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CA(1)				    OpenSSL				 CA(1)

NAME
       ca - sample minimal CA application

SYNOPSIS
       openssl ca [-verbose] [-config filename] [-name section] [-gencrl]
       [-revoke file] [-crldays days] [-crlhours hours] [-crlexts section]
       [-startdate date] [-enddate date] [-days arg] [-md arg] [-policy arg]
       [-keyfile arg] [-key arg] [-passin arg] [-cert file] [-in file] [-out
       file] [-notext] [-outdir dir] [-infiles] [-spkac file] [-ss_cert file]
       [-preserveDN] [-batch] [-msie_hack] [-extensions section]

DESCRIPTION
       The ca command is a minimal CA application. It can be used to sign
       certificate requests in a variety of forms and generate CRLs it also
       maintains a text database of issued certificates and their status.

       The options descriptions will be divided into each purpose.

CA OPTIONS
       -config filename
	   specifies the configuration file to use.

       -name section
	   specifies the configuration file section to use (overrides
	   default_ca in the ca section).

       -in filename
	   an input filename containing a single certificate request to be
	   signed by the CA.

       -ss_cert filename
	   a single self signed certificate to be signed by the CA.

       -spkac filename
	   a file containing a single Netscape signed public key and challenge
	   and additional field values to be signed by the CA. See the NOTES
	   section for information on the required format.

       -infiles
	   if present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments
	   are assumed to the the names of files containing certificate
	   requests.

       -out filename
	   the output file to output certificates to. The default is standard
	   output. The certificate details will also be printed out to this
	   file.

       -outdir directory
	   the directory to output certificates to. The certificate will be
	   written to a filename consisting of the serial number in hex with
	   ".pem" appended.

       -cert
	   the CA certificate file.

       -keyfile filename
	   the private key to sign requests with.

       -key password
	   the password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some systems
	   the command line arguments are visible (e.g. Unix with the 'ps'
	   utility) this option should be used with caution.

       -passin arg
	   the key password source. For more information about the format of
	   arg see the PASS PHRASE ARGUMENTS section in openssl(1).  =item
	   -verbose

	   this prints extra details about the operations being performed.

       -notext
	   don't output the text form of a certificate to the output file.

       -startdate date
	   this allows the start date to be explicitly set. The format of the
	   date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure).

       -enddate date
	   this allows the expiry date to be explicitly set. The format of the
	   date is YYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as an ASN1 UTCTime structure).

       -days arg
	   the number of days to certify the certificate for.

       -md alg
	   the message digest to use. Possible values include md5, sha1 and
	   mdc2.  This option also applies to CRLs.

       -policy arg
	   this option defines the CA "policy" to use. This is a section in
	   the configuration file which decides which fields should be
	   mandatory or match the CA certificate. Check out the POLICY FORMAT
	   section for more information.

       -msie_hack
	   this is a legacy option to make ca work with very old versions of
	   the IE certificate enrollment control "certenr3". It used
	   UniversalStrings for almost everything. Since the old control has
	   various security bugs its use is strongly discouraged. The newer
	   control "Xenroll" does not need this option.

       -preserveDN
	   Normally the DN order of a certificate is the same as the order of
	   the fields in the relevant policy section. When this option is set
	   the order is the same as the request. This is largely for
	   compatibility with the older IE enrollment control which would only
	   accept certificates if their DNs match the order of the request.
	   This is not needed for Xenroll.

       -batch
	   this sets the batch mode. In this mode no questions will be asked
	   and all certificates will be certified automatically.

       -extensions section
	   the section of the configuration file containing certificate
	   extensions to be added when a certificate is issued. If no
	   extension section is present then a V1 certificate is created. If
	   the extension section is present (even if it is empty) then a V3
	   certificate is created.

CRL OPTIONS
       -gencrl
	   this option generates a CRL based on information in the index file.

       -crldays num
	   the number of days before the next CRL is due. That is the days
	   from now to place in the CRL nextUpdate field.

       -crlhours num
	   the number of hours before the next CRL is due.

       -revoke filename
	   a filename containing a certificate to revoke.

