1 2=pod 3 4=head1 NAME 5 6ca - sample minimal CA application 7 8=head1 SYNOPSIS 9 10B<openssl> B<ca> 11[B<-verbose>] 12[B<-config filename>] 13[B<-name section>] 14[B<-gencrl>] 15[B<-revoke file>] 16[B<-crl_reason reason>] 17[B<-crl_hold instruction>] 18[B<-crl_compromise time>] 19[B<-crl_CA_compromise time>] 20[B<-crldays days>] 21[B<-crlhours hours>] 22[B<-crlexts section>] 23[B<-startdate date>] 24[B<-enddate date>] 25[B<-days arg>] 26[B<-md arg>] 27[B<-policy arg>] 28[B<-keyfile arg>] 29[B<-key arg>] 30[B<-passin arg>] 31[B<-cert file>] 32[B<-selfsign>] 33[B<-in file>] 34[B<-out file>] 35[B<-notext>] 36[B<-outdir dir>] 37[B<-infiles>] 38[B<-spkac file>] 39[B<-ss_cert file>] 40[B<-preserveDN>] 41[B<-noemailDN>] 42[B<-batch>] 43[B<-msie_hack>] 44[B<-extensions section>] 45[B<-extfile section>] 46[B<-engine id>] 47[B<-subj arg>] 48[B<-utf8>] 49[B<-multivalue-rdn>] 50 51=head1 DESCRIPTION 52 53The B<ca> command is a minimal CA application. It can be used 54to sign certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate 55CRLs it also maintains a text database of issued certificates 56and their status. 57 58The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose. 59 60=head1 CA OPTIONS 61 62=over 4 63 64=item B<-config filename> 65 66specifies the configuration file to use. 67 68=item B<-name section> 69 70specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides 71B<default_ca> in the B<ca> section). 72 73=item B<-in filename> 74 75an input filename containing a single certificate request to be 76signed by the CA. 77 78=item B<-ss_cert filename> 79 80a single self signed certificate to be signed by the CA. 81 82=item B<-spkac filename> 83 84a file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge 85and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the B<SPKAC FORMAT> 86section for information on the required format. 87 88=item B<-infiles> 89 90if present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments 91are assumed to the the names of files containing certificate requests. 92 93=item B<-out filename> 94 95the output file to output certificates to. The default is standard 96output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this 97file. 98 99=item B<-outdir directory> 100 101the directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be 102written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with 103".pem" appended. 104 105=item B<-cert> 106 107the CA certificate file. 108 109=item B<-keyfile filename> 110 111the private key to sign requests with. 112 113=item B<-key password> 114 115the password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some 116systems the command line arguments are visible (e.g. Unix with 117the 'ps' utility) this option should be used with caution. 118 119=item B<-selfsign> 120 121indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key 122the certificate requests were signed with (given with B<-keyfile>). 123Cerificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If 124B<-spkac>, B<-ss_cert> or B<-gencrl> are given, B<-selfsign> is 125ignored. 126 127A consequence of using B<-selfsign> is that the self-signed 128certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database 129(see the configuration option B<database>), and uses the same 130serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the 131self-signed certificate. 132 133=item B<-passin arg> 134 135the key password source. For more information about the format of B<arg> 136see the B<PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS> section in L<openssl(1)|openssl(1)>. 137 138=item B<-verbose> 139 140this prints extra details about the operations being performed. 141 142=item B<-notext> 143 144don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file. 145 146=item B<-startdate date> 147 148this allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the 149date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure). 150 151=item B<-enddate date> 152 153this allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the 154date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure). 155 156=item B<-days arg> 157 158the number of days to certify the certificate for. 159 160=item B<-md alg> 161 162the message digest to use. Possible values include md5, sha1 and mdc2. 163This option also applies to CRLs. 164 165=item B<-policy arg> 166 167this option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in 168the configuration file which decides which fields should be mandatory 169or match the CA certificate. Check out the B<POLICY FORMAT> section 170for more information. 171 172=item B<-msie_hack> 173 174this is a legacy option to make B<ca> work with very old versions of 175the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used UniversalStrings 176for almost everything. Since the old control has various security bugs 177its use is strongly discouraged. The newer control "Xenroll" does not 178need this option. 179 180=item B<-preserveDN> 181 182Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of the 183fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set the order 184is the same as the request. This is largely for compatibility with the 185older IE enrollment control which would only accept certificates if their 186DNs match the order of the request. This is not needed for Xenroll. 187 188=item B<-noemailDN> 189 190The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the 191request DN, however it is good policy just having the e-mail set into 192the altName extension of the certificate. When this option is set the 193EMAIL field is removed from the certificate' subject and set only in 194the, eventually present, extensions. The B<email_in_dn> keyword can be 195used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour. 196 197=item B<-batch> 198 199this sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked 200and all certificates will be certified automatically. 