6 ca - sample minimal CA application
37 [B<-extensions section>]
41 The B<ca> command is a minimal CA application. It can be used
42 to sign certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate
43 CRLs it also maintains a text database of issued certificates
46 The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose.
52 =item B<-config filename>
54 specifies the configuration file to use.
58 an input filename containing a single certificate request to be
61 =item B<-ss_cert filename>
63 a single self signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
65 =item B<-spkac filename>
67 a file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
68 and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<NOTES>
69 section for information on the required format.
73 if present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
74 are assumed to the the names of files containing certificate requests.
76 =item B<-out filename>
78 the output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
79 output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
82 =item B<-outdir directory>
84 the directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
85 written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
90 the CA certificate file.
92 =item B<-keyfile filename>
94 the private key to sign requests with.
96 =item B<-key password>
98 the password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some
99 systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g. Unix with
100 the 'ps' utility) this option should be used with caution.
104 this prints extra details about the operations being performed.
108 don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
110 =item B<-startdate date>
112 this allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
113 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure).
115 =item B<-enddate date>
117 this allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
118 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure).
122 the number of days to certify the certificate for.
126 the message digest to use. Possible values include md5, sha1 and mdc2.
127 This option also applies to CRLs.
131 this option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
132 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
133 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
134 for more information.
138 this is a legacy option to make B<ca> work with very old versions of
139 the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
140 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
141 its use is strongly discouraged. The newer control "Xenroll" does not
146 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
147 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
148 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
149 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
150 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
154 this sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
155 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
157 =item B<-extensions section>
159 the section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
160 to be added when a certificate is issued. If no extension section is
161 present then a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
162 is present (even if it is empty) then a V3 certificate is created.
172 this option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
174 =item B<-crldays num>
176 the number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
177 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
179 =item B<-crlhours num>
181 the number of hours before the next CRL is due.
183 =item B<-revoke filename>
185 a filename containing a certificate to revoke.
187 =item B<-crlexts section>
189 the section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
190 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
191 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
192 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
193 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
194 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs.
198 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
200 The options for B<ca> are contained in the B<ca> section of the
201 configuration file. Many of these are identical to command line
202 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
203 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
204 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
205 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
212 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
213 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
214 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
215 by white space and finally the long name.
219 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
220 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
221 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
222 and long names are the same when this option is used.
224 =item B<new_certs_dir>
226 the same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
227 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
231 the same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
232 certificate. Mandatory.
236 same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
237 CA private key. Mandatory.
241 a file used to read and write random number seed information, or
242 an EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)|RAND_egd(3)>).
244 =item B<default_days>
246 the same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
249 =item B<default_startdate>
251 the same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
252 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
254 =item B<default_enddate>
256 the same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
257 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
260 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
262 the same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
263 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
264 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
268 the same as the B<-md> option. The message digest to use. Mandatory.
272 the text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
273 though initially it will be empty.
277 a text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
278 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
280 =item B<x509_extensions>
282 the same as B<-extensions>.
284 =item B<crl_extensions>
286 the same as B<-crlexts>.
290 the same as B<-preserveDN>
294 the same as B<-msie_hack>
298 the same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
299 for more information.
305 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
306 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
307 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
308 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
309 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
310 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
311 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
315 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
316 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
317 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
318 It is however possible to create SPKACs using the B<spkac> utility.
320 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
321 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
322 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
323 preceded by a number and a '.'.
327 Note: these examples assume that the B<ca> directory structure is
328 already set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually
329 involves creating a CA certificate and private key with B<req>, a
330 serial number file and an empty index file and placing them in
331 the relevant directories.
333 To use the sample configuration file below the directories demoCA,
334 demoCA/private and demoCA/newcerts would be created. The CA
335 certificate would be copied to demoCA/cacert.pem and its private
336 key to demoCA/private/cakey.pem. A file demoCA/serial would be
337 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
341 Sign a certificate request:
343 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
347 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
349 Sign several requests:
351 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
353 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
355 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
357 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
359 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
361 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
365 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for B<ca>:
368 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
372 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
373 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
374 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
376 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
377 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
378 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
379 RANDFILE = $dir/private/.rand # random number file
381 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
382 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
383 default_md = md5 # md to use
385 policy = policy_any # default policy
388 countryName = supplied
389 stateOrProvinceName = optional
390 organizationName = optional
391 organizationalUnitName = optional
392 commonName = supplied
393 emailAddress = optional
397 The B<ca> command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
399 The B<ca> utility was originally meant as an example of how to do things
400 in a CA. It was not supposed be be used as a full blown CA itself:
401 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
403 The B<ca> command is effectively a single user command: no locking is
404 done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<ca> command
405 on the same database can have unpredictable results.
409 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
410 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
411 The values below reflect the default values.
413 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
414 ./demoCA - main CA directory
415 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
416 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
417 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
418 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
419 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
420 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
421 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
422 ./demoCA/.rnd - CA random seed information
424 =head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
426 B<OPENSSL_CONF> reflects the location of master configuration file it can
427 be overridden by the B<-config> command line option.
431 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
432 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
433 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
434 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
436 CRL entry extensions cannot currently be created: only CRL extensions
439 V2 CRL features like delta CRL support and CRL numbers are not currently
442 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
443 possible to include one SPKAC or self signed certificate.
447 The use of an in memory text database can cause problems when large
448 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
449 the database has to be kept in memory.
451 Certificate request extensions are ignored: some kind of "policy" should
452 be included to use certain static extensions and certain extensions
455 It is not possible to certify two certificates with the same DN: this
456 is a side effect of how the text database is indexed and it cannot easily
457 be fixed without introducing other problems. Some S/MIME clients can use
458 two certificates with the same DN for separate signing and encryption
461 The B<ca> command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
462 exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility
463 (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The scripts B<CA.sh> and
464 B<CA.pl> help a little but not very much.
466 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
467 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used but
468 the extra fields are not displayed when the user is asked to certify
469 a request. The behaviour should be more friendly and configurable.
471 Cancelling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
472 create an empty file.
476 L<req(1)|req(1)>, L<spkac(1)|spkac(1)>, L<x509(1)|x509(1)>, L<CA.pl(1)|CA.pl(1)>,
477 L<config(5)|config(5)>