CA.PL 1 2005-11-25 0.9.9-dev OpenSSL

NAME

CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs

LIBRARY

libcrypto, -lcrypto

SYNOPSIS

CCAA..ppll [--??] [--hh] [--hheellpp] [--nneewwcceerrtt] [--nneewwrreeqq] [--nneewwrreeqq--nnooddeess] [--nneewwccaa] [--xxssiiggnn] [--ssiiggnn] [--ssiiggnnrreeqq] [--ssiiggnncceerrtt] [--vveerriiffyy] [ffiilleess]

DESCRIPTION

The CCAA..ppll script is a perl script that supplies the relevant command line arguments to the ooppeennssssll 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.

COMMAND OPTIONS

??, --hh, --hheellpp prints a usage message.
--nneewwcceerrtt creates a new self signed certificate. The private key and certificate are
written to the file "newreq.pem".
--nneewwrreeqq creates a new certificate request. The private key and request are
written to the file "newreq.pem".
--nneewwrreeqq--nnooddeess is like --nneewwrreeqq except that the private key will not be encrypted.
--nneewwccaa creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the ccaa program (or the --ssiiggnncceerrtt
and --xxssiiggnn 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.
--ppkkccss1122 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 --ssiiggnn 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.
--ssiiggnn, --ssiiggnnrreeqq, --xxssiiggnn calls the ccaa program 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 --xxssiiggnn option when it is written to standard output.
--ssiiggnnCCAA this option is the same as the --ssiiggnnrreeqq option except it uses the configuration
file section vv33__ccaa and so makes the signed request a valid CA certificate. This is useful when creating intermediate CA from a root CA.
--ssiiggnncceerrtt this option is the same as --ssiiggnn except it expects a self signed certificate
to be present in the file "newreq.pem".
--vveerriiffyy 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".
ffiilleess one or more optional certificate file names for use with the --vveerriiffyy command.

EXAMPLES

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 -signreq
 CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"

DSA CERTIFICATES

Although the CCAA..ppll creates RSA CAs and requests it is still possible to use it with DSA certificates and requests using the _o_p_e_n_s_s_l___r_e_q(1) command directly. The following example shows the steps that would typically be taken.

Create some DSA parameters:


 openssl dsaparam -out dsap.pem 1024

Create a DSA CA certificate and private key:


 openssl req -x509 -newkey dsa:dsap.pem -keyout cacert.pem -out cacert.pem

Create the CA directories and files:


 CA.pl -newca

enter cacert.pem when prompted for the CA file name.

Create a DSA certificate request and private key (a different set of parameters can optionally be created first):


 openssl req -out newreq.pem -newkey dsa:dsap.pem

Sign the request:


 CA.pl -signreq

NOTES

Most of the filenames mentioned can be modified by editing the CCAA..ppll script.

If the demoCA directory already exists then the --nneewwccaa command will not overwrite it and will do nothing. This can happen if a previous call using the --nneewwccaa option terminated abnormally. To get the correct behaviour delete the demoCA directory if it already exists.

Under some environments it may not be possible to run the CCAA..ppll 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 OOPPEENNSSSSLL__CCOONNFF environment variable changed to point to the correct path of the configuration file "openssl.cnf".

The script is intended as a simple front end for the ooppeennssssll 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 ooppeennssssll command directly.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The variable OOPPEENNSSSSLL__CCOONNFF if defined allows an alternative configuration file location to be specified, it should contain the full path to the configuration file, not just its directory.

SEE ALSO

_o_p_e_n_s_s_l___x_5_0_9(1), _o_p_e_n_s_s_l___c_a(1), _o_p_e_n_s_s_l___r_e_q(1), _o_p_e_n_s_s_l___p_k_c_s_1_2(1), _o_p_e_n_s_s_l_._c_n_f(5)