CA 1 2008-05-09 0.9.9-dev OpenSSL
NAME
ca - sample minimal CA application
LIBRARY
libcrypto, -lcrypto
SYNOPSIS
ooppeennssssll ccaa
[--vveerrbboossee]
[--ccoonnffiigg ffiilleennaammee]
[--nnaammee sseeccttiioonn]
[--ggeennccrrll]
[--rreevvookkee ffiillee]
[--ccrrll__rreeaassoonn rreeaassoonn]
[--ccrrll__hhoolldd iinnssttrruuccttiioonn]
[--ccrrll__ccoommpprroommiissee ttiimmee]
[--ccrrll__CCAA__ccoommpprroommiissee ttiimmee]
[--ccrrllddaayyss ddaayyss]
[--ccrrllhhoouurrss hhoouurrss]
[--ccrrlleexxttss sseeccttiioonn]
[--ssttaarrttddaattee ddaattee]
[--eennddddaattee ddaattee]
[--ddaayyss aarrgg]
[--mmdd aarrgg]
[--ppoolliiccyy aarrgg]
[--kkeeyyffiillee aarrgg]
[--kkeeyy aarrgg]
[--ppaassssiinn aarrgg]
[--cceerrtt ffiillee]
[--sseellffssiiggnn]
[--iinn ffiillee]
[--oouutt ffiillee]
[--nnootteexxtt]
[--oouuttddiirr ddiirr]
[--iinnffiilleess]
[--ssppkkaacc ffiillee]
[--ssss__cceerrtt ffiillee]
[--pprreesseerrvveeDDNN]
[--nnooeemmaaiillDDNN]
[--bbaattcchh]
[--mmssiiee__hhaacckk]
[--eexxtteennssiioonnss sseeccttiioonn]
[--eexxttffiillee sseeccttiioonn]
[--eennggiinnee iidd]
[--ssuubbjj aarrgg]
[--uuttff88]
[--mmuullttiivvaalluuee--rrddnn]
DESCRIPTION
The ccaa 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
-
--ccoonnffiigg ffiilleennaammee
specifies the configuration file to use.
-
-
--nnaammee sseeccttiioonn
specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides
-
ddeeffaauulltt__ccaa in the ccaa section).
-
--iinn ffiilleennaammee
an input filename containing a single certificate request to be
-
signed by the CA.
-
--ssss__cceerrtt ffiilleennaammee
a single self signed certificate to be signed by the CA.
-
-
--ssppkkaacc ffiilleennaammee
a file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
-
and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the SSPPKKAACC FFOORRMMAATT
section for information on the required format.
-
--iinnffiilleess
if present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
-
are assumed to the the names of files containing certificate requests.
-
--oouutt ffiilleennaammee
the output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
-
output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
file.
-
--oouuttddiirr ddiirreeccttoorryy
the directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
-
written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
".pem" appended.
-
--cceerrtt
the CA certificate file.
-
-
--kkeeyyffiillee ffiilleennaammee
the private key to sign requests with.
-
-
--kkeeyy ppaasssswwoorrdd
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.
-
--sseellffssiiggnn
indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key
-
the certificate requests were signed with (given with --kkeeyyffiillee).
Cerificate requests signed with a different key are ignored. If
--ssppkkaacc, --ssss__cceerrtt or --ggeennccrrll are given, --sseellffssiiggnn is
ignored.
A consequence of using --sseellffssiiggnn is that the self-signed
certificate appears among the entries in the certificate database
(see the configuration option ddaattaabbaassee), and uses the same
serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the
self-signed certificate.
-
--ppaassssiinn aarrgg
the key password source. For more information about the format of aarrgg
-
see the PPAASSSS PPHHRRAASSEE AARRGGUUMMEENNTTSS section in _o_p_e_n_s_s_l(1).
-
--vveerrbboossee
this prints extra details about the operations being performed.
-
-
--nnootteexxtt
don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.
-
-
--ssttaarrttddaattee ddaattee
this allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
-
date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure).
-
--eennddddaattee ddaattee
this allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
-
date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure).
-
--ddaayyss aarrgg
the number of days to certify the certificate for.
-
-
--mmdd aallgg
the message digest to use. Possible values include md5, sha1 and mdc2.
-
This option also applies to CRLs.
-
--ppoolliiccyy aarrgg
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 PPOOLLIICCYY FFOORRMMAATT section
for more information.
-
--mmssiiee__hhaacckk
this is a legacy option to make ccaa 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.
-
--pprreesseerrvveeDDNN
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.
-
--nnooeemmaaiillDDNN
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 eemmaaiill__iinn__ddnn keyword can be
used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.
-
--bbaattcchh
this sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
-
and all certificates will be certified automatically.
