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CA(1)                        OpenSSL                        CA(1)


NAME

     openssl-ca, ca - sample minimal CA application


SYNOPSIS

     openssl ca [-verbose] [-config filename] [-name section]
     [-gencrl] [-revoke file] [-status serial] [-updatedb]
     [-crl_reason reason] [-crl_hold instruction]
     [-crl_compromise time] [-crl_CA_compromise time] [-crldays
     days] [-crlhours hours] [-crlexts section] [-startdate date]
     [-enddate date] [-days arg] [-md arg] [-policy arg]
     [-keyfile arg] [-keyform PEM|DER] [-key arg] [-passin arg]
     [-cert file] [-selfsign] [-in file] [-out file] [-notext]
     [-outdir dir] [-infiles] [-spkac file] [-ss_cert file]
     [-preserveDN] [-noemailDN] [-batch] [-msie_hack]
     [-extensions section] [-extfile section] [-engine id] [-subj
     arg] [-utf8] [-multivalue-rdn]


DESCRIPTION

     The 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

     -config filename
         specifies the configuration file to use.

     -name section
         specifies the configuration file section to use
         (overrides default_ca in the ca section).

     -in filename
         an input filename containing a single certificate
         request to be signed by the CA.

     -ss_cert filename
         a single self signed certificate to be signed by the CA.

     -spkac filename
         a file containing a single Netscape signed public key
         and challenge and additional field values to be signed
         by the CA. See the SPKAC FORMAT section for information
         on the required input and output format.

     -infiles
         if present this should be the last option, all
         subsequent arguments are assumed to the the names of
         files containing certificate requests.

     -out filename

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         the output file to output certificates to. The default
         is standard output. The certificate details will also be
         printed out to this file in PEM format (except that
         -spkac outputs DER format).

     -outdir directory
         the directory to output certificates to. The certificate
         will be written to a filename consisting of the serial
         number in hex with ".pem" appended.

     -cert
         the CA certificate file.

     -keyfile filename
         the private key to sign requests with.

     -keyform PEM|DER
         the format of the data in the private key file.  The
         default is PEM.

     -key password
         the password used to encrypt the private key. Since on
         some systems the command line arguments are visible
         (e.g. Unix with the 'ps' utility) this option should be
         used with caution.

     -selfsign
         indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with
         the key the certificate requests were signed with (given
         with -keyfile).  Cerificate requests signed with a
         different key are ignored.  If -spkac, -ss_cert or
         -gencrl are given, -selfsign is ignored.

         A consequence of using -selfsign is that the self-signed
         certificate appears among the entries in the certificate
         database (see the configuration option database), and
         uses the same serial number counter as all other
         certificates sign with the self-signed certificate.

     -passin arg
         the key password source. For more information about the
         format of arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in
         openssl(1).

     -verbose
         this prints extra details about the operations being
         performed.

     -notext
         don't output the text form of a certificate to the
         output file.

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     -startdate date
         this allows the start date to be explicitly set. The
         format of the date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1
         UTCTime structure).

     -enddate date
         this allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The
         format of the date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1
         UTCTime structure).

     -days arg
         the number of days to certify the certificate for.

     -md alg
         the message digest to use. Possible values include md5,
         sha1 and mdc2.  This option also applies to CRLs.

     -policy arg
         this option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a
         section in the configuration file which decides which
         fields should be mandatory or match the CA certificate.
         Check out the POLICY FORMAT section for more
         information.

     -msie_hack
         this is a legacy option to make ca work with very old
         versions of the IE certificate enrollment control
         "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings for almost
         everything. Since the old control has various security
         bugs its use is strongly discouraged. The newer control
         "Xenroll" does not need this option.

     -preserveDN
         Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as
         the order of the fields in the relevant policy section.
         When this option is set the order is the same as the
         request. This is largely for compatibility with the
         older IE enrollment control which would only accept
         certificates if their DNs match the order of the
         request. This is not needed for Xenroll.

     -noemailDN
         The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if
         present in the request DN, however it is good policy
         just having the e-mail set into the altName extension of
         the certificate. When this option is set the EMAIL field
         is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in
         the, eventually present, extensions. The email_in_dn
         keyword can be used in the configuration file to enable
         this behaviour.

     -batch

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         this sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will
         be asked and all certificates will be certified
         automatically.

