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 -}
67 =for openssl ifdef engine sm2-id sm2-hex-id
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>
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<-ss_cert> I<filename>
111 A single self-signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
113 =item B<-spkac> I<filename>
115 A file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
116 and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<SPKAC FORMAT>
117 section for information on the required input and output format.
121 If present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
122 are taken as the names of files containing certificate requests.
124 =item B<-out> I<filename>
126 The output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
127 output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
128 file in PEM format (except that B<-spkac> outputs DER format).
130 =item B<-outdir> I<directory>
132 The directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
133 written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
138 The CA certificate file.
140 =item B<-keyfile> I<filename>
142 The private key to sign requests with.
144 =item B<-keyform> B<DER>|B<PEM>
146 The format of the private key file; the default is B<PEM>.
147 See L<openssl(1)/Format Options> for details.
149 =item B<-sigopt> I<nm>:I<v>
151 Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign or verify operations.
152 Names and values of these options are algorithm-specific.
154 =item B<-key> I<password>
156 The password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some
157 systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g. Unix with
158 the L<ps(1)> utility) this option should be used with caution.
162 Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
163 the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>).
164 Certificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
165 B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is
168 A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed
169 certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
170 (see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same
171 serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
172 self-signed certificate.
174 =item B<-passin> I<arg>
176 The key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg>
177 see L<openssl(1)/Pass Phrase Options>.
181 Don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
183 =item B<-startdate> I<date>
185 This allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
186 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
187 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
188 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
190 =item B<-enddate> I<date>
192 This allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
193 date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure), or
194 YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In
195 both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be present.
197 =item B<-days> I<arg>
199 The number of days to certify the certificate for.
203 The message digest to use.
204 Any digest supported by the L<openssl-dgst(1)> command can be used. For signing
205 algorithms that do not support a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448) any message
206 digest that is set is ignored. This option also applies to CRLs.
208 =item B<-policy> I<arg>
210 This option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
211 the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory
212 or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
213 for more information.
217 This is a deprecated option to make this command work with very old versions
218 of the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings
219 for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs
220 its use is strongly discouraged.
224 Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the
225 fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order
226 is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the
227 older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their
228 DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll.
232 The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the
233 request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into
234 the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the
235 EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
236 the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be
237 used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
241 This sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
242 and all certificates will be certified automatically.
244 =item B<-extensions> I<section>
246 The section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
247 to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions>
248 unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is
249 present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section
250 is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. See the
251 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
252 extension section format.
254 =item B<-extfile> I<file>
256 An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
257 (using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also
260 =item B<-engine> I<id>
262 Specifying an engine (by its unique I<id> string) will cause B<ca>
263 to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine,
264 thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default
265 for all available algorithms.
267 =item B<-subj> I<arg>
269 Supersedes subject name given in the request.
270 The arg must be formatted as C</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>.
271 Keyword characters may be escaped by C<\> (backslash), and whitespace is
273 Empty values are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included
274 in the resulting certificate.
278 This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by
279 default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field
280 values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a
281 configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.
283 =item B<-create_serial>
285 If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration
286 fails, specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next
288 To get random serial numbers, use the B<-rand_serial> flag instead; this
289 should only be used for simple error-recovery.
291 =item B<-rand_serial>
293 Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.
294 This overrides any option or configuration to use a serial number file.
296 =item B<-multivalue-rdn>
298 This option causes the -subj argument to be interpreted with full
299 support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
301 C</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe>
303 If B<-multi-rdn> is not used then the UID value is C<123456+CN=John Doe>.
305 =item B<-sm2-id> I<string>
307 Specify the ID string to use when verifying an SM2 certificate. The ID string is
308 required by the SM2 signature algorithm for signing and verification.
310 =item B<-sm2-hex-id> I<hex-string>
312 Specify a binary ID string to use when signing or verifying using an SM2
313 certificate. The argument for this option is string of hexadecimal digits.
315 {- $OpenSSL::safe::opt_r_item -}
325 This option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
327 =item B<-crldays> I<num>
329 The number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
330 now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
332 =item B<-crlhours> I<num>
334 The number of hours before the next CRL is due.
336 =item B<-revoke> I<filename>
338 A filename containing a certificate to revoke.
340 =item B<-valid> I<filename>
342 A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.
344 =item B<-status> I<serial>
346 Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified
347 serial number and exits.
351 Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.
353 =item B<-crl_reason> I<reason>
355 Revocation reason, where I<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>,
356 B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>,
357 B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of I<reason> is case
358 insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
360 In practice B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used
361 in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
363 =item B<-crl_hold> I<instruction>
365 This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold
366 instruction to I<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
367 used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
368 B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used.
370 =item B<-crl_compromise> I<time>
372 This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to
373 I<time>. I<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is I<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>.
375 =item B<-crl_CA_compromise> I<time>
377 This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to
380 =item B<-crlexts> I<section>
382 The section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
383 include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
384 created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
385 empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
386 CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
387 that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
388 L<x509v3_config(5)> manual page for details of the
389 extension section format.
393 =head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
395 The section of the configuration file containing options for this command
396 is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used,
397 then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
398 be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section
399 of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
400 configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are
401 read directly from the B<ca> section:
405 With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may
406 change in future releases.
408 Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
409 options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
410 and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
411 option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
412 the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
419 This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>.
420 Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
421 object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed
422 by white space and finally the long name.
426 This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
427 object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the
428 object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short
429 and long names are the same when this option is used.
