6 pkcs12 - PKCS#12 file utility
14 [B<-certfile filename>]
45 The B<pkcs12> command allows PKCS#12 files (sometimes referred to as
46 PFX files) to be created and parsed. PKCS#12 files are used by several
47 programs including Netscape, MSIE and MS Outlook.
49 =head1 COMMAND OPTIONS
51 There are a lot of options the meaning of some depends of whether a PKCS#12 file
52 is being created or parsed. By default a PKCS#12 file is parsed. A PKCS#12
53 file can be created by using the B<-export> option (see below).
55 =head1 PARSING OPTIONS
61 This specifies filename of the PKCS#12 file to be parsed. Standard input is used
64 =item B<-out filename>
66 The filename to write certificates and private keys to, standard output by
67 default. They are all written in PEM format.
69 =item B<-pass arg>, B<-passin arg>
71 the PKCS#12 file (i.e. input file) password source. For more information about
72 the format of B<arg> see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in
73 L<openssl(1)|openssl(1)>.
77 pass phrase source to encrypt any outputed private keys with. For more
78 information about the format of B<arg> see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section
79 in L<openssl(1)|openssl(1)>.
83 this option inhibits output of the keys and certificates to the output file
84 version of the PKCS#12 file.
88 only output client certificates (not CA certificates).
92 only output CA certificates (not client certificates).
96 no certificates at all will be output.
100 no private keys will be output.
104 output additional information about the PKCS#12 file structure, algorithms used and
109 use DES to encrypt private keys before outputting.
113 use triple DES to encrypt private keys before outputting, this is the default.
117 use IDEA to encrypt private keys before outputting.
121 don't encrypt the private keys at all.
125 don't attempt to verify the integrity MAC before reading the file.
129 prompt for separate integrity and encryption passwords: most software
130 always assumes these are the same so this option will render such
131 PKCS#12 files unreadable.
135 =head1 FILE CREATION OPTIONS
141 This option specifies that a PKCS#12 file will be created rather than
144 =item B<-out filename>
146 This specifies filename to write the PKCS#12 file to. Standard output is used
149 =item B<-in filename>
151 The filename to read certificates and private keys from, standard input by
152 default. They must all be in PEM format. The order doesn't matter but one
153 private key and its corresponding certificate should be present. If additional
154 certificates are present they will also be included in the PKCS#12 file.
156 =item B<-inkey filename>
158 file to read private key from. If not present then a private key must be present
161 =item B<-name friendlyname>
163 This specifies the "friendly name" for the certificate and private key. This
164 name is typically displayed in list boxes by software importing the file.
166 =item B<-certfile filename>
168 A filename to read additional certificates from.
170 =item B<-caname friendlyname>
172 This specifies the "friendly name" for other certificates. This option may be
173 used multiple times to specify names for all certificates in the order they
174 appear. Netscape ignores friendly names on other certificates whereas MSIE
177 =item B<-pass arg>, B<-passout arg>
179 the PKCS#12 file (i.e. output file) password source. For more information about
180 the format of B<arg> see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in
181 L<openssl(1)|openssl(1)>.
183 =item B<-passin password>
185 pass phrase source to decrypt any input private keys with. For more information
186 about the format of B<arg> see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in
187 L<openssl(1)|openssl(1)>.
191 if this option is present then an attempt is made to include the entire
192 certificate chain of the user certificate. The standard CA store is used
193 for this search. If the search fails it is considered a fatal error.
197 encrypt the certificate using triple DES, this may render the PKCS#12
198 file unreadable by some "export grade" software. By default the private
199 key is encrypted using triple DES and the certificate using 40 bit RC2.
201 =item B<-keypbe alg>, B<-certpbe alg>
203 these options allow the algorithm used to encrypt the private key and
204 certificates to be selected. Any PKCS#5 v1.5 or PKCS#12 PBE algorithm name
205 can be used (see B<NOTES> section for more information). If a a cipher name
206 (as output by the B<list-cipher-algorithms> command is specified then it
207 is used with PKCS#5 v2.0. For interoperability reasons it is advisable to only
208 use PKCS#12 algorithms.
210 =item B<-keyex|-keysig>
212 specifies that the private key is to be used for key exchange or just signing.
213 This option is only interpreted by MSIE and similar MS software. Normally
214 "export grade" software will only allow 512 bit RSA keys to be used for
215 encryption purposes but arbitrary length keys for signing. The B<-keysig>
216 option marks the key for signing only. Signing only keys can be used for
217 S/MIME signing, authenticode (ActiveX control signing) and SSL client
218 authentication, however due to a bug only MSIE 5.0 and later support
219 the use of signing only keys for SSL client authentication.
