{"id":30,"date":"2019-07-09T07:07:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T07:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/?p=30"},"modified":"2023-11-02T12:14:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T12:14:35","slug":"why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do I get an &#8216;Invalid CSR&#8217; error message when I try to activate?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are many reasons why a CSR may be invalid. When you create the CSR make sure:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The common name is an FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) like example.com or sub.example.com.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/how-to-make-sure-domain-is-correct-in-the-csr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Check the common name field<\/a>. You may have specified an IP address (e.g. 198.51.100.10) or a server name (e.g. mywebserver) instead of a Fully Qualified Domain Name.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also, error message can be caused by a Wildcard common name&nbsp;(e.g.*.example.com) for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/domain-type\/single-domain-ssl-certificates\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">single-domain<\/a>&nbsp;certificate and vice&nbsp;versa (if example.com is specified for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/domain-type\/wildcard-ssl-certificates\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildcard<\/a> certificate).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure you don&#8217;t use any special characters when filling in the information required for the CSR. Do not use special characters such as <strong>[! @ # $ % ^ ( ) ~ ? &gt; &lt; &amp; \/  , . &#8221; &#8216; _]<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Check the country field. If you are located in the United Kingdom, the country code must be <strong>GB<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>You should included the header and footer of the CSR into the enrollment form. The header and footer look like:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<pre>----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----\n\nencoded data\n\n-----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST------<\/pre>\n<p>Windows-based servers create CSRs with the following tags:<\/p>\n<pre>-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----\n\nencoded data\n\n-----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST------<\/pre>\n<ul>\n<li>There should be 5 dashes on each side of the tags. There should also be no trailing spaces in the CSR.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As always, feel free to consult with our Support Team via <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/support.ssls.com\/index.php?\/cheapssl\/Tickets\/Submit\">ticket<\/a><\/strong> or start a <strong>Live Chat<\/strong> with one of our agents by clicking on the blue bubble icon at the lower right corner of the page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many reasons why a CSR may be invalid. When you create the CSR make sure: The common name is an FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) like example.com or sub.example.com. Check the common name field. You may have specified an IP address (e.g. 198.51.100.10) or a server name (e.g. mywebserver) instead of a Fully ..<\/p>\n<div class=\"clear-fix\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\" title=\"read more...\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csr-generation-instructions","category-troubleshooting-errors"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why do I get an &#039;Invalid CSR&#039; error message when I try to activate? \u2013 HelpDesk | SSLs.com<\/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.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why do I get an &#039;Invalid CSR&#039; error message when I try to activate? \u2013 HelpDesk | SSLs.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are many reasons why a CSR may be invalid. When you create the CSR make sure: The common name is an FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) like example.com or sub.example.com. Check the common name field. You may have specified an IP address (e.g. 198.51.100.10) or a server name (e.g. mywebserver) instead of a Fully ..Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SSL Certificate Knowledgebase | SSLs.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SSLsCom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-09T07:07:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-02T12:14:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sslbizdev\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SSLscom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SSLscom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sslbizdev\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"sslbizdev\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/#\/schema\/person\/7e29a188929740c7a59d9a1c15c18806\"},\"headline\":\"Why do I get an &#8216;Invalid CSR&#8217; error message when I try to activate?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-09T07:07:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-02T12:14:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"CSR generation instructions\",\"Troubleshooting errors\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/\",\"name\":\"Why do I get an 'Invalid CSR' error message when I try to activate? 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\u2013 HelpDesk | SSLs.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ssls.com\/knowledgebase\/why-do-i-get-an-invalid-csr-error-message-when-i-try-to-activate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why do I get an 'Invalid CSR' error message when I try to activate? \u2013 HelpDesk | SSLs.com","og_description":"There are many reasons why a CSR may be invalid. 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