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OpenSSL on Windows — Unable to load config info from c:/openssl0.9.8o/ssl/openssl.cnf

This is an error message that pops up when trying to do an operation using OpenSSL running on Windows.  It appears, best as I can gather, that the path to OpenSSL’s config file is hard-coded into the executable, and it won’t be able to find it if it is not in the expected place.  In this case, I was using the copy of OpenSSL bundled with the Windows version of the Apache web server, but I imagine the error message may show up with other Windows distributions of OpenSSL as well.

The solution is to add an environment variable, OPENSSL_CONF, and set it to the complete path to an OpenSSL config file.  (In this case, again, it is located in Apache’s conf directory.)  Then, restart your command prompt instance and all should be good.

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4 Responses to “OpenSSL on Windows — Unable to load config info from c:/openssl0.9.8o/ssl/openssl.cnf”

  1. john says:

    I have been trying for hours to find a solution until I read your post! Thanks a lot!

  2. Jahangir says:

    Worked for me. Thanks Aaron.

  3. Aaron says:

    Note that you have to re-open the command prompt after you change the environment variable or the change won’t take effect. Also, if you are opening the command prompt from Explorer’s right-click menu, you’ll have to restart Explorer before the change will take effect.

  4. steve says:

    This still did not work for me. I’ve tried different paths and it just refuses to see the opened.cnf file.

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