GOAL: The goal of this article is to provide additional information about how to format your website SSL in a way that it can be uploaded to the SiteLock firewall.

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Frequently Asked Questions
  
• Configure Firewall & CDN

> Where to find your SSL

Your SSL certificate is installed on the server where your website files are hosted. To manage or update it, you'll need to access your hosting account or the server's control panel.

In most cases you will have access to cPanel, or your host's equivalent to cPanel, which should operate similarly. Below we have steps for cPanel users that should be applicable in most cases. If you have a different control panel, searching for "SSL" will help you locate any SSL management tools. Beyond that, you may need to contact your hosting support or review their documentation on how to download or export your SSL Certificate.

1. Navigate to Security > SSL/TLS in the cPanel dashboard.
   
   
   
2. Click Manage SSL Sites to view the list of existing certificates on the account, as well as which domain(s) are covered by them.
   
   
   
3. Using the information on this page, navigate to the correct certificate which includes both your apex domain (sitelock101.com) and the www sub-domain (www.sitelock101.com), and click Use Certificate for New Site. This page allows you to view, copy, and format the certificate details to install the SSL to the firewall.
   Hint: In this example, there is only one available entry, but your account may have many. It's important that you review the listed domains to ensure the correct one is selected. The correct one is typically the one that matches the domains you're looking to secure AND has an expiration date in the future.
   
   
   
   

> Formatting the SSL Certificate & Private Key File

Once you've located and downloaded the correct SSL Certificate and Key File, you will have the option to upload these files to the SiteLock Firewall Wizard. The formatting of this file, including the extension of the file and the ensuring there is no additional spaces or characters added, is extremely important to the success of uploading this file. Failing to format correctly or use the correct extension will result in an error.

1. Before you start, open a text editor like program Notepad (available for free on Windows) and create a new file.
2. In your Control Panel, you should still be on the Use Certificate for New Site page, which displays the Certificate, Private Key, and Certificate Authority Bundle (CABUNDLE) for the selected certificate. Navigate to the Certificate box and copy and paste the entire contents of this textbox to your new notepad file. Make sure there are no empty spaces before or after the text you pasted into Notepad. The first character should be "-" and the last character should be "-". Hit ENTER to move to the next line.
3. Next, return to your Control Panel and scroll down to the Certificate Authority Bundle textbox. Copy the entire contents of this textbox and return to your open notepad file. On the newline, paste this CABUNDLE content, repeating the same steps as above so as not to add any additional spaces or characters.
   
   
   
   IMPORTANT: This file should NOT contain any extra lines, spaces, or other white space between these two sections. You should see the END CERTIFICATE and BEGIN CERTIFICATE as shown below:
   
   
   
   
4. Once you have verified that the formatting of the Certificate and CABUNDLE file is correct, save the file as a .pem file type.
   
   
   
   
5. In your notepad or text editor, create a second file.
6. Navigate back to your control panel and scroll to the Private Key section. Copy the contents of this textbox and paste it to your second file. Make sure there are no spaces or extra characters added just like before; The first character should be "-" and the last character should be "-".
   
7. Save this second file as a .key file type.
   
   
   

At this point you should have two files saved:

• File 1: filename.pem - This file contains your Certificate and CABUNDLE formatted in one single file.
• File 2: filename.key - This file contains your Private Key.

> Uploading the Files to the Wizard

The final step in this process is to upload the files you just created to the SiteLock Firewall Wizard in the SiteLock Dashboard.

1. Click Upload Certificate.
   
   
   
   
2. Use the Browse buttons to upload the .pem file and the .key file that you just created. File 1 with the extension .pem should be uploaded to the first Browse button labeled Certificate. File 2 with the extension .key should be uploaded to the second Browse button labeled Private Key.
   NOTE: Passphrase is optional. Unless you created a passphrase during the export of the SSL, you can leave this blank.
   
   
   
   
3. Once both files have been added, click Submit.