-
--eexxtteennssiioonnss sseeccttiioonn
the section of the configuration file containing certificate extensions
-
to be added when a certificate is issued (defaults to xx550099__eexxtteennssiioonnss
unless the --eexxttffiillee 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:w
_x_5_0_9_v_3___c_o_n_f_i_g(5) manual page for details of the
extension section format.
-
--eexxttffiillee ffiillee
an additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from
-
(using the default section unless the --eexxtteennssiioonnss option is also
used).
-
--eennggiinnee iidd
specifying an engine (by it's unique iidd string) will cause rreeqq
-
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.
-
--ssuubbjj aarrgg
supersedes subject name given in the request.
-
The arg must be formatted as _/_t_y_p_e_0_=_v_a_l_u_e_0_/_t_y_p_e_1_=_v_a_l_u_e_1_/_t_y_p_e_2_=_._._.,
characters may be escaped by \ (backslash), no spaces are skipped.
-
--uuttff88
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.
-
--mmuullttiivvaalluuee--rrddnn
this option causes the -subj argument to be interpretedt with full
-
support for multivalued RDNs. Example:
_/_D_C_=_o_r_g_/_D_C_=_O_p_e_n_S_S_L_/_D_C_=_u_s_e_r_s_/_U_I_D_=_1_2_3_4_5_6_+_C_N_=_J_o_h_n _D_o_e
If -multi-rdn is not used then the UID value is _1_2_3_4_5_6_+_C_N_=_J_o_h_n _D_o_e.
CRL OPTIONS
-
--ggeennccrrll
this option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.
-
-
--ccrrllddaayyss nnuumm
the number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days from
-
now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.
-
--ccrrllhhoouurrss nnuumm
the number of hours before the next CRL is due.
-
-
--rreevvookkee ffiilleennaammee
a filename containing a certificate to revoke.
-
-
--ccrrll__rreeaassoonn rreeaassoonn
revocation reason, where rreeaassoonn is one of: uunnssppeecciiffiieedd, kkeeyyCCoommpprroommiissee,
-
CCAACCoommpprroommiissee, aaffffiilliiaattiioonnCChhaannggeedd, ssuuppeerrsseeddeedd, cceessssaattiioonnOOffOOppeerraattiioonn,
cceerrttiiffiiccaatteeHHoolldd or rreemmoovveeFFrroommCCRRLL. The matching of rreeaassoonn is case
insensitive. Setting any revocation reason will make the CRL v2.
In practive rreemmoovveeFFrroommCCRRLL is not particularly useful because it is only used
in delta CRLs which are not currently implemented.
-
--ccrrll__hhoolldd iinnssttrruuccttiioonn
This sets the CRL revocation reason code to cceerrttiiffiiccaatteeHHoolldd and the hold
-
instruction to iinnssttrruuccttiioonn which must be an OID. Although any OID can be
used only hhoollddIInnssttrruuccttiioonnNNoonnee (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
hhoollddIInnssttrruuccttiioonnCCaallllIIssssuueerr or hhoollddIInnssttrruuccttiioonnRReejjeecctt will normally be used.
-
--ccrrll__ccoommpprroommiissee ttiimmee
This sets the revocation reason to kkeeyyCCoommpprroommiissee and the compromise time to
-
ttiimmee. ttiimmee should be in GeneralizedTime format that is YYYYYYYYMMMMDDDDHHHHMMMMSSSSZZ.
-
--ccrrll__CCAA__ccoommpprroommiissee ttiimmee
This is the same as ccrrll__ccoommpprroommiissee except the revocation reason is set to
-
CCAACCoommpprroommiissee.
-
--ccrrlleexxttss sseeccttiioonn
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 is created. The CRL extensions specified are
CRL extensions and nnoott CRL entry extensions. It should be noted
that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs. See
_x_5_0_9_v_3___c_o_n_f_i_g(5) manual page for details of the
extension section format.
CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
The section of the configuration file containing options for ccaa
is found as follows: If the --nnaammee command line option is used,
then it names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to
be used must be named in the ddeeffaauulltt__ccaa option of the ccaa section
of the configuration file (or in the default section of the
configuration file). Besides ddeeffaauulltt__ccaa, the following options are
read directly from the ccaa section:
RANDFILE
preserve
msie_hack
With the exception of RRAANNDDFFIILLEE, 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.
-
ooiidd__ffiillee
This specifies a file containing additional OOBBJJEECCTT IIDDEENNTTIIFFIIEERRSS.
-
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.
-
ooiidd__sseeccttiioonn
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.
-
nneeww__cceerrttss__ddiirr
the same as the --oouuttddiirr command line option. It specifies
-
the directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.
-
cceerrttiiffiiccaattee
the same as --cceerrtt. It gives the file containing the CA
-
certificate. Mandatory.