       -crlexts section
	   the section of the configuration file containing CRL extensions to
	   include. If no CRL extension section is present then a V1 CRL is
	   created, if the CRL extension section is present (even if it is
	   empty) then a V2 CRL is created. The CRL extensions specified are
	   CRL extensions and not CRL entry extensions.	 It should be noted
	   that some software (for example Netscape) can't handle V2 CRLs.

CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS
       The section of the configuration file containing options for ca is
       found as follows: If the -name command line option is used, then it
       names the section to be used. Otherwise the section to be used must be
       named in the default_ca option of the ca section of the configuration
       file (or in the default section of the configuration file). Besides
       default_ca, the following options are read directly from the ca
       section:
	RANDFILE
	preserve
	msie_hack With the exception of RANDFILE, this is probably a bug and
       may change in future releases.

       Many of the configuration file options are identical to command line
       options. Where the option is present in the configuration file and the
       command line the command line value is used. Where an option is
       described as mandatory then it must be present in the configuration
       file or the command line equivalent (if any) used.

       oid_file
	   This specifies a file containing additional OBJECT IDENTIFIERS.
	   Each line of the file should consist of the numerical form of the
	   object identifier followed by white space then the short name
	   followed by white space and finally the long name.

       oid_section
	   This specifies a section in the configuration file containing extra
	   object identifiers. Each line should consist of the short name of
	   the object identifier followed by = and the numerical form. The
	   short and long names are the same when this option is used.

       new_certs_dir
	   the same as the -outdir command line option. It specifies the
	   directory where new certificates will be placed. Mandatory.

       certificate
	   the same as -cert. It gives the file containing the CA certificate.
	   Mandatory.

       private_key
	   same as the -keyfile option. The file containing the CA private
	   key. Mandatory.

       RANDFILE
	   a file used to read and write random number seed information, or an
	   EGD socket (see RAND_egd(3)).

       default_days
	   the same as the -days option. The number of days to certify a
	   certificate for.

       default_startdate
	   the same as the -startdate option. The start date to certify a
	   certificate for. If not set the current time is used.

       default_enddate
	   the same as the -enddate option. Either this option or default_days
	   (or the command line equivalents) must be present.

       default_crl_hours default_crl_days
	   the same as the -crlhours and the -crldays options. These will only
	   be used if neither command line option is present. At least one of
	   these must be present to generate a CRL.

       default_md
	   the same as the -md option. The message digest to use. Mandatory.

       database
	   the text database file to use. Mandatory. This file must be present
	   though initially it will be empty.

       serialfile
	   a text file containing the next serial number to use in hex.
	   Mandatory.  This file must be present and contain a valid serial
	   number.

       x509_extensions
	   the same as -extensions.

       crl_extensions
	   the same as -crlexts.

       preserve
	   the same as -preserveDN

       msie_hack
	   the same as -msie_hack

       policy
	   the same as -policy. Mandatory. See the POLICY FORMAT section for
	   more information.

POLICY FORMAT
       The policy section consists of a set of variables corresponding to
       certificate DN fields. If the value is "match" then the field value
       must match the same field in the CA certificate. If the value is
       "supplied" then it must be present. If the value is "optional" then it
       may be present. Any fields not mentioned in the policy section are
       silently deleted, unless the -preserveDN option is set but this can be
       regarded more of a quirk than intended behaviour.

SPKAC FORMAT
       The input to the -spkac command line option is a Netscape signed public
       key and challenge. This will usually come from the KEYGEN tag in an
       HTML form to create a new private key.  It is however possible to
       create SPKACs using the spkac utility.

       The file should contain the variable SPKAC set to the value of the
       SPKAC and also the required DN components as name value pairs.  If you
       need to include the same component twice then it can be preceded by a
       number and a '.'.

EXAMPLES
       Note: these examples assume that the ca directory structure is already
       set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually involves
       creating a CA certificate and private key with req, a serial number
       file and an empty index file and placing them in the relevant
       directories.

       To use the sample configuration file below the directories demoCA,
       demoCA/private and demoCA/newcerts would be created. The CA certificate
       would be copied to demoCA/cacert.pem and its private key to
       demoCA/private/cakey.pem. A file demoCA/serial would be created
       containing for example "01" and the empty index file demoCA/index.txt.

