Provided by: openssl_3.0.10-1ubuntu2.3_amd64 bug

NAME

       openssl-ca - sample minimal CA application

SYNOPSIS

       openssl ca [-help] [-verbose] [-config filename] [-name section] [-section section]
       [-gencrl] [-revoke file] [-valid file] [-status serial] [-updatedb] [-crl_reason reason]
       [-crl_hold instruction] [-crl_compromise time] [-crl_CA_compromise time] [-crl_lastupdate
       date] [-crl_nextupdate date] [-crldays days] [-crlhours hours] [-crlsec seconds] [-crlexts
       section] [-startdate date] [-enddate date] [-days arg] [-md arg] [-policy arg] [-keyfile
       filename|uri] [-keyform DER|PEM|P12|ENGINE] [-key arg] [-passin arg] [-cert file]
       [-certform DER|PEM|P12] [-selfsign] [-in file] [-inform DER|<PEM>] [-out file] [-notext]
       [-dateopt] [-outdir dir] [-infiles] [-spkac file] [-ss_cert file] [-preserveDN]
       [-noemailDN] [-batch] [-msie_hack] [-extensions section] [-extfile section] [-subj arg]
       [-utf8] [-sigopt nm:v] [-vfyopt nm:v] [-create_serial] [-rand_serial] [-multivalue-rdn]
       [-rand files] [-writerand file] [-engine id] [-provider name] [-provider-path path]
       [-propquery propq] [certreq...]

DESCRIPTION

       This command emulates a CA application.  See the WARNINGS especially when considering to
       use it productively.  It can be used to sign certificate requests (CSRs) in a variety of
       forms and generate certificate revocation lists (CRLs).  It also maintains a text database
       of issued certificates and their status.  When signing certificates, a single request can
       be specified with the -in option, or multiple requests can be processed by specifying a
       set of certreq files after all options.

       Note that there are also very lean ways of generating certificates: the req and x509
       commands can be used for directly creating certificates.  See openssl-req(1) and
       openssl-x509(1) for details.

       The descriptions of the ca command options are divided into each purpose.

OPTIONS

       -help
           Print out a usage message.

       -verbose
           This prints extra details about the operations being performed.

       -config filename
           Specifies the configuration file to use.  Optional; for a description of the default
           value, see "COMMAND SUMMARY" in openssl(1).

       -name section, -section 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 (CSR) to be signed by the
           CA.

       -inform DER|PEM
           The format of the data in certificate request input files; unspecified by default.
           See openssl-format-options(1) for details.

       -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 SPKAC FORMAT section for information on
           the required input and output format.

       -infiles
           If present this should be the last option, all subsequent arguments are taken as 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 in PEM format (except that
           -spkac outputs DER format).

       -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 filename
           The CA certificate, which must match with -keyfile.

       -certform DER|PEM|P12
           The format of the data in certificate input files; unspecified by default.  See
           openssl-format-options(1) for details.

       -keyfile filename|uri
           The CA private key to sign certificate requests with.  This must match with -cert.

       -keyform DER|PEM|P12|ENGINE
           The format of the private key input file; unspecified by default.  See
           openssl-format-options(1) for details.

       -sigopt nm:v
           Pass options to the signature algorithm during sign operations.  Names and values of
           these options are algorithm-specific.

       -vfyopt nm:v
           Pass options to the signature algorithm during verify operations.  Names and values of
           these options are algorithm-specific.

           This often needs to be given while signing too, because the self-signature of a
           certificate signing request (CSR) is verified against the included public key, and
           that verification may need its own set of options.

       -key password
           The password used to encrypt the private key. Since on some systems the command line
           arguments are visible (e.g., when using ps(1) on Unix), this option should be used
           with caution.  Better use -passin.

       -passin arg
           The key password source for key files and certificate PKCS#12 files.  For more
           information about the format of arg see openssl-passphrase-options(1).

       -selfsign
           Indicates the issued certificates are to be signed with the key the certificate
           requests were signed with (given with -keyfile).  Certificate requests signed with a
           different key are ignored.  If -spkac, -ss_cert or -gencrl are given, -selfsign is
           ignored.

           A consequence of using -selfsign is that the self-signed certificate appears among the
           entries in the certificate database (see the configuration option database), and uses
           the same serial number counter as all other certificates sign with the self-signed
           certificate.

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

       -dateopt
           Specify the date output format. Values are: rfc_822 and iso_8601.  Defaults to
           rfc_822.

       -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), or YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as
           an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be
           present.

       -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), or YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ (the same as
           an ASN1 GeneralizedTime structure). In both formats, seconds SS and timezone Z must be
           present.

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

       -md alg
           The message digest to use.  Any digest supported by the openssl-dgst(1) command can be
           used. For signing algorithms that do not support a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448) any
           message digest that is set is ignored. 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 deprecated option to make this command 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.

       -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.

       -noemailDN
           The DN of a certificate can contain the EMAIL field if present in the request DN,
           however, it is good policy just having the e-mail set into the altName extension of
           the certificate. When this option is set the EMAIL field is removed from the
           certificate' subject and set only in the, eventually present, extensions. The
           email_in_dn keyword can be used in the configuration file to enable this behaviour.

