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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