Generating a Self-Signed Certificate using Powershell

A self-signed certificate it's very easy to create and helps on with local development and testing.

With a Single Line of PowerShell code we create a certificate.

First, open the PowerShell as Administrator and run the following command:

New-SelfSignedCertificate `
   –DnsName <DNS-Name> `
   -CertStoreLocation "cert:\LocalMachine\My"

The default expiration is 1 year. If you want a custom expiration date use option -NotAfter.

New-SelfSignedCertificate `
   –DnsName <DNS-Name> `
   -CertStoreLocation "cert:\LocalMachine\My" `
   -NotAfter [System.DateTime]::AddYears(3)

That is it. Done!! The certificate was created and stored in our Certificate Store of Windows.

Note the parameter "CertStoreLocation", this is where the cert will be stored. cert:\LocalMachine means Local Machine Cert store.

Now let's export it as a .pfxfile into a local directory.

In the same PowerShell window run the following commands.

#create a password for our cert
$pwd = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "SOME-PASSWORD" -Force -AsPlainText

#finds the certificate in our local store
$cert = Get-ChildItem -Path cert:\LocalMachine\my | where Subject -eq "CN=rmauro.dev" 

#exports the certificate to temp directory
Export-PfxCertificate -FilePath c:\temp\rmauro.dev.pfx -Password $pwd -Cert $cert

In my scenario, the cert name is rmauro.dev. Change it to yours.

Check the directory temp to find the certificate - rmauro.dev.pfx.

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