4 {- join("\n", @autowarntext) -}
10 openssl-ca - sample minimal CA application
17 [B<-config> I<filename>]
22 [B<-status> I<serial>]
24 [B<-crl_reason> I<reason>]
25 [B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>]
26 [B<-crl_compromise> I<time>]
27 [B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>]
29 [B<-crlhours> I<hours>]
30 [B<-crlexts> I<section>]
31 [B<-startdate> I<date>]
37 [B<-keyform> B<DER>|B<PEM>]
53 [B<-extensions> I<section>]
54 [B<-extfile> I<section>]
58 [B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>]
62 [B<-sm2-id> I<string>]
63 [B<-sm2-hex-id> I<hex-string>]
64 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_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
75 The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose.
83 Print out a usage message.
87 This prints extra details about the operations being performed.
89 =item B<-config> I<filename>
91 Specifies the configuration file to use.
92 Optional; for a description of the default value,
93 see L<openssl(1)/COMMAND SUMMARY>.
95 =item B<-name> I<section>
97 Specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides
98 B<default_ca> in the B<ca> section).
100 =item B<-in> I<filename>
102 An input filename containing a single certificate request to be
105 =item B<-ss_cert> I<filename>
107 A single self-signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
109 =item B<-spkac> I<filename>
111 A file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
112 and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<SPKAC FORMAT>
113 section for information on the required input and output format.
117 If present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
118 are taken as the names of files containing certificate requests.
120 =item B<-out> I<filename>
122 The output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
123 output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
124 file in PEM format (except that B<-spkac> outputs DER format).
126 =item B<-outdir> I<directory>
128 The directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
129 written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
134 The CA certificate file.
136 =item B<-keyfile> I<filename>
138 The private key to sign requests with.
140 =item B<-keyform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
142 The format of the private key file; the default is B<PEM>.
143 See L<openssl(1)/Format Options> for details.
145 =item B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
147 Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or verify operations.
148 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
150 =item B<-key> I<password>
152 The password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some
153 systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g. Unix with
154 the L<ps(1)> utility) this option should be used with caution.
158 Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
159 the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>).
160 Certificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
161 B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is
164 A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed
165 certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
166 (see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same
167 serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
168 self-signed certificate.
170 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
172 The key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
173 see L<openssl(1)/Pass Phrase Options>.
177 Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
179 =item B<-startdate> I<date>
181 This allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
182 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
183 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
184 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
186 =item B<-enddate> I<date>
188 This allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
189 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
190 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
191 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
193 =item B<-days> I<arg>
195 The number of days to certify the certificate for.
199 The message digest to use.
200 Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can be used. For signing
201 algorithms that do not support a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448) any message
202 digest that is set is ignored. This option also applies to CRLs.
204 =item B<-policy> I<arg>
206 This option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
207 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
208 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
209 for more information.
213 This is a deprecated option to make this command work with very old versions
214 of the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
215 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
216 its use is strongly discouraged.
220 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
221 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
222 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
223 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
224 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
228 The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
229 request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into
230 the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the
231 EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
232 the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be
233 used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
237 This sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
238 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
240 =item B<-extensions> I<section>
242 The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
243 to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions>
244 unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is
245 present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
246 is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the
247 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
248 extension section format.
250 =item B<-extfile> I<file>
252 An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
253 (using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also
256 =item B<-engine> I<id>
258 Specifying an engine (by its unique I<id> string) will cause B<ca>
259 to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
260 thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default
261 for all available algorithms.
263 =item B<-subj> I<arg>
265 Supersedes subject name given in the request.
266 The arg must be formatted as C</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>.
267 Keyword characters may be escaped by C<\> (backslash), and whitespace is
269 Empty values are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included
270 in the resulting certificate.
274 This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by
275 default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
276 values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
277 configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.
279 =item B<-create_serial>
281 If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
282 fails, specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next
284 To get random serial numbers, use the B<-rand_serial> flag instead; this
285 should only be used for simple error-recovery.
287 =item B<-rand_serial>
289 Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.
290 This overrides any option or configuration to use a serial number file.
292 =item B<-multivalue-rdn>
294 This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
295 support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
297 C</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe>
299 If B<-multi-rdn> is not used then the UID value is C<123456+CN=John Doe>.
301 =item B<-sm2-id> I<string>
303 Specify the ID string to use when verifying an SM2 certificate. The ID string is
304 required by the SM2 signature algorithm for signing and verification.
306 =item B<-sm2-hex-id> I<hex-string>
308 Specify a binary ID string to use when signing or verifying using an SM2
309 certificate. The argument for this option is string of hexadecimal digits.
311 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_item -}
321 This option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
323 =item B<-crldays> I<num>
325 The number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
326 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
328 =item B<-crlhours> I<num>
330 The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
332 =item B<-revoke> I<filename>
334 A filename containing a certificate to revoke.
336 =item B<-valid> I<filename>
338 A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.
340 =item B<-status> I<serial>
342 Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified
343 serial number and exits.
347 Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.
349 =item B<-crl_reason> I<reason>
351 Revocation reason, where I<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>,
352 B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>,
353 B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of I<reason> is case
354 insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
356 In practice B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used
357 in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
359 =item B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>
361 This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold
362 instruction to I<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
363 used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
364 B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used.
366 =item B<-crl_compromise> I<time>
368 This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to
369 I<time>. I<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is I<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>.
