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Manpages CASection: OpenSSL (1ssl)Updated: 0.9.6c Index Return to Main Contents NAMEca - sample minimal CA applicationSYNOPSISopenssl ca [-verbose] [-config filename] [-name section] [-gencrl] [-revoke file] [-crldays days] [-crlhours hours] [-crlexts section] [-startdate date] [-enddate date] [-days arg] [-md arg] [-policy arg] [-keyfile arg] [-key arg] [-passin arg] [-cert file] [-in file] [-out file] [-notext] [-outdir dir] [-infiles] [-spkac file] [-ss_cert file] [-preserveDN] [-batch] [-msie_hack] [-extensions section]DESCRIPTIONThe ca command is a minimal CA application. It can be used to sign certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate CRLs it also maintains a text database of issued certificates and their status.The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose. CA OPTIONS
CRL OPTIONS
CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONSThe section of the configuration file containing options for ca is found as follows: If the -name command line option is used, then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to be used must be named in the default_ca option of the ca section of the configuration file (or in the default section of the configuration file). Besides default_ca, the following options are read directly from the ca section:RANDFILE preserve msie_hack With the exception of RANDFILE, this is probably a bug and may change in future releases.
Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
options. Where the option is present in the configuration file
and the command line the command line value is used. Where an
option is described as mandatory then it must be present in
the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if
any) used.
POLICY FORMATThe policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to certificate DN fields. If the value is ``match'' then the field value must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is ``supplied'' then it must be present. If the value is ``optional'' then it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section are silently deleted, unless the -preserveDN option is set but this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.SPKAC FORMATThe input to the -spkac command line option is a Netscape signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from the KEYGEN tag in an HTML form to create a new private key. It is however possible to create SPKACs using the spkac utility.The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs. If you need to include the same component twice then it can be preceded by a number and a `.'. EXAMPLESNote: these examples assume that the ca directory structure is already set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually involves creating a CA certificate and private key with req, a serial number file and an empty index file and placing them in the relevant directories.To use the sample configuration file below the directories demoCA, demoCA/private and demoCA/newcerts would be created. The CA certificate would be copied to demoCA/cacert.pem and its private key to demoCA/private/cakey.pem. A file demoCA/serial would be created containing for example ``01'' and the empty index file demoCA/index.txt. Sign a certificate request:
openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pemSign a certificate request, using CA extensions:
openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pemGenerate a CRL
openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pemSign several requests:
openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pemCertify a Netscape SPKAC:
openssl ca -spkac spkac.txtA sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):
SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5 CN=Steve Test emailAddress=steve@openssl.org 0.OU=OpenSSL Group 1.OU=Another GroupA sample configuration file with the relevant sections for ca:
[ ca ] default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section [ CA_default ] dir = ./demoCA # top dir database = $dir/index.txt # index file. new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert serial = $dir/serial # serial no file private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key RANDFILE = $dir/private/.rand # random number file default_days = 365 # how long to certify for default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL default_md = md5 # md to use policy = policy_any # default policy [ policy_any ] countryName = supplied stateOrProvinceName = optional organizationName = optional organizationalUnitName = optional commonName = supplied emailAddress = optional WARNINGSThe ca command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.The ca utility was originally meant as an example of how to do things in a CA. It was not supposed be be used as a full blown CA itself: nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose. The ca command is effectively a single user command: no locking is done on the various files and attempts to run more than one ca command on the same database can have unpredictable results. FILESNote: the location of all files can change either by compile time options, configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options. The values below reflect the default values.
/usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file ./demoCA - main CA directory ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file ./demoCA/.rnd - CA random seed information ENVIRONMENT VARIABLESOPENSSL_CONF reflects the location of master configuration file it can be overridden by the -config command line option.RESTRICTIONSThe text database index file is a critical part of the process and if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current CRL: however there is no option to do this.CRL entry extensions cannot currently be created: only CRL extensions can be added. V2 CRL features like delta CRL support and CRL numbers are not currently supported. Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only possible to include one SPKAC or self signed certificate. BUGSThe use of an in memory text database can cause problems when large numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies the database has to be kept in memory.Certificate request extensions are ignored: some kind of ``policy'' should be included to use certain static extensions and certain extensions from the request. It is not possible to certify two certificates with the same DN: this is a side effect of how the text database is indexed and it cannot easily be fixed without introducing other problems. Some S/MIME clients can use two certificates with the same DN for separate signing and encryption keys. The ca command really needs rewriting or the required functionality exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The scripts CA.sh and CA.pl help a little but not very much. Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently deleted. This does not happen if the -preserveDN option is used but the extra fields are not displayed when the user is asked to certify a request. The behaviour should be more friendly and configurable. Cancelling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can create an empty file. SEE ALSOreq(1), spkac(1), x509(1), CA.pl(1), config(5)
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