DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

CA.PL(1)			    OpenSSL			      CA.PL(1)

NAME
       CA.pl - friendlier interface for OpenSSL certificate programs

SYNOPSIS
       CA.pl [-?]  [-h] [-help] [-newcert] [-newreq] [-newreq-nodes] [-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 is written
	   to the file "newkey.pem" and the request written to the file
	   "newreq.pem".

       -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".

       -newreq-nodes
	   is like -newreq except that the private key will not be encrypted.

       -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 "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 -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

       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 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)

1.0.2h				  2016-05-03			      CA.PL(1)