be interchangable as far as importing them into a keystore.

Take a look at the contents of the .cer file. Erase anything before the -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- line and after the -----END CERTIFICATE----- line. You'll be left with the BEGIN/END lines with a bunch of Base64-encoded stuff between them.

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDQTCCAqqgAwIBAgIJALQea21f1bVjMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMIG1MQswCQYD
...
pfDACIDHTrwCk5OefMwArfEkSBo/
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Then just import it into your keyfile using keytool.

keytool -import -alias myalias -keystore my.keystore -trustcacerts -file mycert.cer

Here is one case that worked for me if we need to convert .cer to .crt, though both of them are contextually same

openssl pkcs12 -in identity.p12 -nokeys -out mycertificate.crt

where we should have a valid private key (identity.p12) PKCS 12 format, this one i generated from keystore (.jks file) provided by CA (Certification Authority) who created my certificate.

Just do

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.cer -signkey server.key -out server.crt