1 2=pod 3 4=head1 NAME 5 6CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs 7 8=head1 SYNOPSIS 9 10B<CA.pl> 11[B<-?>] 12[B<-h>] 13[B<-help>] 14[B<-newcert>] 15[B<-newreq>] 16[B<-newreq-nodes>] 17[B<-newca>] 18[B<-xsign>] 19[B<-sign>] 20[B<-signreq>] 21[B<-signcert>] 22[B<-verify>] 23[B<files>] 24 25=head1 DESCRIPTION 26 27The B<CA.pl> script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line 28arguments to the B<openssl> command for some common certificate operations. 29It is intended to simplify the process of certificate creation and management 30by the use of some simple options. 31 32=head1 COMMAND OPTIONS 33 34=over 4 35 36=item B<?>, B<-h>, B<-help> 37 38prints a usage message. 39 40=item B<-newcert> 41 42creates a new self signed certificate. The private key is written to the file 43"newkey.pem" and the request written to the file "newreq.pem". 44 45=item B<-newreq> 46 47creates a new certificate request. The private key is written to the file 48"newkey.pem" and the request written to the file "newreq.pem". 49 50=item B<-newreq-nodes> 51 52is like B<-newreq> except that the private key will not be encrypted. 53 54=item B<-newca> 55 56creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the B<ca> program (or the B<-signcert> 57and B<-xsign> options). The user is prompted to enter the filename of the CA 58certificates (which should also contain the private key) or by hitting ENTER 59details of the CA will be prompted for. The relevant files and directories 60are created in a directory called "demoCA" in the current directory. 61 62=item B<-pkcs12> 63 64create a PKCS#12 file containing the user certificate, private key and CA 65certificate. It expects the user certificate and private key to be in the 66file "newcert.pem" and the CA certificate to be in the file demoCA/cacert.pem, 67it creates a file "newcert.p12". This command can thus be called after the 68B<-sign> option. The PKCS#12 file can be imported directly into a browser. 69If there is an additional argument on the command line it will be used as the 70"friendly name" for the certificate (which is typically displayed in the browser 71list box), otherwise the name "My Certificate" is used. 72 73=item B<-sign>, B<-signreq>, B<-xsign> 74 75calls the B<ca> program to sign a certificate request. It expects the request 76to be in the file "newreq.pem". The new certificate is written to the file 77"newcert.pem" except in the case of the B<-xsign> option when it is written 78to standard output. 79 80 81=item B<-signCA> 82 83this option is the same as the B<-signreq> option except it uses the configuration 84file section B<v3_ca> and so makes the signed request a valid CA certificate. This 85is useful when creating intermediate CA from a root CA. 86 87=item B<-signcert> 88 89this option is the same as B<-sign> except it expects a self signed certificate 90to be present in the file "newreq.pem". 91 92=item B<-verify> 93 94verifies certificates against the CA certificate for "demoCA". If no certificates 95are specified on the command line it tries to verify the file "newcert.pem". 96 97=item B<files> 98 99one or more optional certificate file names for use with the B<-verify> command. 100 101=back 102 103=head1 EXAMPLES 104 105Create a CA hierarchy: 106 107 CA.pl -newca 108 109Complete certificate creation example: create a CA, create a request, sign 110the request and finally create a PKCS#12 file containing it. 111 112 CA.pl -newca 113 CA.pl -newreq 114 CA.pl -signreq 115 CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate" 116 117=head1 DSA CERTIFICATES 118 119Although the B<CA.pl> creates RSA CAs and requests it is still possible to 120use it with DSA certificates and requests using the L<req(1)|req(1)> command 121directly. The following example shows the steps that would typically be taken. 122 123Create some DSA parameters: 124 125 openssl dsaparam -out dsap.pem 1024 126 127Create a DSA CA certificate and private key: 128 129 openssl req -x509 -newkey dsa:dsap.pem -keyout cacert.pem -out cacert.pem 130 131Create the CA directories and files: 132 133 CA.pl -newca 134 135enter cacert.pem when prompted for the CA file name. 136 137Create a DSA certificate request and private key (a different set of parameters 138can optionally be created first): 139 140 openssl req -out newreq.pem -newkey dsa:dsap.pem 141 142Sign the request: 143 144 CA.pl -signreq 145 146=head1 NOTES 147 148Most of the filenames mentioned can be modified by editing the B<CA.pl> script. 149 150If the demoCA directory already exists then the B<-newca> command will not 151overwrite it and will do nothing. This can happen if a previous call using 152the B<-newca> option terminated abnormally. To get the correct behaviour 153delete the demoCA directory if it already exists. 154 155Under some environments it may not be possible to run the B<CA.pl> script 156directly (for example Win32) and the default configuration file location may 157be wrong. In this case the command: 158 159 perl -S CA.pl 160 161can be used and the B<OPENSSL_CONF> environment variable changed to point to 162the correct path of the configuration file "openssl.cnf". 163 164The script is intended as a simple front end for the B<openssl> program for use 165by a beginner. Its behaviour isn't always what is wanted. For more control over the 166behaviour of the certificate commands call the B<openssl> command directly. 167 168=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 169 170The variable B<OPENSSL_CONF> if defined allows an alternative configuration 171file location to be specified, it should contain the full path to the 172configuration file, not just its directory. 173 174=head1 SEE ALSO 175 176L<x509(1)|x509(1)>, L<ca(1)|ca(1)>, L<req(1)|req(1)>, L<pkcs12(1)|pkcs12(1)>, 177L<config(5)|config(5)> 178 179=cut 180