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>]
51 [B<-extensions> I<section>]
52 [B<-extfile> I<section>]
55 [B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
59 [B<-sm2-id> I<string>]
60 [B<-sm2-hex-id> I<hex-string>]
61 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_synopsis -}
62 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_synopsis -}
63 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_synopsis -}
66 =for openssl ifdef engine sm2-id sm2-hex-id
70 This command is a minimal CA application. It can be used
71 to sign certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate
72 CRLs. It also maintains a text database of issued certificates
74 When signing certificates, a single certificate request can be specified
75 with the B<-in> option, or multiple requests can be processed by
76 specifying a set of B<certreq> files after all options.
78 The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose.
86 Print out a usage message.
90 This prints extra details about the operations being performed.
92 =item B<-config> I<filename>
94 Specifies the configuration file to use.
95 Optional; for a description of the default value,
96 see L<openssl(1)/COMMAND SUMMARY>.
98 =item B<-name> I<section>, B<-section> I<section>
100 Specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides
101 B<default_ca> in the B<ca> section).
103 =item B<-in> I<filename>
105 An input filename containing a single certificate request to be
108 =item B<-ss_cert> I<filename>
110 A single self-signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
112 =item B<-spkac> I<filename>
114 A file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
115 and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<SPKAC FORMAT>
116 section for information on the required input and output format.
120 If present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
121 are taken as the names of files containing certificate requests.
123 =item B<-out> I<filename>
125 The output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
126 output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
127 file in PEM format (except that B<-spkac> outputs DER format).
129 =item B<-outdir> I<directory>
131 The directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
132 written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
137 The CA certificate file.
139 =item B<-keyfile> I<filename>
141 The private key to sign requests with.
143 =item B<-keyform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
145 The format of the private key file; the default is B<PEM>.
146 See L<openssl(1)/Format Options> for details.
148 =item B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
150 Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or verify operations.
151 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
153 =item B<-key> I<password>
155 =for openssl foreign manual ps(1)
157 The password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some
158 systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g., when using
160 this option should be used with caution.
164 Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
165 the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>).
166 Certificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
167 B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is
170 A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed
171 certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
172 (see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same
173 serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
174 self-signed certificate.
176 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
178 The key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
179 see L<openssl(1)/Pass Phrase Options>.
183 Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
185 =item B<-startdate> I<date>
187 This allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
188 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
189 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
190 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
192 =item B<-enddate> I<date>
194 This allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
195 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
196 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
197 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
199 =item B<-days> I<arg>
201 The number of days to certify the certificate for.
205 The message digest to use.
206 Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can be used. For signing
207 algorithms that do not support a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448) any message
208 digest that is set is ignored. This option also applies to CRLs.
210 =item B<-policy> I<arg>
212 This option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
213 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
214 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
215 for more information.
219 This is a deprecated option to make this command work with very old versions
220 of the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
221 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
222 its use is strongly discouraged.
226 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
227 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
228 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
229 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
230 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
234 The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
235 request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into
236 the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the
237 EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
238 the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be
239 used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
243 This sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
244 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
246 =item B<-extensions> I<section>
248 The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
249 to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions>
250 unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is
251 present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
252 is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the
253 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
254 extension section format.
256 =item B<-extfile> I<file>
258 An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
259 (using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also
262 =item B<-subj> I<arg>
264 Supersedes subject name given in the request.
265 The arg must be formatted as C</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>.
266 Keyword characters may be escaped by C<\> (backslash), and whitespace is
268 Empty values are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included
269 in the resulting certificate.
273 This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by
274 default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
275 values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
276 configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.
278 =item B<-create_serial>
280 If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
281 fails, specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next
283 To get random serial numbers, use the B<-rand_serial> flag instead; this
284 should only be used for simple error-recovery.
286 =item B<-rand_serial>
288 Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.
289 This overrides any option or configuration to use a serial number file.
291 =item B<-multivalue-rdn>
293 This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
294 support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
296 C</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe>
298 If B<-multi-rdn> is not used then the UID value is C<123456+CN=John Doe>.
300 =item B<-sm2-id> I<string>
302 Specify the ID string to use when verifying an SM2 certificate. The ID string is
303 required by the SM2 signature algorithm for signing and verification.
305 =item B<-sm2-hex-id> I<hex-string>
307 Specify a binary ID string to use when signing or verifying using an SM2
308 certificate. The argument for this option is string of hexadecimal digits.
310 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_item -}
312 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_item -}
314 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
324 This option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
326 =item B<-crldays> I<num>
328 The number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
329 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
331 =item B<-crlhours> I<num>
333 The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
335 =item B<-crlsec> I<num>
337 The number of seconds before the next CRL is due.
339 =item B<-revoke> I<filename>
341 A filename containing a certificate to revoke.
343 =item B<-valid> I<filename>
345 A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.
347 =item B<-status> I<serial>
349 Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified
350 serial number and exits.
354 Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.
356 =item B<-crl_reason> I<reason>
358 Revocation reason, where I<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>,
359 B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>,
360 B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of I<reason> is case
361 insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
363 In practice B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used
364 in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
366 =item B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>
368 This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold
369 instruction to I<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
370 used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
371 B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used.
373 =item B<-crl_compromise> I<time>
375 This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to
376 I<time>. I<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is I<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>.
378 =item B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>
380 This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to
383 =item B<-crlexts> I<section>
385 The section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
386 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
387 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
388 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
389 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
390 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
391 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
392 extension section format.
