Index for Section 1ssl

Alphabetical listing for C

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CA.pl(1ssl)
NAME
  CA.pl - Friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs

SYNOPSIS
  CA.pl [-?] [-h] [-help] [-newcert] [-newreq] [-newca] [-xsign] [-sign]
  [-signreq] [-signcert] [-verify] [files]

OPTIONS
  -?, -h, -help
	  Prints a usage message.

  -newcert
	  Creates a new self signed certificate. The private key and
	  certificate are written to the file newreq.pem.

  -newreq Creates a new certificate request. The private key and request are
	  written to the file newreq.pem.

  -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.

  -pkcs12 Creates 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.

  -sign, -signreq, -xsign
	  Calls the ca program to sign a certificate request. It expects the
	  request to be in the file newreq.pem.	 The new certificate is
	  written to the file newcert.pem except in the case of the -xsign
	  option when it is written to standard output.

  -signCA 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.

  -signcert
	  The same as -sign option, except it expects a self signed
	  certificate to be present in the file newreq.pem.

  -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.

  files	  One or more optional certificate file names for use with the
	  -verify option.

DESCRIPTION
  The CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line
  arguments to the openssl command for some common certificate operations. It
  is intended to simplify the process of certificate creation and management
  by the use of some simple options.

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

  If the demoCA directory already exists then the -newca option 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 behavior 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 openssl.cnf.

  The script is intended as a simple front end for the openssl program for
  use by a beginner. Its behavior isn't always what is wanted. For more
  control over the behavior of the certificate commands call the openssl
  command directly.

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 req command directly. The
  following example shows the steps that would typically be taken.

  Create some DSA parameters:

	openssl dsaparam -out dsap.pem 1024

  Create a DSA CA certificate and private key:

	openssl req -x509 -newkey dsa:dsap.pem -keyout cacert.pem -out cacert.pem

  Create the CA directories and files:

	CA.pl -newca

  Enter cacert.pem when prompted for the CA file name.

  Create a DSA certificate request and private key (a different set of
  parameters can optionally be created first):

	openssl req -out newreq.pem -newkey dsa:dsap.pem

  Sign the request:

	CA.pl -signreq

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
  The variable OPENSSL_CONF if defined allows an alternative configuration
  file location to be specified. It should contain the full path to the
  configuration file, not just its directory.

SEE ALSO
  Commands: x509(1ssl), ca(1ssl), req(1ssl), pkcs12(1ssl)

  Others: config(5)

Index for Section 1ssl

Alphabetical listing for C

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