OpenSSL Tool for Windows
The openssl tool is a command-line utility that provides access to the cryptographic functions of the OpenSSL crypto library. It allows users to perform common tasks such as key generation, certificate creation, encryption, and decryption directly from the shell.
The provided ZIP archive contains 64-bit Windows binaries of the openssl tool, bundled together with Cygwin and the required DLLs. This makes it possible to use OpenSSL on Windows without installing a separate Unix or Linux environment.
A common use case is the creation of a self-signed SSL/TLS certificate for testing or internal services. The following one-liner generates a new RSA key and a self-signed certificate valid for 365 days:
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout selfsigned.key -out selfsigned.crt
This command creates both the private key and the certificate in a single step.
Project lifetime: Sep 2019 - Feb 2025