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 oper-
       ations.  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 pri-
           vate 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 com-
           mand 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 ver-
           ify the file "newcert.pem".

       files
           one or more optional certificate file names for use with the -ver-
           ify 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 be-
       haviour 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 loca-
       tion 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 configura-
       tion 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)

1.0.2t                            2019-09-10                          CA.PL(1)