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. Unix with
159 the L<ps(1)> utility) this option should be used with caution.
163 Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
164 the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>).
165 Certificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
166 B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is
169 A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed
170 certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
171 (see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same
172 serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
173 self-signed certificate.
175 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
177 The key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
178 see L<openssl(1)/Pass Phrase Options>.
182 Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
184 =item B<-startdate> I<date>
186 This allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
187 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
188 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
189 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
191 =item B<-enddate> I<date>
193 This allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
194 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
195 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
196 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
198 =item B<-days> I<arg>
200 The number of days to certify the certificate for.
204 The message digest to use.
205 Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can be used. For signing
206 algorithms that do not support a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448) any message
207 digest that is set is ignored. This option also applies to CRLs.
209 =item B<-policy> I<arg>
211 This option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
212 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
213 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
214 for more information.
218 This is a deprecated option to make this command work with very old versions
219 of the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
220 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
221 its use is strongly discouraged.
225 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
226 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
227 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
228 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
229 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
233 The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
234 request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into
235 the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the
236 EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
237 the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be
238 used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
242 This sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
243 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
245 =item B<-extensions> I<section>
247 The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
248 to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions>
249 unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is
250 present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
251 is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the
252 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
253 extension section format.
255 =item B<-extfile> I<file>
257 An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
258 (using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also
261 =item B<-subj> I<arg>
263 Supersedes subject name given in the request.
264 The arg must be formatted as C</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>.
265 Keyword characters may be escaped by C<\> (backslash), and whitespace is
267 Empty values are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included
268 in the resulting certificate.
272 This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by
273 default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
274 values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
275 configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.
277 =item B<-create_serial>
279 If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
280 fails, specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next
282 To get random serial numbers, use the B<-rand_serial> flag instead; this
283 should only be used for simple error-recovery.
285 =item B<-rand_serial>
287 Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.
288 This overrides any option or configuration to use a serial number file.
290 =item B<-multivalue-rdn>
292 This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
293 support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
295 C</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe>
297 If B<-multi-rdn> is not used then the UID value is C<123456+CN=John Doe>.
299 =item B<-sm2-id> I<string>
301 Specify the ID string to use when verifying an SM2 certificate. The ID string is
302 required by the SM2 signature algorithm for signing and verification.
304 =item B<-sm2-hex-id> I<hex-string>
306 Specify a binary ID string to use when signing or verifying using an SM2
307 certificate. The argument for this option is string of hexadecimal digits.
309 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_item -}
311 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_engine_item -}
313 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_provider_item -}
323 This option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
325 =item B<-crldays> I<num>
327 The number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
328 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
330 =item B<-crlhours> I<num>
332 The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
334 =item B<-crlsec> I<num>
336 The number of seconds before the next CRL is due.
338 =item B<-revoke> I<filename>
340 A filename containing a certificate to revoke.
342 =item B<-valid> I<filename>
344 A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.
346 =item B<-status> I<serial>
348 Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified
349 serial number and exits.
353 Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.
355 =item B<-crl_reason> I<reason>
357 Revocation reason, where I<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>,
358 B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>,
359 B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of I<reason> is case
360 insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
362 In practice B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used
363 in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
365 =item B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>
367 This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold
368 instruction to I<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
369 used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
370 B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used.
372 =item B<-crl_compromise> I<time>
374 This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to
375 I<time>. I<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is I<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>.
377 =item B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>
379 This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to
382 =item B<-crlexts> I<section>
384 The section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
385 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
386 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
387 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
388 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
389 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
390 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
391 extension section format.
395 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
397 The section of the configuration file containing options for this command
398 is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used,
399 then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
400 be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section
401 of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
402 configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are
403 read directly from the B<ca> section:
407 With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may
408 change in future releases.
410 Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
411 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
412 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
413 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
414 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
421 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
422 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
423 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
424 by white space and finally the long name.
428 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
429 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
430 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
431 and long names are the same when this option is used.
433 =item B<new_certs_dir>
435 The same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
436 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
440 The same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
441 certificate. Mandatory.
445 Same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
446 CA private key. Mandatory.
450 At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator,
451 and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it. (Note: Using a RANDFILE is
452 not necessary anymore, see the L</HISTORY> section.
454 =item B<default_days>
456 The same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
459 =item B<default_startdate>
461 The same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
462 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
464 =item B<default_enddate>
466 The same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
467 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
470 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
472 The same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
473 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
474 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
478 The same as the B<-md> option. Mandatory except where the signing algorithm does
479 not require a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448).