201 202=item B<-extensions section> 203 204the section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions 205to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to B<x509_extensions> 206unless the B<-extfile> option is used). If no extension section is 207present then, a V1 certificate is created. If the extension section 208is present (even if it is empty), then a V3 certificate is created. 209 210=item B<-extfile file> 211 212an additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from 213(using the default section unless the B<-extensions> option is also 214used). 215 216=item B<-engine id> 217 218specifying an engine (by it's unique B<id> string) will cause B<req> 219to attempt to obtain a functional reference to the specified engine, 220thus initialising it if needed. The engine will then be set as the default 221for all available algorithms. 222 223=item B<-subj arg> 224 225supersedes subject name given in the request. 226The arg must be formatted as I</type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...>, 227characters may be escaped by \ (backslash), no spaces are skipped. 228 229=item B<-utf8> 230 231this option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by 232default they are interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field 233values, whether prompted from a terminal or obtained from a 234configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings. 235 236=item B<-multivalue-rdn> 237 238this option causes the -subj argument to be interpretedt with full 239support for multivalued RDNs. Example: 240 241I</DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe> 242 243If -multi-rdn is not used then the UID value is I<123456+CN=John Doe>. 244 245=back 246 247=head1 CRL OPTIONS 248 249=over 4 250 251=item B<-gencrl> 252 253this option generates a CRL based on information in the index file. 254 255=item B<-crldays num> 256 257the number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from 258now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field. 259 260=item B<-crlhours num> 261 262the number of hours before the next CRL is due. 263 264=item B<-revoke filename> 265 266a filename containing a certificate to revoke. 267 268=item B<-crl_reason reason> 269 270revocation reason, where B<reason> is one of: B<unspecified>, B<keyCompromise>, 271B<CACompromise>, B<affiliationChanged>, B<superseded>, B<cessationOfOperation>, 272B<certificateHold> or B<removeFromCRL>. The matching of B<reason> is case 273insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2. 274 275In practive B<removeFromCRL> is not particularly useful because it is only used 276in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented. 277 278=item B<-crl_hold instruction> 279 280This sets the CRL revocation reason code to B<certificateHold> and the hold 281instruction to B<instruction> which must be an OID. Although any OID can be 282used only B<holdInstructionNone> (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459) 283B<holdInstructionCallIssuer> or B<holdInstructionReject> will normally be used. 284 285=item B<-crl_compromise time> 286 287This sets the revocation reason to B<keyCompromise> and the compromise time to 288B<time>. B<time> should be in GeneralizedTime format that is B<YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ>. 289 290=item B<-crl_CA_compromise time> 291 292This is the same as B<crl_compromise> except the revocation reason is set to 293B<CACompromise>. 294 295=item B<-crlexts section> 296 297the section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to 298include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is 299created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is 300empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are 301CRL extensions and B<not> CRL entry extensions. It should be noted 302that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. 303 304=back 305 306=head1 CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS 307 308The section of the configuration file containing options for B<ca> 309is found as follows: If the B<-name> command line option is used, 310then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to 311be used must be named in the B<default_ca> option of the B<ca> section 312of the configuration file (or in the default section of the 313configuration file). Besides B<default_ca>, the following options are 314read directly from the B<ca> section: 315 RANDFILE 316 preserve 317 msie_hack 318With the exception of B<RANDFILE>, this is probably a bug and may 319change in future releases. 320 321Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line 322options. Where the option is present in the configuration file 323and the command line the command line value is used. Where an 324option is described as mandatory then it must be present in 325the configuration file or the command line equivalent (if 326any) used. 327 328=over 4 329 330=item B<oid_file> 331 332This specifies a file containing additional B<OBJECT IDENTIFIERS>. 333Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the 334object identifier followed by white space then the short name followed 335by white space and finally the long name. 336 337=item B<oid_section> 338 339This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra 340object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of the 341object identifier followed by B<=> and the numerical form. The short 342and long names are the same when this option is used. 343 344=item B<new_certs_dir> 345 346the same as the B<-outdir> command line option. It specifies 347the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory. 348 349=item B<certificate> 350 351the same as B<-cert>. It gives the file containing the CA 352certificate. Mandatory. 353 354=item B<private_key> 355 356same as the B<-keyfile> option. The file containing the 357CA private key. Mandatory. 