This is a fork of the original https-pem package, modified to work with Node.js 24 and above.

Self-signed PEM key and certificate ready for use in your HTTPS server.

A dead simple way to get an HTTPS server running in development with no need to generate the self signed PEM key and certificate.

npm install @metcoder95/https-pem

Warning: Upon installation a private key and a self signed certificate will be generated inside ./node_modules/https-pem. The certificate is valid for 365 days and no attempt have been made to make this secure in any way. I suggest only using this for testing and development where you just need an easy and quick way to run an HTTPS server with Node.js.

Note: for Node.js 24 and above, the key size has been increased to 2048 bits due to changes in OpenSSL. For earlier versions, the default key size is used.

const https = require('node:https');
const pem = require('@metcoder95/https-pem');

const server = https.createServer(pem, function (req, res) {
  res.end('This is servered over HTTPS');
});

server.listen(443, function () {
  console.log('The server is running on https://localhost');
});

When connecting to an HTTPS server from Node.js that uses a self-signed certificate, https.request will normally emit an error and refuse to complete the request. To get around that simply set the rejectUnauthorized option to false:

const opts = { rejectUnauthorized: false };

const req = https.request(opts, function (res) {
  // ...
});

req.end();

If using curl to connect to a Node.js HTTPS server using a self-signed certificate, use the -k option:

curl -k https://localhost:443

If you want to use the fetch API with the self-signed certificate, you can do so by using the undici package:

const https = require('node:https');
const { Agent } = require('undici');
const pem = require('@metcoder95/https-pem');

const agent = new Agent({
  connect: {
    rejectUnauthorized: false,
  },
});

const server = https.createServer(pem, function (req, res) {
  res.end('This is served over HTTPS with fetch');
});

server.listen(443, function () {
  console.log('The server is running on https://localhost');
  fetch('https://localhost', { dispatcher: agent })
    .then((res) => res.text())
    .then((body) => {
      console.log('Response from server:', body);
    })
    .catch((err) => {
      console.error('Error fetching from server:', err);
    });
});

The https-pem module simply exposes an object with two properties: key and cert.

Generates a new self-signed certificate and key pair.

const pem = require('@metcoder95/https-pem');
pem.generate();

• HttpPEMGeneratorOptions: An object that can be passed to the selfsigned.generate method. This allows you to customize the generation of the key and certificate, such as setting the key size or adding custom attributes.
  • attr: (optional) An array of attributes to include in the certificate. See the selfsigned documentation for more information.
  • opts: (optional) An object with options for the selfsigned.generate method. See the selfsigned documentation for available options.
• done: (optional) A callback function that will be called with the generated key and certificate. If not provided, the function will return a promise that resolves with the generated key and certificate.

• HttpsPEMGenerateResult: An object containing the generated key and certificate.
  • key: The generated private key in PEM format.
  • cert: The generated self-signed certificate in PEM format.

The autogenerated private key (RSA).

The autogenerated self-signed certificate.

MIT