diff --git a/lemur/certificates/service.py b/lemur/certificates/service.py
index 41521315..cd5786c7 100644
--- a/lemur/certificates/service.py
+++ b/lemur/certificates/service.py
@@ -322,6 +322,7 @@ def create_csr(**csr_config):
         x509.NameAttribute(x509.OID_COUNTRY_NAME, csr_config['country']),
         x509.NameAttribute(x509.OID_STATE_OR_PROVINCE_NAME, csr_config['state']),
         x509.NameAttribute(x509.OID_LOCALITY_NAME, csr_config['location']),
+        x509.NameAttribute(x509.OID_EMAIL_ADDRESS, csr_config['owner'])
     ]))
 
     builder = builder.add_extension(
diff --git a/lemur/common/utils.py b/lemur/common/utils.py
index 82d7f900..6934b9a5 100644
--- a/lemur/common/utils.py
+++ b/lemur/common/utils.py
@@ -40,4 +40,4 @@ def parse_certificate(body):
         if isinstance(body, bytes):
             return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(body, default_backend())
         return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(bytes(body, 'utf8'), default_backend())
-    return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(body, default_backend())
+    return x509.load_pem_x509_certificate(str(body), default_backend())
diff --git a/lemur/tests/test_certificates.py b/lemur/tests/test_certificates.py
index f0beb54d..9f9edf9d 100644
--- a/lemur/tests/test_certificates.py
+++ b/lemur/tests/test_certificates.py
@@ -284,6 +284,7 @@ def test_create_basic_csr(client):
         country='US',
         state='CA',
         location='A place',
+        owner='joe@example.com',
         extensions=dict(names=dict(sub_alt_names=['test.example.com', 'test2.example.com']))
     )
     csr, pem = create_csr(**csr_config)
@@ -328,12 +329,12 @@ def test_create_csr():
     from lemur.certificates.service import create_csr
 
     csr, private_key = create_csr(common_name='ACommonName', organization='test', organizational_unit='Meters', country='US',
-                                  state='CA', location='Here')
+                                  state='CA', location='Here', owner='joe@example.com')
     assert csr
     assert private_key
 
     extensions = {'sub_alt_names': {'names': [{'name_type': 'DNSName', 'value': 'AnotherCommonName'}]}}
-    csr, private_key = create_csr(common_name='ACommonName', organization='test', organizational_unit='Meters', country='US',
+    csr, private_key = create_csr(owner='joe@example.com', common_name='ACommonName', organization='test', organizational_unit='Meters', country='US',
                                   state='CA', location='Here', extensions=extensions)
     assert csr
     assert private_key
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 6c6619be..a9f1bc78 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ install_requires = [
     'Flask-Mail==0.9.1',
     'SQLAlchemy-Utils==0.31.4',
     'BeautifulSoup4==4.4.1',
-    'requests==2.9.1',
+    'requests==2.11.1',
     'psycopg2==2.6.1',
     'arrow==0.7.0',
     'six==1.10.0',
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ install_requires = [
     'marshmallow-sqlalchemy==0.8.0',
     'marshmallow==2.4.0',
     'pycrypto==2.6.1',
-    'cryptography==1.3.2',
+    'cryptography==1.4',
     'pyopenssl==0.15.1',
     'pyjwt==1.4.0',
     'xmltodict==0.9.2',