358 359=item B<RANDFILE> 360 361a file used to read and write random number seed information, or 362an EGD socket (see L<RAND_egd(3)|RAND_egd(3)>). 363 364=item B<default_days> 365 366the same as the B<-days> option. The number of days to certify 367a certificate for. 368 369=item B<default_startdate> 370 371the same as the B<-startdate> option. The start date to certify 372a certificate for. If not set the current time is used. 373 374=item B<default_enddate> 375 376the same as the B<-enddate> option. Either this option or 377B<default_days> (or the command line equivalents) must be 378present. 379 380=item B<default_crl_hours default_crl_days> 381 382the same as the B<-crlhours> and the B<-crldays> options. These 383will only be used if neither command line option is present. At 384least one of these must be present to generate a CRL. 385 386=item B<default_md> 387 388the same as the B<-md> option. The message digest to use. Mandatory. 389 390=item B<database> 391 392the text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present 393though initially it will be empty. 394 395=item B<unique_subject> 396 397if the value B<yes> is given, the valid certificate entries in the 398database must have unique subjects. if the value B<no> is given, 399several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject. 400The default value is B<yes>, to be compatible with older (pre 0.9.8) 401versions of OpenSSL. However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier, 402it's recommended to use the value B<no>, especially if combined with 403the B<-selfsign> command line option. 404 405=item B<serial> 406 407a text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory. 408This file must be present and contain a valid serial number. 409 410=item B<crlnumber> 411 412a text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number 413will be inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is 414present, it must contain a valid CRL number. 415 416=item B<x509_extensions> 417 418the same as B<-extensions>. 419 420=item B<crl_extensions> 421 422the same as B<-crlexts>. 423 424=item B<preserve> 425 426the same as B<-preserveDN> 427 428=item B<email_in_dn> 429 430the same as B<-noemailDN>. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed 431from the DN of the certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present 432the default is to allow for the EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN. 433 434=item B<msie_hack> 435 436the same as B<-msie_hack> 437 438=item B<policy> 439 440the same as B<-policy>. Mandatory. See the B<POLICY FORMAT> section 441for more information. 442 443=item B<name_opt>, B<cert_opt> 444 445these options allow the format used to display the certificate details 446when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by 447the B<x509> utilities B<-nameopt> and B<-certopt> switches can be used 448here, except the B<no_signame> and B<no_sigdump> are permanently set 449and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature cannot 450be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point). 451 452For convenience the values B<ca_default> are accepted by both to produce 453a reasonable output. 454 455If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of 456OpenSSL is used. Use of the old format is B<strongly> discouraged because 457it only displays fields mentioned in the B<policy> section, mishandles 458multicharacter string types and does not display extensions. 459 460=item B<copy_extensions> 461 462determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled. 463If set to B<none> or this option is not present then extensions are 464ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to B<copy> then any 465extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied 466to the certificate. If set to B<copyall> then all extensions in the 467request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present 468in the certificate it is deleted first. See the B<WARNINGS> section before 469using this option. 470 471The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply 472values for certain extensions such as subjectAltName. 473 474=back 475 476=head1 POLICY FORMAT 477 478The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to 479certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value 480must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is 481"supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then 482it may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section 483are silently deleted, unless the B<-preserveDN> option is set but 484this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour. 485 486=head1 SPKAC FORMAT 487 488The input to the B<-spkac> command line option is a Netscape 489signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from 490the B<KEYGEN> tag in an HTML form to create a new private key. 491It is however possible to create SPKACs using the B<spkac> utility. 492 493The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of 494the SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs. 495If you need to include the same component twice then it can be 496preceded by a number and a '.'. 497 498=head1 EXAMPLES 499 500Note: these examples assume that the B<ca> directory structure is 501already set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually 502involves creating a CA certificate and private key with B<req>, a 503serial number file and an empty index file and placing them in 504the relevant directories. 