431 =item B<new_certs_dir>
433 The same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies
434 the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
438 The same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA
439 certificate. Mandatory.
443 Same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the
444 CA private key. Mandatory.
448 At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator,
449 and at exit 256 bytes will be written to it. (Note: Using a RANDFILE is
450 not necessary anymore, see the L</HISTORY> section.
452 =item B<default_days>
454 The same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify
457 =item B<default_startdate>
459 The same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify
460 a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
462 =item B<default_enddate>
464 The same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or
465 B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be
468 =item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days>
470 The same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These
471 will only be used if neither command line option is present. At
472 least one of these must be present to generate a CRL.
476 The same as the B<-md> option. Mandatory except where the signing algorithm does
477 not require a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448).
481 The text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
482 though initially it will be empty.
484 =item B<unique_subject>
486 If the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the
487 database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given,
488 several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
489 The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8)
490 versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier,
491 it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with
492 the B<-selfsign> command line option.
494 Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created
495 without any subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without
496 subjects this does not count as a duplicate.
500 A text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
501 This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
505 A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number
506 will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is
507 present, it must contain a valid CRL number.
509 =item B<x509_extensions>
511 The same as B<-extensions>.
513 =item B<crl_extensions>
515 The same as B<-crlexts>.
519 The same as B<-preserveDN>
523 The same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed
524 from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present
525 the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.
529 The same as B<-msie_hack>
533 The same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section
534 for more information.
536 =item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt>
538 These options allow the format used to display the certificate details
539 when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
540 the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used
541 here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set
542 and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot
543 be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).
545 For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce
548 If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of
549 OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because
550 it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles
551 multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
553 =item B<copy_extensions>
555 Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
556 If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are
557 ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any
558 extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
559 to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the
560 request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present
561 in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before
564 The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply
565 values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName.
571 The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
572 certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
573 must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
574 "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then
575 it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section
576 are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but
577 this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
581 The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape
582 signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
583 the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
584 It is however possible to create SPKACs using L<openssl-spkac(1)>.
586 The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of
587 the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.
588 If you need to include the same component twice then it can be
589 preceded by a number and a '.'.
591 When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the B<-out>
592 flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the B<-outdir>
597 Note: these examples assume that the directory structure this command
598 assumes is already set up and the relevant files already exist. This
599 usually involves creating a CA certificate and private key with
600 L<openssl-req(1)>, a serial number file and an empty index file and
601 placing them in the relevant directories.
603 To use the sample configuration file below the directories F<demoCA>,
604 F<demoCA/private> and F<demoCA/newcerts> would be created. The CA
605 certificate would be copied to F<demoCA/cacert.pem> and its private
606 key to F<demoCA/private/cakey.pem>. A file F<demoCA/serial> would be
607 created containing for example "01" and the empty index file
611 Sign a certificate request:
613 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem
615 Sign an SM2 certificate request:
617 openssl ca -in sm2.csr -out sm2.crt -md sm3 -sigopt "sm2_id:1234567812345678" -sm2-id "1234567812345678"
619 Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
621 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem
625 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem
627 Sign several requests:
629 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem
631 Certify a Netscape SPKAC:
633 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt
635 A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
637 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
639 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
643 A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for this command:
646 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section
650 dir = ./demoCA # top dir
651 database = $dir/index.txt # index file.
652 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir
654 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert
655 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file
656 #rand_serial = yes # for random serial#'s
657 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
659 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for
660 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL
661 default_md = md5 # md to use
663 policy = policy_any # default policy
664 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN
666 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option
667 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option
668 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request
671 countryName = supplied
672 stateOrProvinceName = optional
673 organizationName = optional
674 organizationalUnitName = optional
675 commonName = supplied
676 emailAddress = optional
680 Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options,
681 configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options.
682 The values below reflect the default values.
684 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
685 ./demoCA - main CA directory
686 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate
687 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key
688 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file
689 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file
690 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file
691 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file
692 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file
696 The text database index file is a critical part of the process and
697 if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible
698 to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
699 CRL: however there is no option to do this.
701 V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported.
703 Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
704 possible to include one SPKAC or self-signed certificate.
708 The use of an in-memory text database can cause problems when large
709 numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies
710 the database has to be kept in memory.
712 This command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
713 exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility
714 (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The script
715 B<CA.pl> helps a little but not very much.
717 Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
718 deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To
719 enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by
720 RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN>
721 option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and
724 Canceling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
725 create an empty file.
729 This command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
731 This command was originally meant as an example of how to do
732 things in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself:
733 nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.
735 This command command is effectively a single user command: no locking
736 is done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<openssl ca>
737 command on the same database can have unpredictable results.
739 The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is
740 not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate
741 request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the
742 B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot
743 this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester
744 a valid CA certificate.
746 This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy>
747 and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.
748 Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be
751 It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such
752 as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values.
754 Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.
755 For example if the CA certificate has:
757 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0
759 then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
763 Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically,
764 certificate validity period (specified by any of B<-startdate>,
765 B<-enddate> and B<-days>) will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are
766 earlier than year 2049 (included), and as GeneralizedTime if the dates
767 are in year 2050 or later.
769 OpenSSL 1.1.1 introduced a new random generator (CSPRNG) with an improved
770 seeding mechanism. The new seeding mechanism makes it unnecessary to
771 define a RANDFILE for saving and restoring randomness. This option is
772 retained mainly for compatibility reasons.
786 Copyright 2000-2019 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
788 Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use
789 this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
790 in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
791 L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.