-
pprriivvaattee__kkeeyy
same as the --kkeeyyffiillee option. The file containing the
-
CA private key. Mandatory.
-
RRAANNDDFFIILLEE
a file used to read and write random number seed information, or
-
an EGD socket (see _R_A_N_D___e_g_d(3)).
-
ddeeffaauulltt__ddaayyss
the same as the --ddaayyss option. The number of days to certify
-
a certificate for.
-
ddeeffaauulltt__ssttaarrttddaattee
the same as the --ssttaarrttddaattee option. The start date to certify
-
a certificate for. If not set the current time is used.
-
ddeeffaauulltt__eennddddaattee
the same as the --eennddddaattee option. Either this option or
-
ddeeffaauulltt__ddaayyss (or the command line equivalents) must be
present.
-
ddeeffaauulltt__ccrrll__hhoouurrss ddeeffaauulltt__ccrrll__ddaayyss
the same as the --ccrrllhhoouurrss and the --ccrrllddaayyss 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.
-
ddeeffaauulltt__mmdd
the same as the --mmdd option. The message digest to use. Mandatory.
-
-
ddaattaabbaassee
the text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
-
though initially it will be empty.
-
uunniiqquuee__ssuubbjjeecctt
if the value yyeess is given, the valid certificate entries in the
-
database must have unique subjects. if the value nnoo is given,
several valid certificate entries may have the exact same subject.
The default value is yyeess, 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 nnoo, especially if combined with
the --sseellffssiiggnn command line option.
-
sseerriiaall
a text file containing the next serial number to use in hex. Mandatory.
-
This file must be present and contain a valid serial number.
-
ccrrllnnuummbbeerr
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.
-
xx550099__eexxtteennssiioonnss
the same as --eexxtteennssiioonnss.
-
-
ccrrll__eexxtteennssiioonnss
the same as --ccrrlleexxttss.
-
-
pprreesseerrvvee
the same as --pprreesseerrvveeDDNN
-
-
eemmaaiill__iinn__ddnn
the same as --nnooeemmaaiillDDNN. 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.
-
mmssiiee__hhaacckk
the same as --mmssiiee__hhaacckk
-
-
ppoolliiccyy
the same as --ppoolliiccyy. Mandatory. See the PPOOLLIICCYY FFOORRMMAATT section
-
for more information.
-
nnaammee__oopptt, cceerrtt__oopptt
these options allow the format used to display the certificate details
-
when asking the user to confirm signing. All the options supported by
the xx550099 utilities --nnaammeeoopptt and --cceerrttoopptt switches can be used
here, except the nnoo__ssiiggnnaammee and nnoo__ssiiggdduummpp 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 ccaa__ddeeffaauulltt 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 ssttrroonnggllyy discouraged because
it only displays fields mentioned in the ppoolliiccyy section, mishandles
multicharacter string types and does not display extensions.
-
ccooppyy__eexxtteennssiioonnss
determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.
-
If set to nnoonnee or this option is not present then extensions are
ignored and not copied to the certificate. If set to ccooppyy then any
extensions present in the request that are not already present are copied
to the certificate. If set to ccooppyyaallll 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 WWAARRNNIINNGGSS 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.
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 --pprreesseerrvveeDDNN option is set but
this can be regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.
The input to the --ssppkkaacc command line option is a Netscape
signed public key and challenge. This will usually come from
the KKEEYYGGEENN tag in an HTML form to create a new private key.
It is however possible to create SPKACs using the ssppkkaacc 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 '.'.
EXAMPLES
Note: these examples assume that the ccaa directory structure is
already set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually
involves creating a CA certificate and private key with rreeqq, 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.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 ccaa:
[ 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
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.
/etc/openssh/openssh.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
OOPPEENNSSSSLL__CCOONNFF reflects the location of master configuration file it can
be overridden by the --ccoonnffiigg 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.
The ccaa 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 CCAA..sshh and
CCAA..ppll 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 --pprreesseerrvveeDDNN 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 --nnooeemmaaiillDDNN
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 ccaa command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.
The ccaa 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 ccaa command is effectively a single user command: no locking is
done on the various files and attempts to run more than one ccaa command
on the same database can have unpredictable results.
The ccooppyy__eexxtteennssiioonnss 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
ccooppyy__eexxtteennssiioonnss value is set to ccooppyyaallll 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 ccooppyy__eexxtteennssiioonnss to ccooppyy
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 kkeeyyUUssaaggee 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
then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.
SEE ALSO
_o_p_e_n_s_s_l___r_e_q(1), _o_p_e_n_s_s_l___s_p_k_a_c(1), _o_p_e_n_s_s_l___x_5_0_9(1), _C_A_._p_l(1),
_o_p_e_n_s_s_l_._c_n_f(5), _x_5_0_9_v_3___c_o_n_f_i_g(5)