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
``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.
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.
