2 {- OpenSSL::safe::output_do_not_edit_headers(); -}
6 openssl-ca - sample minimal CA application
13 [B<-config> I<filename>]
15 [B<-section> I<section>]
19 [B<-status> I<serial>]
21 [B<-crl_reason> I<reason>]
22 [B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>]
23 [B<-crl_compromise> I<time>]
24 [B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>]
26 [B<-crlhours> I<hours>]
27 [B<-crlsec> I<seconds>]
28 [B<-crlexts> I<section>]
29 [B<-startdate> I<date>]
35 [B<-keyform> B<DER>|B<PEM>]
39 [B<-certform> B<DER>|<PEM>]
42 [B<-inform> B<DER>|<PEM>]
53 [B<-extensions> I<section>]
54 [B<-extfile> I<section>]
57 [B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
58 [B<-vfyopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
62 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_synopsis -}
63 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_synopsis -}
64 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_synopsis -}
67 =for openssl ifdef engine
71 This command is a minimal CA application. It can be used
72 to sign certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate
73 CRLs. It also maintains a text database of issued certificates
75 When signing certificates, a single certificate request can be specified
76 with the B<-in> option, or multiple requests can be processed by
77 specifying a set of B<certreq> files after all options.
79 The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose.
87 Print out a usage message.
91 This prints extra details about the operations being performed.
93 =item B<-config> I<filename>
95 Specifies the configuration file to use.
96 Optional; for a description of the default value,
97 see L<openssl(1)/COMMAND SUMMARY>.
99 =item B<-name> I<section>, B<-section> I<section>
101 Specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides
102 B<default_ca> in the B<ca> section).
104 =item B<-in> I<filename>
106 An input filename containing a single certificate request to be
109 =item B<-inform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
111 The format of the data in CSR input files.
114 =item B<-ss_cert> I<filename>
116 A single self-signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
118 =item B<-spkac> I<filename>
120 A file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
121 and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<SPKAC FORMAT>
122 section for information on the required input and output format.
126 If present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
127 are taken as the names of files containing certificate requests.
129 =item B<-out> I<filename>
131 The output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
132 output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
133 file in PEM format (except that B<-spkac> outputs DER format).
135 =item B<-outdir> I<directory>
137 The directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
138 written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
143 The CA certificate file.
145 =item B<-certform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
147 The format of the data in certificate input files.
150 =item B<-keyfile> I<filename>
152 The private key to sign requests with.
154 =item B<-keyform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
156 The format of the private key file; the default is B<PEM>.
157 See L<openssl(1)/Format Options> for details.
159 =item B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
161 Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign operations.
162 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
164 =item B<-vfyopt> I<nm>:I<v>
166 Pass options to the signature algorithm during verify operations.
167 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
169 This often needs to be given while signing too, because the input
170 certificate signature request is verified against its own public key,
171 and that verification may need its own set of options.
173 =item B<-key> I<password>
175 =for openssl foreign manual ps(1)
177 The password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some
178 systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g., when using
180 this option should be used with caution.
184 Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
185 the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>).
186 Certificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
187 B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is
190 A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed
191 certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
192 (see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same
193 serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
194 self-signed certificate.
196 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
198 The key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
199 see L<openssl(1)/Pass Phrase Options>.
203 Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
205 =item B<-startdate> I<date>
207 This allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
208 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
209 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
210 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
212 =item B<-enddate> I<date>
214 This allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
215 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
216 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
217 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
219 =item B<-days> I<arg>
221 The number of days to certify the certificate for.
225 The message digest to use.
226 Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can be used. For signing
227 algorithms that do not support a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448) any message
228 digest that is set is ignored. This option also applies to CRLs.
230 =item B<-policy> I<arg>
232 This option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
233 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
234 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
235 for more information.
239 This is a deprecated option to make this command work with very old versions
240 of the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
241 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
242 its use is strongly discouraged.
246 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
247 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
248 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
249 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
250 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
254 The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
255 request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into
256 the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the
257 EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
258 the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be
259 used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
263 This sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
264 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
266 =item B<-extensions> I<section>
268 The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
269 to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions>
270 unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is
271 present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
272 is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the
273 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
274 extension section format.
276 =item B<-extfile> I<file>
278 An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
279 (using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also
282 =item B<-subj> I<arg>
284 Supersedes subject name given in the request.
285 The arg must be formatted as C</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>.
286 Keyword characters may be escaped by C<\> (backslash), and whitespace is
288 Empty values are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included
289 in the resulting certificate.
293 This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by
294 default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
295 values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
296 configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.
298 =item B<-create_serial>
300 If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
301 fails, specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next
303 To get random serial numbers, use the B<-rand_serial> flag instead; this
304 should only be used for simple error-recovery.
306 =item B<-rand_serial>
308 Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.
309 This overrides any option or configuration to use a serial number file.
311 =item B<-multivalue-rdn>
313 This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
314 support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
316 C</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe>
318 If B<-multi-rdn> is not used then the UID value is C<123456+CN=John Doe>.
320 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_item -}
322 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_item -}
324 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
334 This option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
336 =item B<-crldays> I<num>
338 The number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
339 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
341 =item B<-crlhours> I<num>
343 The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
345 =item B<-crlsec> I<num>
347 The number of seconds before the next CRL is due.
349 =item B<-revoke> I<filename>
351 A filename containing a certificate to revoke.
353 =item B<-valid> I<filename>
355 A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.
357 =item B<-status> I<serial>
359 Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified
360 serial number and exits.
364 Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.
366 =item B<-crl_reason> I<reason>
368 Revocation reason, where I<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>,
369 B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>,
370 B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of I<reason> is case
371 insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
373 In practice B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used
374 in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
376 =item B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>
378 This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold
379 instruction to I<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
380 used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
381 B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used.
383 =item B<-crl_compromise> I<time>
385 This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to
386 I<time>. I<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is I<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>.