371 =item B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>
373 This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to
376 =item B<-crlexts> I<section>
378 The section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
379 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
380 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
381 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
382 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
383 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
384 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
385 extension section format.
389 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
391 The section of the configuration file containing options for this command
392 is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used,
393 then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
394 be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section
395 of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
396 configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are
397 read directly from the B<ca> section:
401 With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may
402 change in future releases.
404 Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
405 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
406 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
407 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
408 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
415 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
416 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
417 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
418 by white space and finally the long name.
422 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
423 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
424 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
425 and long names are the same when this option is used.
427 =item B<new_certs_dir>
429 The same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
430 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
434 The same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
435 certificate. Mandatory.
439 Same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
440 CA private key. Mandatory.
444 At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator,
445 and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it.
447 =item B<default_days>
449 The same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
452 =item B<default_startdate>
454 The same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
455 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
457 =item B<default_enddate>
459 The same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
460 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
463 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
465 The same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
466 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
467 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
471 The same as the B<-md> option. Mandatory except where the signing algorithm does
472 not require a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448).
476 The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
477 though initially it will be empty.
479 =item B<unique_subject>
481 If the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the
482 database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given,
483 several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
484 The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8)
485 versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier,
486 it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with
487 the B<-selfsign> command line option.
489 Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created
490 without any subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without
491 subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
495 A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
496 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
500 A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number
501 will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
502 present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
504 =item B<x509_extensions>
506 The same as B<-extensions>.
508 =item B<crl_extensions>
510 The same as B<-crlexts>.
514 The same as B<-preserveDN>
518 The same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed
519 from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present
520 the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.
524 The same as B<-msie_hack>
528 The same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
529 for more information.
531 =item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt>
533 These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
534 when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
535 the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used
536 here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set
537 and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot
538 be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
540 For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce
543 If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of
544 OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because
545 it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles
546 multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
548 =item B<copy_extensions>
550 Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
551 If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are
552 ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any
553 extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
554 to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the
555 request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present
556 in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before
559 The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply
560 values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName.
566 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
567 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
568 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
569 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
570 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
571 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
572 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
576 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
577 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
578 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
579 It is however possible to create SPKACs using L<openssl-spkac(1)>.
581 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
582 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
583 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
584 preceded by a number and a '.'.
586 When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the B<-out>
587 flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the B<-outdir>
592 Note: these examples assume that the directory structure this command
593 assumes is already set up and the relevant files already exist. This
594 usually involves creating a CA certificate and private key with
595 L<openssl-req(1)>, a serial number file and an empty index file and
596 placing them in the relevant directories.
598 To use the sample configuration file below the directories F<demoCA>,
599 F<demoCA/private> and F<demoCA/newcerts> would be created. The CA
600 certificate would be copied to F<demoCA/cacert.pem> and its private
601 key to F<demoCA/private/cakey.pem>. A file F<demoCA/serial> would be
602 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
606 Sign a certificate request:
608 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
610 Sign an SM2 certificate request:
612 openssl ca -in sm2.csr -out sm2.crt -md sm3 -sigopt "sm2_id:1234567812345678" -sm2-id "1234567812345678"
614 Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
616 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem
620 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
622 Sign several requests:
624 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
626 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
628 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
630 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
632 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
634 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
638 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for this command:
641 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
645 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
646 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
647 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
649 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
650 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
651 #rand_serial = yes # for random serial#'s
652 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
653 RANDFILE = $dir/private/.rand # random number file
655 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
656 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
657 default_md = md5 # md to use
659 policy = policy_any # default policy
660 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN
662 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option
663 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option
664 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request
667 countryName = supplied
668 stateOrProvinceName = optional
669 organizationName = optional
670 organizationalUnitName = optional
671 commonName = supplied
672 emailAddress = optional
676 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
677 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
678 The values below reflect the default values.
680 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
681 ./demoCA - main CA directory
682 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
683 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
684 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
685 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
686 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
687 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
688 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
689 ./demoCA/.rnd - CA random seed information
693 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
694 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
695 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
696 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
698 V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported.
700 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
701 possible to include one SPKAC or self-signed certificate.
705 The use of an in-memory text database can cause problems when large
706 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
707 the database has to be kept in memory.
709 This command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
710 exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility
711 (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The script
712 B<CA.pl> helps a little but not very much.
714 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
715 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To
716 enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by
717 RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN>
718 option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and
721 Canceling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
722 create an empty file.
726 This command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
728 This command was originally meant as an example of how to do
729 things in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself:
730 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
732 This command command is effectively a single user command: no locking
733 is done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<openssl ca>
734 command on the same database can have unpredictable results.
736 The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is
737 not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate
738 request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the
739 B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot
740 this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester
741 a valid CA certificate.
743 This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy>
744 and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.
745 Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be
748 It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such
749 as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values.
751 Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.
752 For example if the CA certificate has:
754 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
756 then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
760 Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically,
761 certificate validity period (specified by any of B<-startdate>,
762 B<-enddate> and B<-days>) will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are
763 earlier than year 2049 (included), and as GeneralizedTime if the dates
764 are in year 2050 or later.
778 Copyright 2000-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
780 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
781 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
782 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
783 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.