(PowerShell) Duplicate openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout mydomain.pem -out mydomain.csr

Demonstrates how to duplicate this OpenSSL command:

openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout mydomain.pem -out mydomain.csr

This command creates 2 files:

1. mydomain.csr: this is the file to send to DigiCert or Let's Encrypt (or any other CA)
2. mydomain.pem: this is the private key of the domain.

The second file is needed to pair with the certificate that will later be received from the CA.

Chilkat .NET Downloads Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-9.5.0-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

# This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
# See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

$rsa = New-Object Chilkat.Rsa

# Generate a 2048-bit key.  Chilkat RSA supports
# key sizes ranging from 512 bits to 8192 bits.
$success = $rsa.GenerateKey(2048)
if ($success -ne $true) {
    $($rsa.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$privKey = $rsa.ExportPrivateKeyObj()

# Save the private key to unencrypted PKCS8 PEM
$success = $privKey.SavePkcs8PemFile("mydomain.pem")

# (alternatively) Save the private key to encrypted PKCS8 PEM
$success = $privKey.SavePkcs8EncryptedPemFile("myPassword","mydomain_enc.pem")

# We'll need the private key's modulus for the CSR.
# The modulus is not something that needs to be protected.  Most people don't realize
# that a public key is actually just a subset of the private key.  The public parts of
# an RSA private key are the modulus and exponent.  The exponent is always 65537.
$privKeyXml = New-Object Chilkat.Xml
$success = $privKeyXml.LoadXml($privKey.GetXml())

# Get the modulus in base64 format:
$keyModulus = $privKeyXml.GetChildContent("Modulus")

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Now build the CSR using Chilkat's ASN.1 API.
# The keyModulus will be embedded within the ASN.1.

# A new ASN.1 object is automatically a SEQUENCE.
# Given that the CSR's root item is a SEQUENCE, we can use
# this as the root of our CSR.
$asnRoot = New-Object Chilkat.Asn

# Beneath the root, we have a SEQUENCE (the certificate request info), 
# another SEQUENCE (the algorithm identifier), and a BITSTRING (the signature data)

$success = $asnRoot.AppendSequence()
$success = $asnRoot.AppendSequence()

# ----------------------------------
# Build the Certificate Request Info
# ----------------------------------
$asnCertReqInfo = $asnRoot.GetSubItem(0)
$success = $asnCertReqInfo.AppendInt(0)

# Build the Subject part of the Certificate Request Info
$asnCertSubject = $asnCertReqInfo.AppendSequenceR()

# Add each subject part..
$asnTemp = $asnCertSubject.AppendSetR()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendSequence2()
# AppendSequence2 updates the internal reference to the newly appended SEQUENCE.
# The OID and printable string are added to the SEQUENCE.
$success = $asnTemp.AppendOid("2.5.4.6")
$success = $asnTemp.AppendString("printable","US")

$asnTemp = $asnCertSubject.AppendSetR()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendSequence2()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendOid("2.5.4.8")
$success = $asnTemp.AppendString("utf8","Utah")

$asnTemp = $asnCertSubject.AppendSetR()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendSequence2()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendOid("2.5.4.7")
$success = $asnTemp.AppendString("utf8","Lindon")

$asnTemp = $asnCertSubject.AppendSetR()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendSequence2()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendOid("2.5.4.10")
$success = $asnTemp.AppendString("utf8","DigiCert Inc.")

$asnTemp = $asnCertSubject.AppendSetR()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendSequence2()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendOid("2.5.4.11")
$success = $asnTemp.AppendString("utf8","DigiCert")

$asnTemp = $asnCertSubject.AppendSetR()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendSequence2()
$success = $asnTemp.AppendOid("2.5.4.3")
$success = $asnTemp.AppendString("utf8","example.digicert.com")

# Build the Public Key Info part of the Certificate Request Info
$asnPubKeyInfo = $asnCertReqInfo.AppendSequenceR()

$asnPubKeyAlgId = $asnPubKeyInfo.AppendSequenceR()
$success = $asnPubKeyAlgId.AppendOid("1.2.840.113549.1.1.1")
$success = $asnPubKeyAlgId.AppendNull()

# The public key itself is a BIT STRING, but the bit string is composed of ASN.1
# for the RSA public key.  We'll first build the RSA ASN.1 for the public key
# (containing the 2048 bit modulus and exponent), and encoded it to DER, and then add
# the DER bytes as a BIT STRING (as a sub-item of asnPubKeyInfo)

# This is already a SEQUENCE..
$asnRsaKey = New-Object Chilkat.Asn

# The RSA modulus is a big integer.
$success = $asnRsaKey.AppendBigInt($keyModulus,"base64")
$success = $asnRsaKey.AppendInt(65537)

$rsaKeyDerBase64 = $asnRsaKey.GetEncodedDer("base64")

# Now add the RSA key DER as a BIT STRING.
$success = $asnPubKeyInfo.AppendBits($rsaKeyDerBase64,"base64")

# The last part of the certificate request info is an empty context-specific constructed item
# with a tag equal to 0.
$success = $asnCertReqInfo.AppendContextConstructed(0)

# Get the DER of the asnCertReqInfo.  
# This will be signed using the RSA private key.
$bdDer = New-Object Chilkat.BinData
$success = $asnCertReqInfo.WriteBd($bdDer)

# Add the signature to the ASN.1
$bdSig = New-Object Chilkat.BinData
$success = $rsa.SignBd($bdDer,"SHA1",$bdSig)
$success = $asnRoot.AppendBits($bdSig.GetEncoded("base64"),"base64")

# ----------------------------------
# Finally, add the algorithm identifier, which is the 2nd sub-item under the root.
# ----------------------------------
$asnAlgId = $asnRoot.GetSubItem(1)
$success = $asnAlgId.AppendOid("1.2.840.113549.1.1.5")
$success = $asnAlgId.AppendNull()

# Write the CSR to a DER encoded binary file:
$success = $asnRoot.WriteBinaryDer("qa_output/mydomain.csr")
if ($success -ne $true) {
    $($asnRoot.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

# It is also possible to get the CSR in base64 format:
$csrBase64 = $asnRoot.GetEncodedDer("base64")

$("Base64 CSR:")
$($csrBase64)