388 =item B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>
390 This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to
393 =item B<-crlexts> I<section>
395 The section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
396 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
397 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
398 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
399 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
400 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
401 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
402 extension section format.
406 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
408 The section of the configuration file containing options for this command
409 is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used,
410 then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
411 be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section
412 of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
413 configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are
414 read directly from the B<ca> section:
418 With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may
419 change in future releases.
421 Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
422 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
423 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
424 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
425 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
432 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
433 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
434 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
435 by white space and finally the long name.
439 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
440 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
441 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
442 and long names are the same when this option is used.
444 =item B<new_certs_dir>
446 The same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
447 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
451 The same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
452 certificate. Mandatory.
456 Same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
457 CA private key. Mandatory.
461 At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator,
462 and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it. (Note: Using a RANDFILE is
463 not necessary anymore, see the L</HISTORY> section.
465 =item B<default_days>
467 The same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
470 =item B<default_startdate>
472 The same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
473 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
475 =item B<default_enddate>
477 The same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
478 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
481 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
483 The same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
484 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
485 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
489 The same as the B<-md> option. Mandatory except where the signing algorithm does
490 not require a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448).
494 The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
495 though initially it will be empty.
497 =item B<unique_subject>
499 If the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the
500 database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given,
501 several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
502 The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8)
503 versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier,
504 it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with
505 the B<-selfsign> command line option.
507 Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created
508 without any subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without
509 subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
513 A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
514 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
518 A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number
519 will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
520 present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
522 =item B<x509_extensions>
524 The same as B<-extensions>.
526 =item B<crl_extensions>
528 The same as B<-crlexts>.
532 The same as B<-preserveDN>
536 The same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed
537 from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present
538 the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.
542 The same as B<-msie_hack>
546 The same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
547 for more information.
549 =item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt>
551 These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
552 when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
553 the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used
554 here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set
555 and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot
556 be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
558 For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce
561 If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of
562 OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because
563 it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles
564 multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
566 =item B<copy_extensions>
568 Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
569 If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are
570 ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any
571 extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
572 to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the
573 request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present
574 in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before
577 The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply
578 values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName.
584 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
585 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
586 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
587 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
588 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
589 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
590 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
594 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
595 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
596 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
597 It is however possible to create SPKACs using L<openssl-spkac(1)>.
599 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
600 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
601 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
602 preceded by a number and a '.'.
604 When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the B<-out>
605 flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the B<-outdir>
610 Note: these examples assume that the directory structure this command
611 assumes is already set up and the relevant files already exist. This
612 usually involves creating a CA certificate and private key with
613 L<openssl-req(1)>, a serial number file and an empty index file and
614 placing them in the relevant directories.
616 To use the sample configuration file below the directories F<demoCA>,
617 F<demoCA/private> and F<demoCA/newcerts> would be created. The CA
618 certificate would be copied to F<demoCA/cacert.pem> and its private
619 key to F<demoCA/private/cakey.pem>. A file F<demoCA/serial> would be
620 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
624 Sign a certificate request:
626 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
628 Sign an SM2 certificate request:
630 openssl ca -in sm2.csr -out sm2.crt -md sm3 \
631 -sigopt "distid:1234567812345678" \
632 -vfyopt "distid:1234567812345678"
634 Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
636 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem
640 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
642 Sign several requests:
644 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
646 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
648 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
650 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
652 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
654 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
658 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for this command:
661 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
665 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
666 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
667 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
669 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
670 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
671 #rand_serial = yes # for random serial#'s
672 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
674 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
675 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
676 default_md = md5 # md to use
678 policy = policy_any # default policy
679 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN
681 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option
682 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option
683 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request
686 countryName = supplied
687 stateOrProvinceName = optional
688 organizationName = optional
689 organizationalUnitName = optional
690 commonName = supplied
691 emailAddress = optional
695 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
696 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
697 The values below reflect the default values.
699 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
700 ./demoCA - main CA directory
701 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
702 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
703 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
704 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
705 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
706 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
707 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
711 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
712 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
713 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
714 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
716 V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported.
718 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
719 possible to include one SPKAC or self-signed certificate.
723 The use of an in-memory text database can cause problems when large
724 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
725 the database has to be kept in memory.
727 This command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
728 exposed at either a command or interface level so that a more user-friendly
729 replacement could handle things properly. The script
730 B<CA.pl> helps a little but not very much.
732 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
733 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To
734 enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by
735 RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN>
736 option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and
739 Canceling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
740 create an empty file.
744 This command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
746 This command was originally meant as an example of how to do
747 things in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself:
748 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
750 This command command is effectively a single user command: no locking
751 is done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<openssl ca>
752 command on the same database can have unpredictable results.
754 The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is
755 not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate
756 request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the
757 B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot
758 this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester
759 a valid CA certificate.
761 This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy>
762 and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.
763 Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be
766 It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such
767 as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values.
769 Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.
770 For example if the CA certificate has:
772 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
774 then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
778 Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically,
779 certificate validity period (specified by any of B<-startdate>,
780 B<-enddate> and B<-days>) will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are
781 earlier than year 2049 (included), and as GeneralizedTime if the dates
782 are in year 2050 or later.
784 OpenSSL 1.1.1 introduced a new random generator (CSPRNG) with an improved
785 seeding mechanism. The new seeding mechanism makes it unnecessary to
786 define a RANDFILE for saving and restoring randomness. This option is
787 retained mainly for compatibility reasons.
789 The B<-section> option was added in OpenSSL 3.0.0.
803 Copyright 2000-2020 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
805 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
806 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
807 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
808 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.