5 CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs
26 The B<CA.pl> script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line
27 arguments to the B<openssl> command for some common certificate operations.
28 It is intended to simplify the process of certificate creation and management
29 by the use of some simple options.
31 =head1 COMMAND OPTIONS
35 =item B<?>, B<-h>, B<-help>
37 prints a usage message.
41 creates a new self signed certificate. The private key is written to the file
42 "newkey.pem" and the request written to the file "newreq.pem".
46 creates a new certificate request. The private key is written to the file
47 "newkey.pem" and the request written to the file "newreq.pem".
49 =item B<-newreq-nodes>
51 is like B<-newreq> except that the private key will not be encrypted.
55 creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the B<ca> program (or the B<-signcert>
56 and B<-xsign> options). The user is prompted to enter the filename of the CA
57 certificates (which should also contain the private key) or by hitting ENTER
58 details of the CA will be prompted for. The relevant files and directories
59 are created in a directory called "demoCA" in the current directory.
63 create a PKCS#12 file containing the user certificate, private key and CA
64 certificate. It expects the user certificate and private key to be in the
65 file "newcert.pem" and the CA certificate to be in the file demoCA/cacert.pem,
66 it creates a file "newcert.p12". This command can thus be called after the
67 B<-sign> option. The PKCS#12 file can be imported directly into a browser.
68 If there is an additional argument on the command line it will be used as the
69 "friendly name" for the certificate (which is typically displayed in the browser
70 list box), otherwise the name "My Certificate" is used.
72 =item B<-sign>, B<-signreq>, B<-xsign>
74 calls the B<ca> program to sign a certificate request. It expects the request
75 to be in the file "newreq.pem". The new certificate is written to the file
76 "newcert.pem" except in the case of the B<-xsign> option when it is written
82 this option is the same as the B<-signreq> option except it uses the configuration
83 file section B<v3_ca> and so makes the signed request a valid CA certificate. This
84 is useful when creating intermediate CA from a root CA.
88 this option is the same as B<-sign> except it expects a self signed certificate
89 to be present in the file "newreq.pem".
95 =item B<-revoke certfile [reason]>
97 revoke the certificate contained in the specified B<certfile>. An optional
98 reason may be specified, and must be one of: B<unspecified>,
99 B<keyCompromise>, B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>,
100 B<cessationOfOperation>, B<certificateHold>, or B<removeFromCRL>.
104 verifies certificates against the CA certificate for "demoCA". If no certificates
105 are specified on the command line it tries to verify the file "newcert.pem".
109 one or more optional certificate file names for use with the B<-verify> command.
115 Create a CA hierarchy:
119 Complete certificate creation example: create a CA, create a request, sign
120 the request and finally create a PKCS#12 file containing it.
125 CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"
127 =head1 DSA CERTIFICATES
129 Although the B<CA.pl> creates RSA CAs and requests it is still possible to
130 use it with DSA certificates and requests using the L<req(1)> command
131 directly. The following example shows the steps that would typically be taken.
133 Create some DSA parameters:
135 openssl dsaparam -out dsap.pem 1024
137 Create a DSA CA certificate and private key:
139 openssl req -x509 -newkey dsa:dsap.pem -keyout cacert.pem -out cacert.pem
141 Create the CA directories and files:
145 enter cacert.pem when prompted for the CA file name.
147 Create a DSA certificate request and private key (a different set of parameters
148 can optionally be created first):
150 openssl req -out newreq.pem -newkey dsa:dsap.pem
158 Most of the filenames mentioned can be modified by editing the B<CA.pl> script.
160 If the demoCA directory already exists then the B<-newca> command will not
161 overwrite it and will do nothing. This can happen if a previous call using
162 the B<-newca> option terminated abnormally. To get the correct behaviour
163 delete the demoCA directory if it already exists.
165 Under some environments it may not be possible to run the B<CA.pl> script
166 directly (for example Win32) and the default configuration file location may
167 be wrong. In this case the command:
171 can be used and the B<OPENSSL_CONF> environment variable changed to point to
172 the correct path of the configuration file "openssl.cnf".
174 The script is intended as a simple front end for the B<openssl> program for use
175 by a beginner. Its behaviour isn't always what is wanted. For more control over the
176 behaviour of the certificate commands call the B<openssl> command directly.
178 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
180 The variable B<OPENSSL_CONF> if defined allows an alternative configuration
181 file location to be specified, it should contain the full path to the
182 configuration file, not just its directory.
186 L<x509(1)>, L<ca(1)>, L<req(1)>, L<pkcs12(1)>,
191 Copyright 2000-2016 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
193 Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
194 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
195 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
196 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.