221 =item B<-macalg digest>
223 specify the MAC digest algorithm. If not included them SHA1 will be used.
225 =item B<-nomaciter>, B<-noiter>
227 these options affect the iteration counts on the MAC and key algorithms.
228 Unless you wish to produce files compatible with MSIE 4.0 you should leave
231 To discourage attacks by using large dictionaries of common passwords the
232 algorithm that derives keys from passwords can have an iteration count applied
233 to it: this causes a certain part of the algorithm to be repeated and slows it
234 down. The MAC is used to check the file integrity but since it will normally
235 have the same password as the keys and certificates it could also be attacked.
236 By default both MAC and encryption iteration counts are set to 2048, using
237 these options the MAC and encryption iteration counts can be set to 1, since
238 this reduces the file security you should not use these options unless you
239 really have to. Most software supports both MAC and key iteration counts.
240 MSIE 4.0 doesn't support MAC iteration counts so it needs the B<-nomaciter>
245 This option is included for compatibility with previous versions, it used
246 to be needed to use MAC iterations counts but they are now used by default.
248 =item B<-rand file(s)>
250 a file or files containing random data used to seed the random number
251 generator, or an EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)|RAND_egd(3)>).
252 Multiple files can be specified separated by a OS-dependent character.
253 The separator is B<;> for MS-Windows, B<,> for OpenVMS, and B<:> for
260 Although there are a large number of options most of them are very rarely
261 used. For PKCS#12 file parsing only B<-in> and B<-out> need to be used
262 for PKCS#12 file creation B<-export> and B<-name> are also used.
264 If none of the B<-clcerts>, B<-cacerts> or B<-nocerts> options are present
265 then all certificates will be output in the order they appear in the input
266 PKCS#12 files. There is no guarantee that the first certificate present is
267 the one corresponding to the private key. Certain software which requires
268 a private key and certificate and assumes the first certificate in the
269 file is the one corresponding to the private key: this may not always
270 be the case. Using the B<-clcerts> option will solve this problem by only
271 outputting the certificate corresponding to the private key. If the CA
272 certificates are required then they can be output to a separate file using
273 the B<-nokeys -cacerts> options to just output CA certificates.
275 The B<-keypbe> and B<-certpbe> algorithms allow the precise encryption
276 algorithms for private keys and certificates to be specified. Normally
277 the defaults are fine but occasionally software can't handle triple DES
278 encrypted private keys, then the option B<-keypbe PBE-SHA1-RC2-40> can
279 be used to reduce the private key encryption to 40 bit RC2. A complete
280 description of all algorithms is contained in the B<pkcs8> manual page.
284 Parse a PKCS#12 file and output it to a file:
286 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem
288 Output only client certificates to a file:
290 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -clcerts -out file.pem
292 Don't encrypt the private key:
294 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -out file.pem -nodes
296 Print some info about a PKCS#12 file:
298 openssl pkcs12 -in file.p12 -info -noout
300 Create a PKCS#12 file:
302 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate"
304 Include some extra certificates:
306 openssl pkcs12 -export -in file.pem -out file.p12 -name "My Certificate" \
307 -certfile othercerts.pem
311 Some would argue that the PKCS#12 standard is one big bug :-)
313 Versions of OpenSSL before 0.9.6a had a bug in the PKCS#12 key generation
314 routines. Under rare circumstances this could produce a PKCS#12 file encrypted
315 with an invalid key. As a result some PKCS#12 files which triggered this bug
316 from other implementations (MSIE or Netscape) could not be decrypted
317 by OpenSSL and similarly OpenSSL could produce PKCS#12 files which could
318 not be decrypted by other implementations. The chances of producing such
319 a file are relatively small: less than 1 in 256.
321 A side effect of fixing this bug is that any old invalidly encrypted PKCS#12
322 files cannot no longer be parsed by the fixed version. Under such circumstances
323 the B<pkcs12> utility will report that the MAC is OK but fail with a decryption
324 error when extracting private keys.
326 This problem can be resolved by extracting the private keys and certificates
327 from the PKCS#12 file using an older version of OpenSSL and recreating the PKCS#12
328 file from the keys and certificates using a newer version of OpenSSL. For example:
330 old-openssl -in bad.p12 -out keycerts.pem
331 openssl -in keycerts.pem -export -name "My PKCS#12 file" -out fixed.p12