       -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 (defaults to x509_extensions unless the -extfile option
           is used).  If no X.509 extensions are specified then a V1 certificate is created, else
           a V3 certificate is created.  See the x509v3_config(5) manual page for details of the
           extension section format.

       -extfile file
           An additional configuration file to read certificate extensions from (using the
           default section unless the -extensions option is also used).

       -subj arg
           Supersedes subject name given in the request.

           The arg must be formatted as "/type0=value0/type1=value1/type2=...".  Special
           characters may be escaped by "\" (backslash), whitespace is retained.  Empty values
           are permitted, but the corresponding type will not be included in the resulting
           certificate.  Giving a single "/" will lead to an empty sequence of RDNs (a NULL-DN).
           Multi-valued RDNs can be formed by placing a "+" character instead of a "/" between
           the AttributeValueAssertions (AVAs) that specify the members of the set.  Example:

           "/DC=org/DC=OpenSSL/DC=users/UID=123456+CN=John Doe"

       -utf8
           This option causes field values to be interpreted as UTF8 strings, by default they are
           interpreted as ASCII. This means that the field values, whether prompted from a
           terminal or obtained from a configuration file, must be valid UTF8 strings.

       -create_serial
           If reading serial from the text file as specified in the configuration fails,
           specifying this option creates a new random serial to be used as next serial number.
           To get random serial numbers, use the -rand_serial flag instead; this should only be
           used for simple error-recovery.

       -rand_serial
           Generate a large random number to use as the serial number.  This overrides any option
           or configuration to use a serial number file.

       -multivalue-rdn
           This option has been deprecated and has no effect.

       -rand files, -writerand file
           See "Random State Options" in openssl(1) for details.

       -engine id
           See "Engine Options" in openssl(1).  This option is deprecated.

       -provider name
       -provider-path path
       -propquery propq
           See "Provider Options" in openssl(1), provider(7), and property(7).

CRL OPTIONS

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

       -crl_lastupdate time
           Allows the value of the CRL's lastUpdate field to be explicitly set; if this option is
           not present, the current time is used. Accepts times in YYMMDDHHMMSSZ format (the same
           as an ASN1 UTCTime structure) or YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ format (the same as an ASN1
           GeneralizedTime structure).

       -crl_nextupdate time
           Allows the value of the CRL's nextUpdate field to be explicitly set; if this option is
           present, any values given for -crldays, -crlhours and -crlsec are ignored. Accepts
           times in the same formats as -crl_lastupdate.

       -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.

       -crlsec num
           The number of seconds before the next CRL is due.

       -revoke filename
           A filename containing a certificate to revoke.

       -valid filename
           A filename containing a certificate to add a Valid certificate entry.

       -status serial
           Displays the revocation status of the certificate with the specified serial number and
           exits.

       -updatedb
           Updates the database index to purge expired certificates.

       -crl_reason reason
           Revocation reason, where reason is one of: unspecified, keyCompromise, CACompromise,
           affiliationChanged, superseded, cessationOfOperation, certificateHold or
           removeFromCRL. The matching of reason is case insensitive. Setting any revocation
           reason will make the CRL v2.

           In practice removeFromCRL is not particularly useful because it is only used in delta
           CRLs which are not currently implemented.

       -crl_hold instruction
           This sets the CRL revocation reason code to certificateHold and the hold instruction
           to instruction which must be an OID. Although any OID can be used only
           holdInstructionNone (the use of which is discouraged by RFC2459)
           holdInstructionCallIssuer or holdInstructionReject will normally be used.

       -crl_compromise time
           This sets the revocation reason to keyCompromise and the compromise time to time. time
           should be in GeneralizedTime format that is YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ.

       -crl_CA_compromise time
           This is the same as crl_compromise except the revocation reason is set to
           CACompromise.

       -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. See x509v3_config(5) manual page
           for details of the extension section format.

CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS

       The section of the configuration file containing options for this command 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 whitespace
           then the short name followed by whitespace 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
           At startup the specified file is loaded into the random number generator, and at exit
           256 bytes will be written to it. (Note: Using a RANDFILE is not necessary anymore, see
           the "HISTORY" section.

       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. Mandatory except where the signing algorithm does not
           require a digest (i.e. Ed25519 and Ed448).

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

       unique_subject
           If the value yes is given, the valid certificate entries in the database must have
           unique subjects.  if the value no is given, several valid certificate entries may have
           the exact same subject.  The default value is yes, to be compatible with older (pre
           0.9.8) versions of OpenSSL.  However, to make CA certificate roll-over easier, it's
           recommended to use the value no, especially if combined with the -selfsign command
           line option.

           Note that it is valid in some circumstances for certificates to be created without any
           subject. In the case where there are multiple certificates without subjects this does
           not count as a duplicate.