505 506To use the sample configuration file below the directories demoCA, 507demoCA/private and demoCA/newcerts would be created. The CA 508certificate would be copied to demoCA/cacert.pem and its private 509key to demoCA/private/cakey.pem. A file demoCA/serial would be 510created containing for example "01" and the empty index file 511demoCA/index.txt. 512 513 514Sign a certificate request: 515 516 openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem 517 518Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions: 519 520 openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem 521 522Generate a CRL 523 524 openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem 525 526Sign several requests: 527 528 openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem 529 530Certify a Netscape SPKAC: 531 532 openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt 533 534A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity): 535 536 SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5 537 CN=Steve Test 538 emailAddress=steve@openssl.org 539 0.OU=OpenSSL Group 540 1.OU=Another Group 541 542A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for B<ca>: 543 544 [ ca ] 545 default_ca = CA_default # The default ca section 546 547 [ CA_default ] 548 549 dir = ./demoCA # top dir 550 database = $dir/index.txt # index file. 551 new_certs_dir = $dir/newcerts # new certs dir 552 553 certificate = $dir/cacert.pem # The CA cert 554 serial = $dir/serial # serial no file 555 private_key = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key 556 RANDFILE = $dir/private/.rand # random number file 557 558 default_days = 365 # how long to certify for 559 default_crl_days= 30 # how long before next CRL 560 default_md = md5 # md to use 561 562 policy = policy_any # default policy 563 email_in_dn = no # Don't add the email into cert DN 564 565 name_opt = ca_default # Subject name display option 566 cert_opt = ca_default # Certificate display option 567 copy_extensions = none # Don't copy extensions from request 568 569 [ policy_any ] 570 countryName = supplied 571 stateOrProvinceName = optional 572 organizationName = optional 573 organizationalUnitName = optional 574 commonName = supplied 575 emailAddress = optional 576 577=head1 FILES 578 579Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time options, 580configuration file entries, environment variables or command line options. 581The values below reflect the default values. 582 583 /usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file 584 ./demoCA - main CA directory 585 ./demoCA/cacert.pem - CA certificate 586 ./demoCA/private/cakey.pem - CA private key 587 ./demoCA/serial - CA serial number file 588 ./demoCA/serial.old - CA serial number backup file 589 ./demoCA/index.txt - CA text database file 590 ./demoCA/index.txt.old - CA text database backup file 591 ./demoCA/certs - certificate output file 592 ./demoCA/.rnd - CA random seed information 593 594=head1 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 595 596B<OPENSSL_CONF> reflects the location of master configuration file it can 597be overridden by the B<-config> command line option. 598 599=head1 RESTRICTIONS 600 601The text database index file is a critical part of the process and 602if corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible 603to rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current 604CRL: however there is no option to do this. 605 606V2 CRL features like delta CRLs are not currently supported. 607 608Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only 609possible to include one SPKAC or self signed certificate. 610 611=head1 BUGS 612 613The use of an in memory text database can cause problems when large 614numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies 615the database has to be kept in memory. 616 617The B<ca> command really needs rewriting or the required functionality 618exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly utility 619(perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The scripts B<CA.sh> and 620B<CA.pl> help a little but not very much. 621 622Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently 623deleted. This does not happen if the B<-preserveDN> option is used. To 624enforce the absence of the EMAIL field within the DN, as suggested by 625RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the B<-noemailDN> 626option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and 627configurable. 628 629Cancelling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can 630create an empty file. 631 632=head1 WARNINGS 633 634The B<ca> command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly. 635 636The B<ca> utility was originally meant as an example of how to do things 637in a CA. It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA itself: 638nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose. 639 640The B<ca> command is effectively a single user command: no locking is 641done on the various files and attempts to run more than one B<ca> command 642on the same database can have unpredictable results. 643 644The B<copy_extensions> option should be used with caution. If care is 645not taken then it can be a security risk. For example if a certificate 646request contains a basicConstraints extension with CA:TRUE and the 647B<copy_extensions> value is set to B<copyall> and the user does not spot 648this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requestor 649a valid CA certificate. 650 651This situation can be avoided by setting B<copy_extensions> to B<copy> 652and including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file. 653Then if the request contains a basicConstraints extension it will be 654ignored. 655 656It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such 657as B<keyUsage> to prevent a request supplying its own values. 658 659Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself. 660For example if the CA certificate has: 661 662 basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0 663 664then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid. 665 666=head1 SEE ALSO 667 668L<req(1)|req(1)>, L<spkac(1)|spkac(1)>, L<x509(1)|x509(1)>, L<CA.pl(1)|CA.pl(1)>, 669L<config(5)|config(5)> 670 671=cut 672