CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs
CA.pl -? |
-h |
-help
CA.pl -newcert |
-newreq |
-newreq-nodes |
-xsign |
-sign |
-signCA |
-signcert |
-crl
|
-newca [
-extra-cmd parameter]
CA.pl -pkcs12 [
certname]
CA.pl -verify certfile ...
CA.pl -revoke certfile [
reason]
The
CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line
arguments to the
openssl(1) 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.
The script is intended as a simple front end for the
openssl(1) program
for use by a beginner. Its behaviour isn't always what is wanted. For more
control over the behaviour of the certificate commands call the
openssl(1) command directly.
Most of the filenames mentioned below can be modified by editing the
CA.pl script.
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 can be set to point
to the correct path of the configuration file.
-
-?, -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 openssl-req(1).
- -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 openssl-req(1) under the hood.
- -newreq-nodes
- Is like -newreq except that the private key will not
be encrypted. Uses openssl-req(1).
- -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-req(1) and openssl-ca(1).
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 directory if it already exists.
- -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
openssl-pkcs12(1).
-
-sign, -signcert, -xsign
- Calls the openssl-ca(1) command 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
- This option is the same as the -sign 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
openssl-ca(1).
- -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-x509(1) and openssl-ca(1).
- -crl
- Generate a CRL. Executes openssl-ca(1).
-
-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
openssl-ca(1).
- -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
openssl-verify(1).
-
-extra-cmd
parameter
- For each option extra-cmd, pass
parameter to the openssl(1) sub-command with the same name
as cmd, if that sub-command is invoked. For example, if
openssl-req(1) is invoked, the parameter given with
-extra-req will be passed to it. For multi-word parameters, either
repeat the option or quote the parameters so it looks like one word
to your shell. See the individual command documentation for more
information.
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 -sign
CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"
The environment variable
OPENSSL may be used to specify the name of the
OpenSSL program. It can be a full pathname, or a relative one.
The environment variable
OPENSSL_CONFIG may be used to specify a
configuration option and value to the
req and
ca commands
invoked by this script. It's value should be the option and pathname, as in
"-config /path/to/conf-file".
openssl(1),
openssl-x509(1),
openssl-ca(1),
openssl-req(1),
openssl-pkcs12(1),
config(5)
Copyright 2000-2021 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>.