Using LetsEncrypt Certs with IIS without ACME

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2020-01-11

I use LetsEncrypt for my SSL needs on my websites (including this one!). It works seamlessly with my hosting provider (GoDaddy) but sometimes I generate a certificate to use on a local Windows box for testing purposes. However, the certificates that LetsEncrypt gives you aren't readily importable into IIS. Fortunately, there is a way to do it.

The web interface to generate a cert (www.zerossl.com) gives you four files:

• domain-key.txt
• domain-crt.txt
• account-key.txt
• domain-csr.txt

But you can’t import this directly into IIS in Windows. To do that, install the OpenSSL for Windows Light version from:

https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

Then add the OpenSSL directory (ie: C:\Program Files\OpenSSL\bin) to your Path environment variable.

Finally, run the following command in a command prompt while in the folder with your .txt files:

openssl pkcs12 -inkey domain-key.txt -in domain-crt.txt -export -out yourdomainname.pfx

The program will prompt you for a password and make you confirm it. Once you are done, you’ll have a .pfx file that you can import directly into IIS!

Enjoy!