     -extensions section
         the section of the configuration file containing
         certificate extensions to be added when a certificate is
         issued (defaults to x509_extensions unless the -extfile
         option is used). If no extension section is present
         then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension
         section is present (even if it is empty), then a V3
         certificate is created. See the x509v3_config(5) manual
         page for details of the extension section format.

     -extfile file
         an additional configuration file to read certificate
         extensions from (using the default section unless the
         -extensions option is also used).

     -engine id
         specifying an engine (by its unique id string) will
         cause ca to attempt to obtain a functional reference to
         the specified engine, thus initialising it if needed.
         The engine will then be set as the default for all
         available algorithms.

     -subj arg
         supersedes subject name given in the request.  The arg
         must be formatted as
         /type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=..., characters may be
         escaped by \ (backslash), no spaces are skipped.

     -utf8
         this option causes field values to be interpreted as
         UTF8 strings, by default they are interpreted as ASCII.
         This means that the field values, whether prompted from
         a terminal or obtained from a configuration file, must
         be valid UTF8 strings.

     -multivalue-rdn
         this option causes the -subj argument to be interpretedt
         with full support for multivalued RDNs. Example:

         /DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe

         If -multi-rdn is not used then the UID value is
         123456+CN=John Doe.


CRL OPTIONS

     -gencrl
         this option generates a CRL based on information in the
         index file.

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     -crldays num
         the number of days before the next CRL is due. That is
         the days from now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.

     -crlhours num
         the number of hours before the next CRL is due.

     -revoke filename
         a filename containing a certificate to revoke.

     -status serial
         displays the revocation status of the certificate with
         the specified serial number and exits.

     -updatedb
         Updates the database index to purge expired
         certificates.

     -crl_reason reason
         revocation reason, where reason is one of: unspecified,
         keyCompromise, CACompromise, affiliationChanged,
         superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold or
         removeFromCRL. The matching of reason is case
         insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the
         CRL v2.

         In practive removeFromCRL is not particularly useful
         because it is only used in delta CRLs which are not
         currently implemented.

     -crl_hold instruction
         This sets the CRL revocation reason code to
         certificateHold and the hold instruction to instruction
         which must be an OID. Although any OID can be used only
         holdInstructionNone (the use of which is discouraged by
         RFC2459) holdInstructionCallIssuer or
         holdInstructionReject will normally be used.

     -crl_compromise time
         This sets the revocation reason to keyCompromise and the
         compromise time to time. time should be in
         GeneralizedTime format that is YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ.

     -crl_CA_compromise time
         This is the same as crl_compromise except the revocation
         reason is set to CACompromise.

     -crlexts section
         the section of the configuration file containing CRL
         extensions to include. If no CRL extension section is
         present then a V1 CRL is created, if the CRL extension
         section is present (even if it is empty) then a V2 CRL

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         is created. The CRL extensions specified are CRL
         extensions and not CRL entry extensions.  It should be
         noted that some software (for example Netscape) can't
         handle V2 CRLs. See x509v3_config(5) manual page for
         details of the extension section format.


CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS

     The 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.

     oid_file
         This specifies a file containing additional OBJECT
         IDENTIFIERS.  Each line of the file should consist of
         the numerical form of the object identifier followed by
         white space then the short name followed by white space
         and finally the long name.

     oid_section
         This specifies a section in the configuration file
         containing extra object identifiers. Each line should
         consist of the short name of the object identifier
         followed by = and the numerical form. The short and long
         names are the same when this option is used.

     new_certs_dir
         the same as the -outdir command line option. It
         specifies the directory where new certificates will be
         placed. Mandatory.

     certificate
         the same as -cert. It gives the file containing the CA
         certificate. Mandatory.

     private_key
         same as the -keyfile option. The file containing the CA
         private key. Mandatory.

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     RANDFILE
         a file used to read and write random number seed
         information, or an EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)).

     default_days
         the same as the -days option. The number of days to
         certify a certificate for.

     default_startdate
         the same as the -startdate option. The start date to
         certify a certificate for. If not set the current time
         is used.

     default_enddate
         the same as the -enddate option. Either this option or
         default_days (or the command line equivalents) must be
         present.

     default_crl_hours default_crl_days
         the same as the -crlhours and the -crldays options.
         These will only be used if neither command line option
         is present. At least one of these must be present to
         generate a CRL.

     default_md
         the same as the -md option. The message digest to use.
         Mandatory.

     database
         the text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must
         be present though initially it will be empty.

     unique_subject
         if the value yes is given, the valid certificate entries
         in the database must have unique subjects.  if the value
         no is given, several valid certificate entries may have
         the exact same subject.  The default value is yes, to be
         compatible with older (pre 0.9.8) versions of OpenSSL.
         However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier, it's
         recommended to use the value no, especially if combined
         with the -selfsign command line option.

