CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate
       programs


SYNOPSIS

       CA.pl [-?]  [-h] [-help] [-newcert] [-newreq] [-newca]
       [-xsign] [-sign] [-signreq] [-signcert] [-verify] [files]


DESCRIPTION

       The CA.pl script is a perl script that supplies the
       relevant command line arguments to the openssl 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

       ?, -h, -help
           prints a usage message.

       -newcert
           creates a new self signed certificate. The private key
           and certificate are written to the file "newreq.pem".

       -newreq
           creates a new certificate request. The private key and
           request are written to the file "newreq.pem".

       -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.

       -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.

       -sign, -signreq, -xsign
           calls the ca 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

           when it is written to standard output.

       -signCA
           this option is the same as the -signreq 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.

       -signcert
           this option is the same as -sign except it expects a
           self signed certificate to be present in the file
           "newreq.pem".

       -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".

       files
           one or more optional certificate file names for use
           with the -verify 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 CA.pl creates RSA CAs and requests it is
       still possible to use it with DSA certificates and
       requests using the req(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


        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 CA.pl script.

       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 demoCA directory if it already exists.

       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
       changed to point to the correct path of the configuration
       file "openssl.cnf".

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


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The variable OPENSSL_CONF 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

       x509(1), ca(1), req(1), pkcs12(1), config(5)



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