396 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
398 The section of the configuration file containing options for this command
399 is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used,
400 then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
401 be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section
402 of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
403 configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are
404 read directly from the B<ca> section:
408 With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may
409 change in future releases.
411 Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
412 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
413 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
414 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
415 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
422 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
423 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
424 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
425 by white space and finally the long name.
429 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
430 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
431 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
432 and long names are the same when this option is used.
434 =item B<new_certs_dir>
436 The same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
437 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
441 The same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
442 certificate. Mandatory.
446 Same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
447 CA private key. Mandatory.
451 At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator,
452 and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it. (Note: Using a RANDFILE is
453 not necessary anymore, see the L</HISTORY> section.
455 =item B<default_days>
457 The same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
460 =item B<default_startdate>
462 The same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
463 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
465 =item B<default_enddate>
467 The same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
468 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
471 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
473 The same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
474 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
475 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
479 The same as the B<-md> option. Mandatory except where the signing algorithm does
480 not require a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448).
484 The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
485 though initially it will be empty.
487 =item B<unique_subject>
489 If the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the
490 database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given,
491 several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
492 The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8)
493 versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier,
494 it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with
495 the B<-selfsign> command line option.
497 Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created
498 without any subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without
499 subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
503 A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
504 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
508 A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number
509 will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
510 present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
512 =item B<x509_extensions>
514 The same as B<-extensions>.
516 =item B<crl_extensions>
518 The same as B<-crlexts>.
522 The same as B<-preserveDN>
526 The same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed
527 from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present
528 the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.
532 The same as B<-msie_hack>
536 The same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
537 for more information.
539 =item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt>
541 These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
542 when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
543 the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used
544 here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set
545 and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot
546 be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
548 For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce
551 If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of
552 OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because
553 it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles
554 multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
556 =item B<copy_extensions>
558 Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
559 If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are
560 ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any
561 extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
562 to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the
563 request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present
564 in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before
567 The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply
568 values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName.
574 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
575 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
576 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
577 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
578 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
579 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
580 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
584 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
585 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
586 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
587 It is however possible to create SPKACs using L<openssl-spkac(1)>.
589 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
590 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
591 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
592 preceded by a number and a '.'.
594 When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the B<-out>
595 flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the B<-outdir>
600 Note: these examples assume that the directory structure this command
601 assumes is already set up and the relevant files already exist. This
602 usually involves creating a CA certificate and private key with
603 L<openssl-req(1)>, a serial number file and an empty index file and
604 placing them in the relevant directories.
606 To use the sample configuration file below the directories F<demoCA>,
607 F<demoCA/private> and F<demoCA/newcerts> would be created. The CA
608 certificate would be copied to F<demoCA/cacert.pem> and its private
609 key to F<demoCA/private/cakey.pem>. A file F<demoCA/serial> would be
610 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
614 Sign a certificate request:
616 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
618 Sign an SM2 certificate request:
620 openssl ca -in sm2.csr -out sm2.crt -md sm3 -sigopt "sm2_id:1234567812345678" -sm2-id "1234567812345678"
622 Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
624 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem
628 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
630 Sign several requests:
632 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
634 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
636 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
638 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
640 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
642 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
646 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for this command:
649 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
653 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
654 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
655 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
657 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
658 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
659 #rand_serial = yes # for random serial#'s
660 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
662 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
663 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
664 default_md = md5 # md to use
666 policy = policy_any # default policy
667 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN
669 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option
670 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option
671 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request
674 countryName = supplied
675 stateOrProvinceName = optional
676 organizationName = optional
677 organizationalUnitName = optional
678 commonName = supplied
679 emailAddress = optional
683 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
684 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
685 The values below reflect the default values.
687 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
688 ./demoCA - main CA directory
689 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
690 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
691 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
692 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
693 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
694 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
695 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
699 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
700 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
701 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
702 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
704 V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported.
706 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
707 possible to include one SPKAC or self-signed certificate.
711 The use of an in-memory text database can cause problems when large
712 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
713 the database has to be kept in memory.
715 This command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
716 exposed at either a command or interface level so that a more user-friendly
717 replacement could handle things properly. The script
718 B<CA.pl> helps a little but not very much.
720 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
721 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To
722 enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by
723 RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN>
724 option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and
727 Canceling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
728 create an empty file.
732 This command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
734 This command was originally meant as an example of how to do
735 things in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself:
736 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
738 This command command is effectively a single user command: no locking
739 is done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<openssl ca>
740 command on the same database can have unpredictable results.
742 The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is
743 not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate
744 request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the
745 B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot
746 this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester
747 a valid CA certificate.
749 This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy>
750 and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.
751 Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be
754 It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such
755 as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values.
757 Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.
758 For example if the CA certificate has:
760 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
762 then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
766 Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically,
767 certificate validity period (specified by any of B<-startdate>,
768 B<-enddate> and B<-days>) will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are
769 earlier than year 2049 (included), and as GeneralizedTime if the dates
770 are in year 2050 or later.
772 OpenSSL 1.1.1 introduced a new random generator (CSPRNG) with an improved
773 seeding mechanism. The new seeding mechanism makes it unnecessary to
774 define a RANDFILE for saving and restoring randomness. This option is
775 retained mainly for compatibility reasons.
777 The B<-section> option was added in OpenSSL 3.0.0.
791 Copyright 2000-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
793 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
794 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
795 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
796 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.