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

       crlnumber
           A text file containing the next CRL number to use in hex. The crl number will be
           inserted in the CRLs only if this file exists. If this file is present, it must
           contain a valid CRL number.

       x509_extensions
           A fallback to the -extensions option.

       crl_extensions
           A fallback to the -crlexts option.

       preserve
           The same as -preserveDN

       email_in_dn
           The same as -noemailDN. If you want the EMAIL field to be removed from the DN of the
           certificate simply set this to 'no'. If not present the default is to allow for the
           EMAIL filed in the certificate's DN.

       msie_hack
           The same as -msie_hack

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

       name_opt, cert_opt
           These options allow the format used to display the certificate details when asking the
           user to confirm signing. All the options supported by the x509 utilities -nameopt and
           -certopt switches can be used here, except the no_signame and no_sigdump are
           permanently set and cannot be disabled (this is because the certificate signature
           cannot be displayed because the certificate has not been signed at this point).

           For convenience the values ca_default are accepted by both to produce a reasonable
           output.

           If neither option is present the format used in earlier versions of OpenSSL is used.
           Use of the old format is strongly discouraged because it only displays fields
           mentioned in the policy section, mishandles multicharacter string types and does not
           display extensions.

       copy_extensions
           Determines how extensions in certificate requests should be handled.  If set to none
           or this option is not present then extensions are ignored and not copied to the
           certificate. If set to copy then any extensions present in the request that are not
           already present are copied to the certificate. If set to copyall then all extensions
           in the request are copied to the certificate: if the extension is already present in
           the certificate it is deleted first. See the WARNINGS section before using this
           option.

           The main use of this option is to allow a certificate request to supply values for
           certain extensions such as subjectAltName.

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 openssl-spkac(1).

       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 '.'.

       When processing SPKAC format, the output is DER if the -out flag is used, but PEM format
       if sending to stdout or the -outdir flag is used.

EXAMPLES

       Note: these examples assume that the directory structure this command assumes is already
       set up and the relevant files already exist. This usually involves creating a CA
       certificate and private key with openssl-req(1), 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 an SM2 certificate request:

        openssl ca -in sm2.csr -out sm2.crt -md sm3 \
                -sigopt "distid:1234567812345678" \
                -vfyopt "distid:1234567812345678"

       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 this command:

        [ 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
        #rand_serial    = yes                  # for random serial#'s
        private_key    = $dir/private/cakey.pem# CA private key

        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
        email_in_dn    = no                    # Don't add the email into cert DN

        name_opt       = ca_default            # Subject name display option
        cert_opt       = ca_default            # Certificate display option
        copy_extensions = none                 # Don't copy extensions from request

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

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

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.

       V2 CRL features like delta CRLs 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

       This command is quirky and at times downright unfriendly.

       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.

       This command really needs rewriting or the required functionality exposed at either a
       command or interface level so that a more user-friendly replacement could handle things
       properly. The script CA.pl helps 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. To enforce the absence of the EMAIL field
       within the DN, as suggested by RFCs, regardless the contents of the request' subject the
       -noemailDN option can be used. The behaviour should be more friendly and configurable.

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

WARNINGS

       This command was originally meant as an example of how to do things in a CA.  Its code
       does not have production quality.  It was not supposed to be used as a full blown CA
       itself, nevertheless some people are using it for this purpose at least internally.  When
       doing so, specific care should be taken to properly secure the private key(s) used for
       signing certificates.  It is advisable to keep them in a secure HW storage such as a smart
       card or HSM and access them via a suitable engine or crypto provider.

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

       The copy_extensions option should be used with caution. If care is not taken then it can
       be a security risk. For example if a certificate request contains a basicConstraints
       extension with CA:TRUE and the copy_extensions value is set to copyall and the user does
       not spot this when the certificate is displayed then this will hand the requester a valid
       CA certificate.  This situation can be avoided by setting copy_extensions to copy and
       including basicConstraints with CA:FALSE in the configuration file.  Then if the request
       contains a basicConstraints extension it will be ignored.

       It is advisable to also include values for other extensions such as keyUsage to prevent a
       request supplying its own values.

       Additional restrictions can be placed on the CA certificate itself.  For example if the CA
       certificate has:

        basicConstraints = CA:TRUE, pathlen:0

       then even if a certificate is issued with CA:TRUE it will not be valid.

HISTORY

       Since OpenSSL 1.1.1, the program follows RFC5280. Specifically, certificate validity
       period (specified by any of -startdate, -enddate and -days) and CRL last/next update time
       (specified by any of -crl_lastupdate, -crl_nextupdate, -crldays, -crlhours and -crlsec)
       will be encoded as UTCTime if the dates are earlier than year 2049 (included), and as
       GeneralizedTime if the dates are in year 2050 or later.

       OpenSSL 1.1.1 introduced a new random generator (CSPRNG) with an improved seeding
       mechanism. The new seeding mechanism makes it unnecessary to define a RANDFILE for saving
       and restoring randomness. This option is retained mainly for compatibility reasons.

       The -section option was added in OpenSSL 3.0.0.

       The -multivalue-rdn option has become obsolete in OpenSSL 3.0.0 and has no effect.

       The -engine option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.

SEE ALSO

       openssl(1), openssl-req(1), openssl-spkac(1), openssl-x509(1), CA.pl(1), config(5),
       x509v3_config(5)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2000-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.

       Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use this file except
       in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source
       distribution or at <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.