6 ca - sample minimal CA application
20 [B<-crl_reason reason>]
21 [B<-crl_hold instruction>]
22 [B<-crl_compromise time>]
23 [B<-crl_CA_compromise time>]
49 [B<-extensions section>]
62 The B<ca> command is a minimal CA application. It can be used
63 to sign certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate
64 CRLs it also maintains a text database of issued certificates
67 The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose.
75 Print out a usage message.
79 This prints extra details about the operations being performed.
81 =item B<-config filename>
83 Specifies the configuration file to use.
84 Optional; for a description of the default value,
85 see L<openssl(1)/COMMAND SUMMARY>.
87 =item B<-name section>
89 Specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides
90 B<default_ca> in the B<ca> section).
94 An input filename containing a single certificate request to be
97 =item B<-ss_cert filename>
99 A single self-signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
101 =item B<-spkac filename>
103 A file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
104 and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<SPKAC FORMAT>
105 section for information on the required input and output format.
109 If present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
110 are taken as the names of files containing certificate requests.
112 =item B<-out filename>
114 The output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
115 output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
116 file in PEM format (except that B<-spkac> outputs DER format).
118 =item B<-outdir directory>
120 The directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
121 written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
126 The CA certificate file.
128 =item B<-keyfile filename>
130 The private key to sign requests with.
132 =item B<-keyform PEM|DER>
134 The format of the data in the private key file.
137 =item B<-key password>
139 The password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some
140 systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g. Unix with
141 the 'ps' utility) this option should be used with caution.
145 Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
146 the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>).
147 Certificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
148 B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is
151 A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed
152 certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
153 (see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same
154 serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
155 self-signed certificate.
159 The key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
160 see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in L<openssl(1)>.
164 Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
166 =item B<-startdate date>
168 This allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
169 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
170 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
171 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
173 =item B<-enddate date>
175 This allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
176 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
177 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
178 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
182 The number of days to certify the certificate for.
186 The message digest to use.
187 Any digest supported by the OpenSSL B<dgst> command can be used. If the signing
188 key is using Ed25519 or Ed448 then you should specify "null" for the digest.
189 This option also applies to CRLs.
193 This option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
194 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
195 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
196 for more information.
200 This is a deprecated option to make B<ca> work with very old versions of
201 the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
202 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
203 its use is strongly discouraged.
207 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
208 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
209 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
210 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
211 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
215 The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
216 request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into
217 the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the
218 EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
219 the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be
220 used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
224 This sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
225 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
227 =item B<-extensions section>
229 The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
230 to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions>
231 unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is
232 present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
233 is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the:w
234 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
235 extension section format.
237 =item B<-extfile file>
239 An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
240 (using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also
245 Specifying an engine (by its unique B<id> string) will cause B<ca>
246 to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
247 thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default
248 for all available algorithms.
252 Supersedes subject name given in the request.
253 The arg must be formatted as I</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>,
254 characters may be escaped by \ (backslash), no spaces are skipped.
258 This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by
259 default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
260 values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
261 configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.
263 =item B<-create_serial>
265 If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
266 fails, specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next
268 To get random serial numbers, use the B<-rand_serial> flag instead; this
269 should only be used for simple error-recovery.
271 =item B<-rand_serial>
273 Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.
274 This overrides any option or configuration to use a serial number file.
276 =item B<-multivalue-rdn>
278 This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
279 support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
281 I</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe>
283 If -multi-rdn is not used then the UID value is I<123456+CN=John Doe>.
285 =item B<-rand file...>
287 A file or files containing random data used to seed the random number
289 Multiple files can be specified separated by an OS-dependent character.
290 The separator is B<;> for MS-Windows, B<,> for OpenVMS, and B<:> for
293 =item [B<-writerand file>]
295 Writes random data to the specified I<file> upon exit.
296 This can be used with a subsequent B<-rand> flag.
306 This option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
308 =item B<-crldays num>
310 The number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
311 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
313 =item B<-crlhours num>
315 The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
317 =item B<-revoke filename>
319 A filename containing a certificate to revoke.
321 =item B<-valid filename>
323 A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.
325 =item B<-status serial>
327 Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified
328 serial number and exits.
332 Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.
334 =item B<-crl_reason reason>
336 Revocation reason, where B<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>,
337 B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>,
338 B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of B<reason> is case
339 insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
341 In practice B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used
342 in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
344 =item B<-crl_hold instruction>
346 This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold
347 instruction to B<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
348 used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
349 B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used.
351 =item B<-crl_compromise time>
353 This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to
354 B<time>. B<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is B<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>.
356 =item B<-crl_CA_compromise time>
358 This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to
361 =item B<-crlexts section>
363 The section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
364 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
365 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
366 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
367 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
368 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
369 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
370 extension section format.
