CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs
CA.pl -? | -h | -help
CA.pl -newcert | -newreq |
-newreq-nodes | -xsign | -sign | -signCA |
-signcert | -crl | -newca
[-extra-cmd parameter]
CA.pl -pkcs12 [certname]
CA.pl -verify certfile ...
CA.pl -revoke certfile [reason]
The CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the
relevant command line arguments to the openssl(1) 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.
The script is intended as a simple front end for the
openssl(1) 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 openssl(1) command directly.
Most of the filenames mentioned below can be modified by editing
the CA.pl script.
Under some environments it may not be possible to run the
CA.pl 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 OPENSSL_CONF environment variable can
be set to point to the correct path of the configuration file.
- -?, -h, -help
- Prints a usage message.
- -newcert
- Creates a new self signed certificate. The private key is written to the
file newkey.pem and the request written to the file
newreq.pem. Invokes openssl-req(1).
- -newreq
- Creates a new certificate request. The private key is written to the file
newkey.pem and the request written to the file newreq.pem.
Executes openssl-req(1) under the hood.
- -newreq-nodes
- Is like -newreq except that the private key will not be encrypted.
Uses openssl-req(1).
- -newca
- Creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the ca program (or the
-signcert and -xsign 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. Uses openssl-req(1) and
openssl-ca(1).
If the demoCA directory already exists then the
-newca command will not overwrite it and will do nothing. This
can happen if a previous call using the -newca option terminated
abnormally. To get the correct behaviour delete the directory if it
already exists.
- -pkcs12
- 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 -sign 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.
Delegates work to openssl-pkcs12(1).
- -sign,
-signcert, -xsign
- Calls the openssl-ca(1) command 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 -xsign option when it is written to standard output.
- -signCA
- This option is the same as the -sign option except it uses the
configuration file section v3_ca and so makes the signed request a
valid CA certificate. This is useful when creating intermediate CA from a
root CA. Extra params are passed to openssl-ca(1).
- -signcert
- This option is the same as -sign except it expects a self signed
certificate to be present in the file newreq.pem. Extra params are
passed to openssl-x509(1) and openssl-ca(1).
- -crl
- Generate a CRL. Executes openssl-ca(1).
- -revoke
certfile [reason]
- Revoke the certificate contained in the specified certfile. An
optional reason may be specified, and must be one of: unspecified,
keyCompromise, CACompromise, affiliationChanged,
superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold, or
removeFromCRL. Leverages openssl-ca(1).
- -verify
- 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. Invokes openssl-verify(1).
- For each option extra-cmd, pass
parameter to the openssl(1) sub-command with the same name
as cmd, if that sub-command is invoked. For example, if
openssl-req(1) is invoked, the parameter given with
-extra-req will be passed to it. For multi-word parameters, either
repeat the option or quote the parameters so it looks like one word
to your shell. See the individual command documentation for more
information.
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 -sign
CA.pl -pkcs12 "My Test Certificate"
The environment variable OPENSSL may be used to specify the
name of the OpenSSL program. It can be a full pathname, or a relative
one.
The environment variable OPENSSL_CONFIG may be used to
specify a configuration option and value to the req and ca
commands invoked by this script. It's value should be the option and
pathname, as in "-config
/path/to/conf-file".
Copyright 2000-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights
Reserved.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").
You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can
obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.