       Sign a certificate request:

	openssl ca -in req.pem -out newcert.pem

       Sign a certificate request, using CA extensions:

	openssl ca -in req.pem -extensions v3_ca -out newcert.pem

       Generate a CRL

	openssl ca -gencrl -out crl.pem

       Sign several requests:

	openssl ca -infiles req1.pem req2.pem req3.pem

       Certify a Netscape SPKAC:

	openssl ca -spkac spkac.txt

       A sample SPKAC file (the SPKAC line has been truncated for clarity):

	SPKAC=MIG0MGAwXDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAANLADBIAkEAn7PDhCeV/xIxUg8V70YRxK2A5
	CN=Steve Test
	emailAddress=steve@openssl.org
	0.OU=OpenSSL Group
	1.OU=Another Group

       A sample configuration file with the relevant sections for ca:

	[ ca ]
	default_ca	= CA_default		# The default ca section

	[ CA_default ]

	dir	       = ./demoCA	       # top dir
	database       = $dir/index.txt	       # index file.
	new_certs_dir  = $dir/newcerts	       # new certs dir

	certificate    = $dir/cacert.pem       # The CA cert
	serial	       = $dir/serial	       # serial no file
	private_key    = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key
	RANDFILE       = $dir/private/.rand    # random number file

	default_days   = 365		       # how long to certify for
	default_crl_days= 30		       # how long before next CRL
	default_md     = md5		       # md to use

	policy	       = policy_any	       # default policy

	[ policy_any ]
	countryName	       = supplied
	stateOrProvinceName    = optional
	organizationName       = optional
	organizationalUnitName = optional
	commonName	       = supplied
	emailAddress	       = optional

WARNINGS
       The ca command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.

       The ca utility was originally meant as an example of how to do things
       in a CA. It was not supposed be be used as a full blown CA itself:
       nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose.

       The ca command is effectively a single user command: no locking is done
       on the various files and attempts to run more than one ca command on
       the same database can have unpredictable results.

FILES
       Note: the location of all files can change either by compile time
       options, configuration file entries, environment variables or command
       line options.  The values below reflect the default values.

	/usr/local/ssl/lib/openssl.cnf - master configuration file
	./demoCA		       - main CA directory
	./demoCA/cacert.pem	       - CA certificate
	./demoCA/private/cakey.pem     - CA private key
	./demoCA/serial		       - CA serial number file
	./demoCA/serial.old	       - CA serial number backup file
	./demoCA/index.txt	       - CA text database file
	./demoCA/index.txt.old	       - CA text database backup file
	./demoCA/certs		       - certificate output file
	./demoCA/.rnd		       - CA random seed information

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       OPENSSL_CONF reflects the location of master configuration file it can
       be overridden by the -config command line option.

RESTRICTIONS
       The text database index file is a critical part of the process and if
       corrupted it can be difficult to fix. It is theoretically possible to
       rebuild the index file from all the issued certificates and a current
       CRL: however there is no option to do this.

       CRL entry extensions cannot currently be created: only CRL extensions
       can be added.

       V2 CRL features like delta CRL support and CRL numbers are not
       currently supported.

       Although several requests can be input and handled at once it is only
       possible to include one SPKAC or self signed certificate.

BUGS
       The use of an in memory text database can cause problems when large
       numbers of certificates are present because, as the name implies the
       database has to be kept in memory.

       Certificate request extensions are ignored: some kind of "policy"
       should be included to use certain static extensions and certain
       extensions from the request.

       It is not possible to certify two certificates with the same DN: this
       is a side effect of how the text database is indexed and it cannot
       easily be fixed without introducing other problems. Some S/MIME clients
       can use two certificates with the same DN for separate signing and
       encryption keys.

       The ca command really needs rewriting or the required functionality
       exposed at either a command or interface level so a more friendly
       utility (perl script or GUI) can handle things properly. The scripts
       CA.sh and CA.pl help a little but not very much.

       Any fields in a request that are not present in a policy are silently
       deleted. This does not happen if the -preserveDN option is used but the
       extra fields are not displayed when the user is asked to certify a
       request. The behaviour should be more friendly and configurable.

       Cancelling some commands by refusing to certify a certificate can
       create an empty file.

SEE ALSO
       req(1), spkac(1), x509(1), CA.pl(1), config(5)

3rd Berkeley Distribution	    0.9.6m				 CA(1)
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