374 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
376 The section of the configuration file containing options for B<ca>
377 is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used,
378 then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
379 be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section
380 of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
381 configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are
382 read directly from the B<ca> section:
386 With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may
387 change in future releases.
389 Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
390 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
391 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
392 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
393 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
400 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
401 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
402 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
403 by white space and finally the long name.
407 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
408 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
409 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
410 and long names are the same when this option is used.
412 =item B<new_certs_dir>
414 The same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
415 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
419 The same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
420 certificate. Mandatory.
424 Same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
425 CA private key. Mandatory.
429 At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator,
430 and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it.
432 =item B<default_days>
434 The same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
437 =item B<default_startdate>
439 The same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
440 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
442 =item B<default_enddate>
444 The same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
445 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
448 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
450 The same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
451 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
452 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
456 The same as the B<-md> option. Mandatory.
460 The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
461 though initially it will be empty.
463 =item B<unique_subject>
465 If the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the
466 database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given,
467 several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
468 The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8)
469 versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier,
470 it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with
471 the B<-selfsign> command line option.
473 Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created
474 without any subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without
475 subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
479 A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
480 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
484 A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number
485 will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
486 present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
488 =item B<x509_extensions>
490 The same as B<-extensions>.
492 =item B<crl_extensions>
494 The same as B<-crlexts>.
498 The same as B<-preserveDN>
502 The same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed
503 from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present
504 the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.
508 The same as B<-msie_hack>
512 The same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
513 for more information.
515 =item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt>
517 These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
518 when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
519 the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used
520 here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set
521 and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot
522 be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
524 For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce
527 If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of
528 OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because
529 it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles
530 multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
532 =item B<copy_extensions>
534 Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
535 If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are
536 ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any
537 extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
538 to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the
539 request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present
540 in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before
543 The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply
544 values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName.
550 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
551 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
552 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
553 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
554 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
555 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
556 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
560 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
561 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
562 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
563 It is however possible to create SPKACs using the B<spkac> utility.
565 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
566 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
567 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
568 preceded by a number and a '.'.
570 When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the B<-out>
571 flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the B<-outdir>
576 Note: these examples assume that the B<ca> directory structure is
577 already set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually
578 involves creating a CA certificate and private key with B<req>, a
579 serial number file and an empty index file and placing them in
580 the relevant directories.
582 To use the sample configuration file below the directories demoCA,
583 demoCA/private and demoCA/newcerts would be created. The CA
584 certificate would be copied to demoCA/cacert.pem and its private
585 key to demoCA/private/cakey.pem. A file demoCA/serial would be
586 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
590 Sign a certificate request:
592 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
594 Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
596 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem
600 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
602 Sign several requests:
604 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
606 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
608 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
610 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
612 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
614 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
618 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for B<ca>:
621 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
625 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
626 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
627 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
629 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
630 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
631 #rand_serial = yes # for random serial#'s
632 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
633 RANDFILE = $dir/private/.rand # random number file
635 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
636 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
637 default_md = md5 # md to use
639 policy = policy_any # default policy
640 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN
642 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option
643 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option
644 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request
647 countryName = supplied
648 stateOrProvinceName = optional
649 organizationName = optional
650 organizationalUnitName = optional
651 commonName = supplied
652 emailAddress = optional
656 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
657 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
658 The values below reflect the default values.
660 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
661 ./demoCA - main CA directory
662 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
663 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
664 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
665 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
666 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
667 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
668 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
669 ./demoCA/.rnd - CA random seed information
673 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
674 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
675 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
676 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
678 V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported.
680 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
681 possible to include one SPKAC or self-signed certificate.
685 The use of an in-memory text database can cause problems when large
686 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
687 the database has to be kept in memory.
689 The B<ca> command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
690 exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility
691 (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The script
692 B<CA.pl> helps a little but not very much.
694 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
695 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To
696 enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by
697 RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN>
698 option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and
701 Canceling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
702 create an empty file.
706 The B<ca> command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
708 The B<ca> utility was originally meant as an example of how to do things
709 in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself:
710 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
712 The B<ca> command is effectively a single user command: no locking is
713 done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<ca> command
714 on the same database can have unpredictable results.
716 The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is
717 not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate
718 request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the
719 B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot
720 this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester
721 a valid CA certificate.
723 This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy>
724 and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.
725 Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be
728 It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such
729 as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values.
731 Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.
732 For example if the CA certificate has:
734 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
736 then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
740 Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically,
741 certificate validity period (specified by any of B<-startdate>,
742 B<-enddate> and B<-days>) will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are
743 earlier than year 2049 (included), and as GeneralizedTime if the dates
744 are in year 2050 or later.
748 L<req(1)>, L<spkac(1)>, L<x509(1)>, L<CA.pl(1)>,
749 L<config(5)>, L<x509v3_config(5)>
753 Copyright 2000-2018 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
755 Licensed under the OpenSSL license (the "License"). You may not use
756 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
757 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
758 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.