         Note that it is valid in some circumstances for
         certificates to be created without any subject. In the
         case where there are multiple certificates without
         subjects this does not count as a duplicate.

     serial
         a text file containing the next serial number to use in
         hex. Mandatory.  This file must be present and contain a
         valid serial number.

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     crlnumber
         a text file containing the next CRL number to use in
         hex. The crl number will be inserted in the CRLs only if
         this file exists. If this file is present, it must
         contain a valid CRL number.

     x509_extensions
         the same as -extensions.

     crl_extensions
         the same as -crlexts.

     preserve
         the same as -preserveDN

     email_in_dn
         the same as -noemailDN. If you want the EMAIL field to
         be removed from the DN of the certificate simply set
         this to 'no'. If not present the default is to allow for
         the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.

     msie_hack
         the same as -msie_hack

     policy
         the same as -policy. Mandatory. See the POLICY FORMAT
         section for more information.

     name_opt, cert_opt
         these options allow the format used to display the
         certificate details when asking the user to confirm
         signing. All the options supported by the x509 utilities
         -nameopt and -certopt switches can be used here, except
         the no_signame and no_sigdump are permanently set and
         cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate
         signature cannot be displayed because the certificate
         has not been signed at this point).

         For convenience the values ca_default are accepted by
         both to produce a reasonable output.

         If neither option is present the format used in earlier
         versions of OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is
         strongly discouraged because it only displays fields
         mentioned in the policy section, mishandles
         multicharacter string types and does not display
         extensions.

     copy_extensions
         determines how extensions in certificate requests should
         be handled.  If set to none or this option is not
         present then extensions are ignored and not copied to

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         the certificate. If set to copy then any extensions
         present in the request that are not already present are
         copied to the certificate. If set to copyall then all
         extensions in the request are copied to the certificate:
         if the extension is already present in the certificate
         it is deleted first. See the WARNINGS section before
         using this option.

         The main use of this option is to allow a certificate
         request to supply values for certain extensions such as
         subjectAltName.


POLICY FORMAT

     The 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 FORMAT

     The 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 '.'.

     When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the -out
     flag is used, but PEM format if sending to stdout or the
     -outdir flag is used.


EXAMPLES

     Note: 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.

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     Sign a certificate request:

      openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem

     Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:

      openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem

     Generate a CRL

      openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem

     Sign several requests:

      openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem

     Certify a Netscape SPKAC:

      openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt

     A 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 Group

     A 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
      email_in_dn    = no                    # Don't add the email into cert DN

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      name_opt       = ca_default            # Subject name display option
      cert_opt       = ca_default            # Certificate display option
      copy_extensions = none                 # Don't copy extensions from request

      [ policy_any ]
      countryName            = supplied
      stateOrProvinceName    = optional
      organizationName       = optional
      organizationalUnitName = optional
      commonName             = supplied
      emailAddress           = optional


FILES

     Note: 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 VARIABLES

     OPENSSL_CONF reflects the location of master configuration
     file it can be overridden by the -config command line
     option.


RESTRICTIONS

     The 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.

     V2 CRL features like delta CRLs 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.


BUGS

     The 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.

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     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. To enforce the absence of the EMAIL field
     within the DN, as suggested by RFCs, regardless the contents
     of the request' subject the -noemailDN option can be used.
     The behaviour should be more friendly and configurable.

     Cancelling some commands by refusing to certify a
     certificate can create an empty file.


WARNINGS

     The 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 to 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.

     The copy_extensions option should be used with caution. If
     care is not taken then it can be a security risk. For
     example if a certificate request contains a basicConstraints
     extension with CA:TRUE and the copy_extensions value is set
     to copyall and the user does not spot this when the
     certificate is displayed then this will hand the requestor a
     valid CA certificate.

     This situation can be avoided by setting copy_extensions to
     copy and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the
     configuration file.  Then if the request contains a
     basicConstraints extension it will be ignored.

     It is advisable to also include values for other extensions
     such as keyUsage to prevent a request supplying its own
     values.

     Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate
     itself.  For example if the CA certificate has:

      basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0

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     then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will
     not be valid.


SEE ALSO

     req(1), spkac(1), x509(1), CA.pl(1), config(5),
     x509v3_config(5)

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See also ca(1)

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