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 rel-
       evant command line arguments to the openssl command for
       some common certificate operations.  It is intended to
       simplify the process of certificate creation and manage-
       ment 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".

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

       -newca
           creates a new CA hierarchy for use with the ca pro-
           gram (or the -signcert and -xsign options). The user
           is prompted to enter the filename of the CA certifi-
           cates (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 direc-
           tory.

       -pkcs12
           create a PKCS#12 file containing the user certifi-
           cate, 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 typi-
           cally 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 certifi-
           cate. 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, cre-
       ate 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 follow-
       ing 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 dif-
       ferent 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 edit-
       ing 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 configura-
       tion 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 alterna-
       tive 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)



0.9.7c                     2001-01-11                  CA.PL(1)
