NAME

CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs

SYNOPSIS

CA.pl -? | -h | -help

CA.pl -newcert | -newreq | -newreq-nodes | -xsign | -sign | -signCA | -signcert | -crl | -newca [-extra-cmd extra-params]

CA.pl -pkcs12 [-extra-pkcs12 extra-params] [certname]

CA.pl -verify [-extra-verify extra-params] certfile ...

CA.pl -revoke [-extra-ca extra-params] certfile [reason]

DESCRIPTION

The CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line arguments to the OPTIONS

?, -h, -help

Prints a usage message.

-newcert

Creates a new self signed certificate. The private key is written to the file newkey.pem and the request written to the file newreq.pem. Invokes -newreq

Creates a new certificate request. The private key is written to the file newkey.pem and the request written to the file newreq.pem. Executes -newreq-nodes

Is like -newreq except that the private key will not be encrypted. Uses -newca

Creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the ca program (or the -signcert and -xsign options). The user is prompted to enter the filename of the CA certificates (which should also contain the private key) or by hitting ENTER details of the CA will be prompted for. The relevant files and directories are created in a directory called demoCA in the current directory. Uses openssl-ca(1).

-pkcs12

Create a PKCS#12 file containing the user certificate, private key and CA certificate. It expects the user certificate and private key to be in the file newcert.pem and the CA certificate to be in the file demoCA/cacert.pem, it creates a file newcert.p12. This command can thus be called after the -sign option. The PKCS#12 file can be imported directly into a browser. If there is an additional argument on the command line it will be used as the "friendly name" for the certificate (which is typically displayed in the browser list box), otherwise the name "My Certificate" is used. Delegates work to -sign, -signcert, -xsign

Calls the -signCA

This option is the same as the -signreq option except it uses the configuration file section v3_ca and so makes the signed request a valid CA certificate. This is useful when creating intermediate CA from a root CA. Extra params are passed to -signcert

This option is the same as -sign except it expects a self signed certificate to be present in the file newreq.pem. Extra params are passed to openssl-ca(1).

-crl

Generate a CRL. Executes -revoke certfile [reason]

Revoke the certificate contained in the specified certfile. An optional reason may be specified, and must be one of: unspecified, keyCompromise, CACompromise, affiliationChanged, superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold, or removeFromCRL. Leverages -verify

Verifies certificates against the CA certificate for demoCA. If no certificates are specified on the command line it tries to verify the file newcert.pem. Invokes -extra-req | -extra-ca | -extra-pkcs12 | -extra-x509 | -extra-verify extra-params

For each option extra-cmd, pass extra-params to the openssl-req(1) is invoked, the extra-params given with -extra-req will be passed to it. Users should consult EXAMPLES

Create a CA hierarchy:

 CA.pl -newca

Complete certificate creation example: create a CA, create a request, sign the request and finally create a PKCS#12 file containing it.

 CA.pl -newca
 CA.pl -newreq
 CA.pl -signreq
 CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"

DSA CERTIFICATES

Although the CA.pl creates RSA CAs and requests it is still possible to use it with DSA certificates and requests using the NOTES

Most of the filenames mentioned can be modified by editing the CA.pl script.

If the demoCA directory already exists then the -newca command will not overwrite it and will do nothing. This can happen if a previous call using the -newca option terminated abnormally. To get the correct behaviour delete the demoCA directory if it already exists.

Under some environments it may not be possible to run the CA.pl script directly (for example Win32) and the default configuration file location may be wrong. In this case the command:

 perl -S CA.pl

can be used and the OPENSSL_CONF environment variable changed to point to the correct path of the configuration file.

The script is intended as a simple front end for the openssl(1) command directly.

SEE ALSO

openssl-x509(1), openssl-req(1), config(5)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2000-2017 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html.