{"id":3726,"date":"2023-09-05T16:36:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T16:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/knowledgebase\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=3726"},"modified":"2025-05-15T16:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:09:12","slug":"certificate-signing-requests-csr-for-s-mime-and-personal-authentication-certificates","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/knowledgebase\/email-signing-support\/certificate-signing-requests-csr-for-s-mime-and-personal-authentication-certificates\/","title":{"rendered":"Certificate Signing Requests (CSR) for Email Signing Certificates"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>While the easiest option for requesting your email certificate is to do it all in the web browser, you may also generate a certificate signing request (CSR). A CSR can be created on a web server, with OpenSSL commands, or with an online CSR generation tool. You may refer to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/knowledgebase\/ssl-generate\/\">CSR Generation guides<\/a> for basic instructions, but please keep in mind that a CSR for an email signing certificate may be a little different than a CSR for SSL or for code signing certificates.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<h2>CSR Information<\/h2>\r\n<p>Your CSR for S\/MIME or Personal Authentication Certificates should contain the following details:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong>Common name:<\/strong> the user&#8217;s email address, e.g. yourname@email.com<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Organization:<\/strong> the user&#8217;s organization, or N\/A if there is not one<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Locality:<\/strong> your city<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>State:<\/strong> your state or district, fully spelled out<\/li>\r\n<li><strong>Country:<\/strong> your country<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>The standard key-size for email signing CSRs is 2048 bits.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>The CSR will have a matching private key that is required to use the certificate. If you use an online CSR generation tool, please make sure to save the private key in a familiar place before you exit the tool page. If the private key is not saved, or gets lost, you will not be able to use the certificate.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<h3>Helpful Tips<\/h3>\r\n<p>It is optional to submit a CSR for email certificates. We actually recommend that you do not submit a CSR when enrolling your order as the browser generation method is much easier. If you do not provide a CSR during enrollment, you will be able to easily download the certificate, ready to install, from any browser as soon as it is issued.<\/p>\r\n<p>If you do submit a CSR during enrollment, you must have a copy of the matching private key. You may also be required to convert the certificate into a special PFX or PKCS#12 format, which includes the certificate, private key, and any intermediate chain certificates provided by the Certificate Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the easiest option for requesting your email certificate is to do it all in the web browser, you may also generate a certificate signing request (CSR). A CSR can be created on a web server, with OpenSSL commands, or with an online CSR generation tool. You may refer to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[4],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-3726","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-email-signing-support"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Certificate Signing Requests (CSR) for Email Signing Certificates - Knowledge Base<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/knowledgebase\/email-signing-support\/certificate-signing-requests-csr-for-s-mime-and-personal-authentication-certificates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Certificate Signing Requests (CSR) for Email Signing Certificates - Knowledge Base\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While the easiest option for requesting your email certificate is to do it all in the web browser, you may also generate a certificate signing request (CSR). 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