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Best Practices when Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

Solution ID : SO16317
Last Modified : 09/18/2024

When submitting a CSR to DigiCert, ensure that the correct domain and country code is listed, all other information will be populated from the information validated on your order and not the contents of the CSR.


Common Name:

Also known as the URL, the common name is the fully qualified domain name used for DNS lookups of your server (such as www.mydomain.com). Browsers use this information to identify your web site.      


Note: You cannot use special characters (?, $, % and so on), IP addresses, Port numbers, or "http:// or https://" in your common name.  Also, please leave off any directories behind the top-level domain extension (.com, .net, etc.)


Country:

This field contains the 2-character ISO format country code. For example, GB is the valid country code for Great Britain, and US is the valid code for the United States. To locate a specific country code, you may take a look at this page:

www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/country_code_list.htm


City / Locality:

This field denotes the city in which the organization is located. Do not use abbreviations. For example, spell "Saint Louis", instead of "St. Louis". If the organization is registered only locally, for example, its business license is registered with the City Clerk; the Locality/City field must contain the name of the city where it is registered.

International customers must enter either a City/Locality or a State/Province field.


Organization: 

The Organization Name (corporation, limited partnership, university, or government agency) must be registered with some authority at the national, state, or city level. Use the legal name under which your organization is registered. Do not abbreviate or use any of these symbols: ! @ # $ % ^ * ( ) ~ ? > < / \.

Below is an example of a CSR:


-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----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-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----

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