483 The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
484 though initially it will be empty.
486 =item B<unique_subject>
488 If the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the
489 database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given,
490 several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
491 The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8)
492 versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier,
493 it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with
494 the B<-selfsign> command line option.
496 Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created
497 without any subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without
498 subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
502 A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
503 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
507 A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number
508 will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
509 present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
511 =item B<x509_extensions>
513 The same as B<-extensions>.
515 =item B<crl_extensions>
517 The same as B<-crlexts>.
521 The same as B<-preserveDN>
525 The same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed
526 from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present
527 the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.
531 The same as B<-msie_hack>
535 The same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
536 for more information.
538 =item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt>
540 These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
541 when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
542 the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used
543 here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set
544 and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot
545 be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
547 For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce
550 If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of
551 OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because
552 it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles
553 multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
555 =item B<copy_extensions>
557 Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
558 If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are
559 ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any
560 extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
561 to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the
562 request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present
563 in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before
566 The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply
567 values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName.
573 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
574 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
575 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
576 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
577 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
578 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
579 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
583 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
584 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
585 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
586 It is however possible to create SPKACs using L<openssl-spkac(1)>.
588 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
589 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
590 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
591 preceded by a number and a '.'.
593 When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the B<-out>
594 flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the B<-outdir>
599 Note: these examples assume that the directory structure this command
600 assumes is already set up and the relevant files already exist. This
601 usually involves creating a CA certificate and private key with
602 L<openssl-req(1)>, a serial number file and an empty index file and
603 placing them in the relevant directories.
605 To use the sample configuration file below the directories F<demoCA>,
606 F<demoCA/private> and F<demoCA/newcerts> would be created. The CA
607 certificate would be copied to F<demoCA/cacert.pem> and its private
608 key to F<demoCA/private/cakey.pem>. A file F<demoCA/serial> would be
609 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
613 Sign a certificate request:
615 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
617 Sign an SM2 certificate request:
619 openssl ca -in sm2.csr -out sm2.crt -md sm3 -sigopt "sm2_id:1234567812345678" -sm2-id "1234567812345678"
621 Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
623 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem
627 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
629 Sign several requests:
631 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
633 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
635 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
637 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
639 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
641 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
645 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for this command:
648 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
652 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
653 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
654 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
656 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
657 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
658 #rand_serial = yes # for random serial#'s
659 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
661 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
662 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
663 default_md = md5 # md to use
665 policy = policy_any # default policy
666 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN
668 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option
669 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option
670 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request
673 countryName = supplied
674 stateOrProvinceName = optional
675 organizationName = optional
676 organizationalUnitName = optional
677 commonName = supplied
678 emailAddress = optional
682 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
683 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
684 The values below reflect the default values.
686 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
687 ./demoCA - main CA directory
688 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
689 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
690 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
691 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
692 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
693 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
694 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
698 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
699 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
700 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
701 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
703 V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported.
705 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
706 possible to include one SPKAC or self-signed certificate.
710 The use of an in-memory text database can cause problems when large
711 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
712 the database has to be kept in memory.
714 This command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
715 exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility
716 (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The script
717 B<CA.pl> helps a little but not very much.
719 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
720 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To
721 enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by
722 RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN>
723 option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and
726 Canceling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
727 create an empty file.
731 This command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
733 This command was originally meant as an example of how to do
734 things in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself:
735 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
737 This command command is effectively a single user command: no locking
738 is done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<openssl ca>
739 command on the same database can have unpredictable results.
741 The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is
742 not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate
743 request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the
744 B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot
745 this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester
746 a valid CA certificate.
748 This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy>
749 and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.
750 Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be
753 It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such
754 as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values.
756 Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.
757 For example if the CA certificate has:
759 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
761 then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
765 Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically,
766 certificate validity period (specified by any of B<-startdate>,
767 B<-enddate> and B<-days>) will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are
768 earlier than year 2049 (included), and as GeneralizedTime if the dates
769 are in year 2050 or later.
771 OpenSSL 1.1.1 introduced a new random generator (CSPRNG) with an improved
772 seeding mechanism. The new seeding mechanism makes it unnecessary to
773 define a RANDFILE for saving and restoring randomness. This option is
774 retained mainly for compatibility reasons.
776 The B<-section> option was added in OpenSSL 3.0.0.
790 Copyright 2000-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
792 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
793 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
794 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
795 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.